All the Pretty Horses(2000)

[Stone me]

Dir:Billy Bob Thornton

The feel of this Modern Western is quite new to me.
Nothing is so pretty as the title suggests, except Penelope
Cruz, and she becomes the centre of events.
The plot contrasts two worlds so different that this could
even have been the basis of a Startrek episode.

Spoilers:









In 1949,two friends choose to ride their horses to Mexico
from Texas, which they see as the last place where large scale
ranching still takes place.
Another American is encountered along the way, who is the cause
of awful consequences for the three.

Penelope Cruz is the daughter of the owner of the Estancia, and
she and Matt Damon begin a fateful romance accross cultural divides.

A movie well worth the viewing, and I suspect a second view will be
worth it too.

Stone me.

[unklbob]

I'm alternately enthralled and fed up with Larry McMurtry--he spins a
great yarn as well as does a great job telling stories of The Human
Condition. The last book I read was Rhino Ranch, which I truly
enjoyed, but some of his screen adaptations left me cold. Lonesome
Dove was a great mini-series, but in the book he had Gus saying "IGod"
every sentence for the first two chapters, a habit he eventually
dropped, much to my relief. His book "Commanche Moon", a prequel to
"Lonesome Dove" was a brutal story of Gus and Call's earlier days, but
he softened it up way too much in the teleplay and it ended up looking
like a Liftetime Network production. I'll give All the Pretty Horses
a look.

[John Dean]

"unklbob" <mcgri...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:660a7070-ca00-4a88...@12g2000vba.googlegroups.com...

On Apr 5, 11:21 am, "Stone me" <m...@hollywood.com> wrote:
> Dir:Billy Bob Thornton
>
> The feel of this Modern Western is quite new to me.
> Nothing is so pretty as the title suggests, except Penelope
> Cruz, and she becomes the centre of events.
> The plot contrasts two worlds so different that this could
> even have been the basis of a Startrek episode.
>
>

> A movie well worth the viewing, and I suspect a second view will be
> worth it too.
>

I'm alternately enthralled and fed up with Larry McMurtry

---------

You should maybe be aware that McMurtry had nothing to do with Pretty
Horses - it's based on a Cormac McCarthy novel.
--
John Dean

[SSS DDD]

can't remember a thing about it

[Mademoiselle Bourienne]

On Thursday, April 5, 2012 6:21:07 PM UTC-4, SSS DDD wrote:
> can't remember a thing about it

SPOILERS BELOW

One of my favorite movies of the past dozen years,
but not perfect. The negative first: I thought
the Henry Thomas character was more interesting and
likable than the Matt Damon character, and it was
ridiculous to have the Penelope Cruz character fall
in love with Damon at first sight when big strapping
and masculine Henry Thomas was right there in front
of her. And later in the movie it was hard to accept
Damon telling the aunt that she had no right to
interfere, when that interference was all that could
have saved, and did save, the life of his buddy (as
well as his own). When previously Thomas told Damon,
"I'm not above whupping your ass", I was hoping he
would do it.

An impressive movie, however, and though some thought it
was too arty, I thought it was exactly arty enough. It
would have been great to see all that Billy Bob filmed,
but apparently the studio pressured him to cut down the
length drastically, a real shame.

The other primary male actor, Lucas Black, 16 or 17 at
the time, stole every scene he was in, and appeared to
have great promise, but he has faded somewhat since then.

Ultimately, this was a buddy movie, though the love story
aspect held center stage for maybe a quarter of it. What
the Damon character accomplished in the end, to the
amazement of his friend - "Damn, Bud" - was as touching as the
ending of any western movie since childhood.

The music, by Marty Stuart primarily, and the cinematography and
sound were gorgeous. All the other actors were perfect in their
roles and we are left wondering what might have been if director
Thornton had been allowed to fulfill his vision.

The Cormac McCarthy book is the same story, of course,
but the angles of view are different. In it the main
character is a radiant paragon, and the final scene,
written all in red, makes him look like a young god.

Both movie and book are highly worthwhile.

[unklbob]

On Apr 5, 5:08 pm, "John Dean" <john-d...@FRAGmsn.com> wrote:
> "unklbob" <mcgrisw...@aol.com> wrote in message

I am aware of that fact--just a brain fart. Probably because I was
reading a lot of both novelists' books at the same time. Still, the
McMurtry comments stand, if misplaced.

And somewhat OT--I can only see John Goodman as The Judge if someone
ever attempts Blood Meridian.

[John Dean]

"unklbob" <mcgri...@aol.com> wrote in message

news:f6371da6-aeea-49db...@i2g2000vbd.googlegroups.com...

Nah - this is your guy:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0474520/

But, allegedly, it's in the pipeline:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0983189/

--
John Dean

[unklbob]

Probably unfilmable, as "The Road" proved to be.