All the Pretty Horses (2000)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Billy Bob Thornton is a real director in my eyes. He really outdid himself on this one. The shots were great, the music was perfect, the actors did a great job and the story was very heartwarming. Thank you Billy Bob Thornton, Matt Damon ,Henry Thomas,Penelope Cruz and Ted Tally ! I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner! The Old West is an expensive and not an easy thing to recreate but this film flows right through to the end. Having a good book to start with is a major plus so hats off to Author Cormac McCarthy too ! This movie is a 10 ! I can't say enough so if your surfing around on Netflix, please check it out even though it's already 14 years old.

The book is great and Billy Bob was a good fit for it, but producer Harvey Weinstein screwed it all up. He wanted a two hour cut, even though from the offset it was clear the story needed a three hour epic sweep.So you really shouldn't watch this obviously truncated version (35% was cut). Scenes are rushed and a film that was supposed to capture the feel and romance of the landscape falls flat. Apparently Billy Bob has the correct edit on VHS in his home. Matt Damon says this cut is the best film he's ever been involved in. Eventually this film will be released, so you all should just wait for it. Billy Bob talks humorously about all this on cinemablend.The Weinsteins of this world are by no means villains, it takes a lot of hard work and guts to get where they have. But the same brute force that makes them successful can prove fatal where artistry is involved. Producers can be right - sometimes directors do need reigning in. Just not in this case. Harvey wasn't dealing with a wayward, self-indulgent director, and the story really did demand more time in its telling.

The storyline sounded like a classic 'western' adventure; it turned out to be just that. Newer, 21st century westerns are expected to showcase the scenery with as much cinematographic style as can be mustered; in this movie, there could have been more resources dedicated to the cinematography, but it is still very beautiful to watch. Matt Damon has made just a few 'western' movies, his first with none other than Robert Duval and Gene Hackman as the co-starring leads (in Geronimo). The only other that comes to mind is 'True Grit (2010)'. Only in '…Pretty Horses' does he have the lead role; that role was a demanding one because he is in almost every scene and he has to ride bucking horses, rodeo style. It hurt just watching him be thrown off the horse (I'll assume some of the rides were done by stunt-men because no guy from Boston could take that kind of abuse). I liked the adventurous story, the beautiful Penélope Cruz and all I can think of to improve the movie would have been to throw in a cameo by Duval or Tommy Lee Jones perhaps.

A simple but effective film though the content is more folkloric than really deep and emotional. A simple ordinary boy from Texas decide to go to Mexico with his buddy, friend, or whatever to have some adventure, to sow their wild oats as the English used to say in Byron's times.On their way they meet with a young teenager who is running away from his stepfather. The child is unruly and uncontrollable, typical of a stepson manhandled or maybe even sexually abused. He goes his own way but he will bring them back into his own way soon enough. One of the two young men, both are working on a Mexican ranch, is noticed by the boss and he is encouraged into breaking mustangs and choosing breeding horses. But he falls in love with the daughter of that boss.The young man is told to stay away because the girl has to keep her honor, which is both virginity and reputation. No rumors must run about her. But she is a real temptress and he falls into the trap. Then hell opens its gates wide and swallows the two young men and they can meet the boy there waiting for his end, having been tortured and to be eventually shot somewhere in a desert or nearly.The two young men will be sent to the penitentiary and there you pay hefty sums or you die. Of the two the one who did not mess around with family girls will manage to go back home when the two are liberated thanks to some pull and money paid in the back of the system by the aunt of the girl who was seduced.The seducer or rather seduced young man will stay behind to recuperate their horses and he will after some dire difficulties and even more duress. But he won't recuperate the girl. So he goes back home with the horses and he goes to a judge as soon as he arrives in Texas to sort out his situation and the judge will be a fatherly understanding man and our young man will be able to ho back, first to his buddy's to bring his horse back and then … That's a simple line but the film is well built and there is no real suspense just the witnessing of hard life, the way it is when we decide to take some back roads. The details are the most interesting elements of this story and the details you don't have because I did not give them to you.Entertaining and slightly empathetic, but this world disappeared a long time ago, in fact at least fifty years ago if not sixty. But that's what westerns and country music are when American made, not Italian spaghettied: nostalgic of a world vanishing so fast you can't even see its red back lights any more.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU