Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5357 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-01-27
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Subtitled
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 132 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This curiously overlooked drama from Clint Eastwood, released just after his Oscar triumph with Unforgiven, concerns a prisoner (Kevin Costner) on the run with a kidnapped young boy as protection and the Texas Ranger (Eastwood) and federal agent (Laura Dern) on his tail. Eastwood manages a number of nice touches--the boy's innocence is nicely contrasted with Costner's soft-spoken desperado by the Casper Halloween costume he wears and the law-enforcement officials look vaguely foolish, travelling around the countryside with a high-tech camper in tow. Eastwood gives a grizzled performance that, despite its seen-it-all surface, still feels fresh after all these years, and he coaxes surprisingly sensitive work out of Costner. But it's the sheer, modest scale of this piece that makes it so disarming--no planet lies in jeopardy, there are no cosmic make-or-break consequences here, just committed people doing their job and a well-meaning bad guy hoping things don't get too out of hand while he prevents them from doing so. --David Kronke

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Set in Texas in 1963, Clint Eastwood's film is a subtle and haunting work that features what is perhaps Kevin Costner's best performance. Costner plays against type as Butch Haynes, an escaped convict whose tendency toward violence is masked by his affability. Haynes escapes with a more blatantly dangerous convict, Terry Pugh (Keith Szarabajka), planning to ditch him as soon as they cross the border. But Pugh's lack of self-control gets them in trouble, and they take a young boy hostage. Raised by his single mother, a Jehovah's Witness, Phillip Perry (T.J. Lowther, in a heartbreakingly real performance) is fascinated by Haynes's roughneck ways, and the two form a surprisingly strong bond. Eastwood takes a supporting role as Red Garnett, the lawman who, ineptly but inevitably, is closing in on Haynes. With a woman criminologist (Laura Dern) and a trigger-happy federal agent along for the ride, Garnett chases Haynes down while keeping their shared past a secret from his team.

Customer Reviews

Classic film, classic acting, classic director.


Clint Eastwood stars in and directs this story of an escaped convict, who whilst trying to flee the police takes a boy hostage. Pursued by the law, the convict (Kevin Costner) starts to bond with the boy and realises that the boys father isn't around, so the boy starts to look up to him too. It's a warming story of how in the most dire circumstances a warmth can come out of it. With the police on their tail and obstacles in their way, Costner must decide wether to give up the boy or to give himself in. This is a great film, with great acting including support from Laura Dern (Jurassic park). It would be 5 star if it had been a little faster moving in a few areas, but still very good and a watch suitable for most ages.

Not perfect, but rather good
At 130 minutes, A Perfect World is certainly overlong - Kevin Costner takes even longer to die than Marlon Brando did in Mutiny on the Bounty - but compared to most films that attempt to pair box-office giants and simply ending up alienating both star's followings, it's actually rather good. Clint Eastwood the director fares better than Eastwood the actor, who could quite easily be cut out of the film, having little to do and doing it with minimum interest. Ditto Laura Dern's psychologist, who seems to be there solely to give Eastwood someone to talk to, but Costner is surprisingly good as the maladjusted convict on the run, coming into his own in a scene where he terrorises a black family (it's at this point you can just hear the film's box-office potential nosedive) with T.J. Lowther convincingly unmovielike as the young Jehovah's Witness he takes hostage and shows how to have fun. A minor film, perhaps, but with a darkness behind the humour that recalls Thunderbolt and Lightfoot it's well worth checking out.

beautiful
It's on watching movies like this that I feel sorry for Kevin Costner. He deserves so much more credit than he gets. In 'A perfect world' he plays the role of 'Butch', an escaped convict who takes a young boy hostage. Phil is a 7yr old without a father and a mother with strict rules due to their religion. Soon he and Butch begin to forge a strong bond which is simply born of Butch treating Phil with the love he wishes his father showed. It's a very touching relationship to watch grow.
However it doesn't go overboard in making us forget that Butch is still a criminal with a goal. He steals, kills and hurts people as and when necessary.
Clint Eastwood and Laura Dern play the cop and criminalist who are out to recapture Butch but in my opinion this takes a backseat to the rest of the movie. It's very oldstyle cowboy talk from Eastwood while Dern fights her way into being recognised for her talents.

This is a wonderful movie which I would recommend to anyone. It explores the humanity in all of us irrespective of past crimes and titles.