"A Perfect World" is a manhunt that jumps to life in the hands of an exceptional cast. A killer who
beaks out of jail, takes a young boy hostage, and is tracked by a good cop is hardly a novel idea, but
Director Clint Eastwood has drawn such subtle, touching and multi-layered performances from his
actors that the movie is absorbing from start to finish.

       "you ain't so friendly..."

Red Garnett (Eastwood) is a Texas Ranger under orders from the governor to make a showcase
capture of the escaped criminal in an election year. The governor assigns Sally Gerber (Laura Dern),
a criminal justice expert, to the reluctant Red who quickly recognizes that her flippancy covers
knowledge and experience crucial to the hunt. Red commandeers the governor's showy, high tech
silver trailer and begins the chase.

Kevin costner as butch haynes

Meanwhile, Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) has abducted Phillip (T.J. Lowther) from his pious
Jehovah's Witness mother, two sisters and no dad. Teaching family values with a twist on the
cross-Texas road trip, Butch tells Phillip he has "all-American rights" to carnivals, trick or treat,
cotton candy and roller coasters. He tries quietly to give Phillip the things he had missed himself.
Meanwhile, back at the silver trailer, Red's team is cooking steak and tater-tots over a bonfire after
an unseemly glitch stalls their search. The story unfolds quietly and with humor. Villainy is settled in
two peripheral characters, a bad criminal and a bad cop. Freed from good vs. evil, the three at the
core of the film reveal themselves very slowly through laconic southern banter. In the absence of
frenzy, the characters become fully alive.

Philip

The pace shifts suddenly in a superb scene in the home of a black farm family. Triggered by the
farmer's cruel treatment of his grandson, Butch punishes him in a violent eruption of rage at the
suffering of the terrified little boy. It's a scene of tremendous tension and superb acting, of violence
and resolution that includes, incredibly, a very beautiful dance.

Kevin Costner's flat voice works well in Texas. Fingering his cigarettes lovingly and drawing the
smoke to the bottom of his lungs in soothing pleasure, he reminds us of the carefree days before the
Surgeon General robbed a generation of its addiction. If smoking, murder and kidnapping are
politically incorrect subjects for humor these days, this is one time to suspend earnest beliefs for two
hours and enjoy a very warm story that is made without sentimentality.

Clint eastwood as the Texas ranger Red garnett

Clint Eastwood brings his natural grace to a role he knows well, but it is his directing that is
remarkable. He avoids absolutely the mawkish sentiment that might have infused this story. Perhaps
his greatest victory is the thoroughly surprising and convincing portrait he has pulled from Kevin
Costner as a man carrying a boy's scars. "I only killed two people, Phillip. One hurt my mama, and
one hurt you." Don't miss this one...

Directed by
Clint Eastwood

running time appr: 2 h 20 min.

 1993 Warner Bros

(in credits order)
Kevin Costner
                        ....
                                        Butch Haynes
Clint Eastwood
                        ....
                                    Red Garnett
Laura Dern
                        ....
                                   Sally Gerber
T.J. Lowther
                        ....
                                   Phillip Perry
    Keith Szarabajka
                        ....
                                  Terry Pugh
Jennifer Griffin
                        ....
                                     Gladys Perry

WB Home Video

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