All the Pretty Horses *** (2000, Matt Damon, Penélope Cruz, Henry Thomas, Sam Shepard, Robert Patrick, Lucas Black, Bruce Dern) – Classic Movie Review 898

Billy Bob Thornton’s 2000 Western film All the Pretty Horses is astonishingly high, wide and handsome, adapting Cormac McCarthy’s highly regarded 1992 novel. Matt Damon and Henry Thomas play Texan misfit cowboys who travel to Mexico in the 1940s. 

Matt Damon and Henry Thomas star as a pair of young Texan misfit cowboys who travel to Mexico in the 1940s in hope of finding work, adventure and their fortunes. But they get much more than they bargained after one of them (Damon) falls in love with a wealthy rancher’s daughter (Penélope Cruz) and soon they are in trouble with the law.

Director Billy Bob Thornton’s 2000 Western film All the Pretty Horses is astonishingly high, wide and handsome, with glorious location cinematography by Barry Markowitz.

Not looking rough or tough enough, city slicker Damon is a bit lost in a Stetson in Mexico and doesn’t look quite right on a horse. But he still makes a compelling enough lead with his intense acting style as the young Texan drifter named John Grady Cole. Penélope Cruz seems none too comfortable as his dangerously fiery love interest Alejandra, and Thomas is unfortunately not too thrilling either, giving a wan, introverted performance that is probably right for the character of Rawlins but lacks any fire.

Bruce Dern’s extended cameo as the judge at the end is well worth the wait, though Lucas Black is an irritation as the sidekick Jimmy Blevins.

The lyrical, rewarding screenplay is by screenwriter Ted Tally, the adapter of The Silence of the Lambs, this time adapting Cormac McCarthy’s highly regarded 1992 novel, his first widespread success.

There is a great movie trying to break out of here, and perhaps in Thornton’s original three hours 40 minutes epic the magic was there. Maybe a compromise running time would have worked, with this version at 116 minutes seeming thin and skimpy.

At any rate, the film studio Miramax didn’t have the courage to release the near-four-hour movie, and this long version is still eagerly awaited. Ben Affleck opined that it is ‘brilliant, a masterpiece’. Former Miramax marketing head Dennis Rice said ‘it was the most self-indulgent director’s cut I’d ever seen. It was like torture to watch that movie.’

Miramax studio co-chairman Harvey Weinstein insisted on viewing Thornton’s original epic assembly cut, and then demanded that the film be cut down to under two hours and replaced the original score by Daniel Lanois with music by Marty Stuart.

It premiered on 25 December 2000 and flopped, grossing $18 million worldwide on a $57 million budget.

Was it ever actually three hours 40 minutes?

In 2008, Thornton said he had the director’s cut on VHS and it is two hours and 42 minutes long. He refuses to release it on DVD along with Lanois’s original score, despite offers from Miramax, out of respect for the dissed musician, who owns the rights to the score.

Damon recalls: ‘We made this very dark, spare movie, but the studio wanted an epic with big emotions and violins. They never released our movie though the cut still exists.’

Damon took over the star role from Leonardo Di Caprio, like he did in The Talented Mr Ripley.

Although Robert Patrick plays Damon’s father, he is only 12 years older than his ‘son’.

The title All the Pretty Horses comes from a traditional American folk song.

McCarthy (born on July 20 1933 in Providence, Rhode Island) is also known for the novels No Country for Old Men (filmed in 2007) and The Road (filmed in 2009) and Child of God (filmed in 2013), and the screenplay of The Counsellor in  2013.

An early choice for John Grady Cole in All the Pretty Horses, Brad Pitt turned down the role but starred in The Counsellor, which also features Penélope Cruz.

The cast are Matt Damon as John Grady Cole, Henry Thomas as Lacey Rawlins, Angelina C. Torres as Luisa, J. D. Young as Grandfather, Sam Shepard as J.C. Franklin, Robert Patrick as Cole, Lucas Black as Jimmy Blevins, Penélope Cruz as Alejandra Villarreal, Rubén Blades as Don Hector de la Rocha y Villarreal, Míriam Colón as Doña Alfonsa, Lonnie Rodriguez as Esteban, Raul Malo as Singer, Frederick Lopez as Lieutenant, Julio Oscar Mechoso as Captain Raul, Vincente Ramos as Commandante, J. D. Garfield as Carlos, Jo Harvey Allen as Judge’s wife, Julio C. Cedillo as Campesino, Marc Miles as Deupty Smith, and Bruce Dern as The Judge.

Cormac McCarthy (July 20, 1933 – June 13, 2023) wrote 12 novels, two plays, five screenplays, and three short stories, in the Western and post-apocalypse genres. He died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, aged 89. Stephen King said he was ‘maybe the greatest American novelist of my time. He was full of years and created a fine body of work.’

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 898 derekwinnert.com