All die schönen Pferde - All the Pretty Horses

I really wanted to love this film and from the opening scenes to the last third I really did like this film. I love surreal films as much as the next guy, but this film seems like it was made by Oliver Stone on Valium. The film is really slow, now that can be a good thing, but in this case the pace just keeps getting slower and slower. I heard that Thornton's original cut ran almost four hours, it seems that the film has a whole other film missing from it. I didn't read the novel and I'm guessing that I should have read the novel because I couldn't figure this film out for the life of me. When it was all over I felt empty. The performances are all great, I especially liked Lucas Black in the role of Blevins. Matt Damon and Henry Thomas are both very good in their roles and this is first movie Penelope Cruz has appeared in where I could see that she has real talent and isn't just another pretty face. I loved the cinematography, the outdoor landscapes were beautiful. The film has all the flavor and no real substance. I am torn with this film, I wanted to love it so bad. Even great film makers slip every now and then.

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.

Westerners Matt Damon and Henry Thomas go on a wanderjahr to Mexico in the 1940s looking for the meaning to life. They get into all sorts of trouble, including Damon falling in love with Penelope Cruz, the daughter of the country's most important ranch owner. They go to prison, and the story meanders around a lot, with a lot of handsome vistas and a summing up by Bruce Dern. Lucas Black, as a wild youngster who is just as good as he says, is the most interesting character for me; I know a guy like that.

Despite a summing up by Bruce Dern, it's too unfocused to be absolutely top notch. Reports are that Miramax cut an hour from director Billy Bob Thornton's version, which might explain it.

All the Pretty Horses is directed by Billy Bob Thornton and adapted from Cormac McCarthy's novel of the name name by Ted Tally. It stars Matt Damon, Penélope Cruz, Henry Thomas & Lucas Black. Marty Stuart scores the music and Barry Markowitz photographs it. Plot finds Damon as John Grady Cole, a young cowboy who travels with his best friend, Lacey Rawlings, from Texas across the border into Mexico. It's a journey that sees acquaintances come and go, love blossom and the harshness of the world become all too real to such young eyes.

A big financial disaster for Columbia Pictures and Miramax Films who lost nearly $40 million on the film. Serves them right I say, for Thornton's original cut was a long epic piece thought to be around three and a half hours in length. But good old Harvey Weinstein demanded drastic cuts to be made and Thornton had to trim it to just nearly two hours in running time. That's a lot of story gone astray, and boy does it show, no wonder Damon himself bitterly commented that to lose 35% of your movie ultimately leaves you with a completely different film. It's such a shame because although it's now a film chocked with flaws and flow problems, one can see that in its original cut there had to be at worst an involving rites-of-passage story.

So what are we left with? Well it's certainly not a donkey. It drips with period atmosphere and comes resplendent with a poetic beauty thanks to Markowitz's photography. Stuart's score too has the tone absolutely right, blending the old feel of the West with evocative arrangements for the more tender moments involving the protagonists: and there are tender moments, notably between Cole (Damon youthful but not really exuding a naivety for the age of the character) & Rawlings (Thomas effective and dominating his scenes). That the crucial relationship between Cole and Alejandra Villarreal (Cruz weak and lacking believability for the romantic strand) is barely formed can be laid at Weinstein's door. So too can the fact that a number of characters file in and out with blink and you miss them parts, sad when it's the likes of Robert Patrick and Sam Sheperd; and tragic in the case of Bruce Dern's judge; the latter of which is a crucial character in the final quarter but gets about three minutes screen time. Madness. Star of the movie is Black, who as young ruffian Blevins, manages to convey a deep sense of vulnerability. It's a critical role, one that affects the main character's lives, and thanks to Black's spirited performance we anxiously await what fate has in store for the lovable rogue.

So much good to sample, then, even if it feels like going out for a three course dinner and finding the main course is no longer available. It's hoped that one day we may get a directors cut from Thornton, only then you feel will All the Pretty Horses be revealed as a potential thoroughbred. 6/10

Director Billy Bob Thornton fills the screen with awesome scenery and a hard hitting drama about two young cowboys from San Angelo, Texas meeting up with another young horseman and coming face to face with life altering situations in and out of a Mexican prison. Friendship stays strong to the bitter end. And love proves to be stronger than life itself. Matt Damon, Henry Thomas and Lucas Black are the hard luck cowpokes. Damon falls in love with Penelope Cruz and provides some steamy love scenes. There is more drama than action in this western, but you should find it very entertaining. Damon and Black are the most impressive characters in this well-made movie.