A Perfect World
It’s pretty rare when two such profoundly A list Legends get together to collaborate and pool their collective skills on one major project, but that kind of dream scenario did indeed occur in 1993 when Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood teamed up (with Eastwood also directing) to tackle this project which, when first announced, actually excited a lot of people solely with its premise (Costner as a desperate escaped convict being hunted down by Texas Ranger Eastwood) which no doubt conjured up thoughts of the action filled, Oscar winning Fugitive which had come out around that same time with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. What we got instead though, was a slow paced, contemplative, meditative drama that closely examined the notions of personal values for individual people and whether they could still possibly hold up even through the most extreme of circumstances. For the most part, the film and its lack of any real action sequences was met with complete and utter indifference by the American moviegoing public and critics (although comparatively performed VERY well in Europe) and even failed to rack up any awards consideration or at least some nominations just on the regional circuit. Even more amazing was how quickly the film itself faded into the woodwork, with it not even being hailed as some kind of a forgotten, overlooked, or even lost masterpiece. That being said, the film still boasts arguably the single best acting performance of Costner’s career (although it is NOT his actual best film), a daringly risky turn on his part as he had been well established by this point as being a virtual walking piece of Americana itself, that of cinema’s ultimate “good guy” of the early 90s, here playing a mentally unstable, emotionally damaged criminal (with a genius IQ) named Butch Haynes who had suffered through a horrific childhood of abuse which had been very contrary to his own personal beliefs in how any child should ever be raised. Escaping from prison in the opening scene with a sniveling, perverted fellow prisoner (Keith Szarabajka), they quickly hightail it to a local suburban neighborhood, performing a 5 AM home invasion at the residence of a crazy, single Jehovah’s Witness mother and her kids. When their antics wind up waking up the whole damn block, Costner elects to take the woman’s son (T.J. Lowther) along as a hostage and after successfully dumping his partner in crime, the two of them set out ostensibly for Alaska, but really to wherever Costner can get to so that he can hole up for the night. Meanwhile, renowned Texas Ranger Red Garnett (Eastwood, amirably playing a rare supporting role in his own film) who guzzles Geritol like it’s going out of style, is personally put in charge of the impending manhunt as he also finds himself saddled with a trigger happy FBI sniper (Bradley Whitford), a brainy criminalogist (Laura Dern at her absolute peak of hotness) who wants to use what was back then at the time all new, radical psychological profile methods to help the veteran lawman track down his prey, and a clunky, supposedly high tech for its time (the movie is said to take place less than a month before JFK’s assassination in Dallas) trailer / minivan that’s equipped with all of the necessary tools that a law enforcement man could ever want. And so the story goes like this, cutting back and forth between the two main factions, with Eastwood’s end of the film offering some comic relief that ranges from Dern always trying to offer some insight into their prey that doesn’t really add up to all that much and is usually met with indifference from her male colleagues, the bumbling, stumbling antics of his men (including Ray McKinnon, a guy who made a literal mini career for himself by always playing redneck Deputy Dipshit types of characters) and a near rape attempt of Dern at the hands of Whitford. Costner’s scenes on the other hand, consist of him having long conversations with the kid through which we learn both more about him and of the things that which he holds dear, namely the importance of how a child always needs to have a father figure be present in their life and about how the kid needs to find a way to overcome his oppressive mother’s shadow and get to be able to do the things that all other American kids get to enjoy (up to and including dressing up for Halloween, which is why the kid obtains a Casper The Friendly Ghost costume in which the mask does a good deal of his more serious acting). Through it all two things become readily apparent, the first one being that his bond with the kid himself is actually quite sacred and almost acts as if it is his own personal salvation for a life that was misspent, as even we come to believe that Costner would never really hurt him and / or allow his obvious more baser instincts to ever cause harm onto the boy. The second (and much more disturbing) revelation is the very subtle idea that seeps through that Costner really has NO intention of escaping to either Alaska or anywhere else for that matter, with his very soul being so screwed up that he actually looks upon this whole haphazard run as being just one big suicide ride, albeit again with no real intention of actually harming the boy as he at least hopes to make both a positive difference and influence in the boy’s life before he goes on to what he apparently feels is his deserved fate. The first half does roll by kind of slowly but the second half is where everything picks up greatly, as we find out that years ago Eastwood had personally recommended to a judge that the young Costner be incarcerated as a boy in order to “scare him straight” (and also seemingly “protect” him from going home to his abusive father) only to see him having grown into a man whom the authorities literally cannot wait to kill and now feeling a twinge of both guilt and remorse for having cruelly denied the young man the benefit of any kind of a “second chance” in life since his own hardline philosophies dictated that “locking them up and throwing away the key” was the only possible way to deal with those who had made mistakes during their tender years. Costner meanwhile, just goes on a tear as he robs several people (with the boy as his accomplice) and even stops at a deserted roadside diner where the waitress (an older actress who would normally have no business being in a romantic situation with an actor of Costner’s stature) rather shamelessly throws herself at him in full view of the boy and causes an awkward moment or two, especially with Costner being as horny as a goat after all those years in prison. But even as things spiral more and more out of control, the amazing thing is that Costner never takes out any of his own anger or frustration on the kid whatsoever, always trying to do the right thing and acting accordingly as to the way that he personally believes that a good father should. It all winds up with them settling down with a family of poor black sharecroppers led by the hard working grandfather, and while things seem amicable at first, when Costner witnesses one time too many the old man abusing and slapping around his grandson (a major pet peeve of his), it is only then that he truly goes ballistic and Costner’s acting frighteningly goes into some dark places that it has never been before or since as he slowly, methodically punishes the oldtimer (and his family) for displaying that type of behavior around him. It all leads up to the big final standoff, with Costner and Eastwood meeting onscreen face to face, Costner once again trying to do the right thing all the way up to the bitter end, and a heart wrenchingly emotional decision by the kid that at least metaphorically speaking, really does manage to save Costner’s tortured soul even as our own emotions are put through the wringer. In the end, it’s still interesting to see these two greats team up in an effort that has since been largely (and sadly) swept under the carpet ever since and Costner’s performance (while most definitely deserving) not getting a Best Actor Oscar Nomination remains perplexing for this viewer to this very day, as even though the broad, simple meaning of the film seems to be that “every boy needs a father or else”, it is actually in the film’s very title itself that betrays just how all of the range of complexities in the different ways that various people think and what it is they believe in that actually causes a lot of the pain and heartache in this world that most of us would rather gladly do without, but are nonetheless still powerless to prevent…
9/10