Passionate drama of life and death.

Author: Michael O'Keefe from Muskogee OK
3 March 2002

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.(ben non justement...mais attendons la fin de ce dossier...)

Newcomers trying for old-style Hollywood feel, and failing

Author: moonspinner55 from las vegas, nv
15 February 2002

From Cormac McCarthy's novel about young man in 1949 Texas leaving the family ranch for a life in Mexico,and winding up in hot water.Despite mystical undermining(which presumably is what director co-producer Billy Bob Thornton brought to the table)film has a distracting 'formula' feel: two-parts western, one-part forbidden romance, and one-part prison picture.None of it gels,simply because the screenwriter(Ted Tally of all people)and Thornton are trying for the kind of heavy,romantic movie-western style popular 40 years ago, and yet they do not possess the subtle qualities to make this genre successful for them. Matt Damon frequently flashes his shy/self-conscious movie-star smile, but he's so clean and bland and laid-back, he's practically non-existent on the screen. Penelope Cruz, as his forbidden flame, is better, but the other performers are less charismatic, and the story has no center--it just rambles around.

*1/2 from ****

Torn.

Author: Peach-2 from Netherlands
12 May 2001

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.(ah ah ah!) 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.

Better Late Than Never

Author: peters159-1 from United States
16 June 2006

After seeing Matt Damon carrying "The Rainmaker" I sat up and became a real fan of the actor. In that movie he impressed me greatly. I decided to see what was he doing next. I read where he was slated to star in All the Pretty Hourses so I got a copy of the book to see what it was all about. I liked what I read and was looking forward to see Matt Damon in the effort. When I read where Billy Bob Thornton was to direct I became ecstatic, I remembered his acting and directing in Sling Blade. Later, I read where there was trouble with the length of All The Pretty Horses at the producer threatened to cut the movie. Mr Thornton's version ran almost 4 hours, the released version to theaters was 117 minutes. Of course I went to see the movie and could see that it should have been longer. Any movie buff could see that.

What perplexes me is how studios and produces can contract certain directors and then butcher their completed work. Sergio Leone's Once Upon A Time in America suffered a humiliation when the studio decided to cut his film drastically; it lost it's meaning, and money.

Later, the DVD restored version, 225 minutes, came out and was instantly received by customers. Thank God David O. Selznick stuck to his guns with Gone With The Wind. And look at how much money that! made. Like some others I hope that some one one day will be able to assemble the 4 hour version of All The Pretty Horses so that those of us who love movies can at least see what we've missed. I think we deserve to judge the movie for ourselves. Who knows, we might be missing a masterpiece.

Simplistic and dull.

Author: Val68 from Binghamton, NY
26 January 2001

Though interestingly acted, the movie is ultimately disappointing. Billy Bob played up the romance--the least interesting part of the novel--and left out the more complex ideas that make McCarthy worth reading. (Biggest crime: cutting the Duena Alfonsa almost entirely out of the story.) I had high hopes, but found the movie simplistic and dull.