Blackthorn (2011)

[dave jenkins]

Anybody going to see this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FMZDtpMFqk

[titoli]

Hmm, Sam Shepard as a screenwriter is a guarantee of uninterrupted sleep. As a lead...I'll leave you the honor to watch it as first.

[noodles_leone]

I wanted to give it a try, it was released here a few weeks ago. It's probably too late now.

[dave jenkins]

OK, saw it, it's not so great, I give it 6/10. Mostly set in 1927, it follows the further adventures of Butch Cassidy who, we learn, wasn't killed by Bolivian soldiers in 1908. What's he been doing for 20 years? Going to bed early, apparently. He's been hiding out in Bolivia, raising horses. He's getting ready to cash out and head back to the States when his path crosses that of a larcenous Spaniard with whom he forms a sudden and uneasy partnership. The two men are then pursued (by Indian gunmen and--as it turns out--Indian gunwomen) with extreme prejudice. The chase structure plays to the film's one advantage, the Bolivian locations. It looks like every frame was shot there, and Bolivia, which I don't remember ever seeing on film before, is in turns austere and beautiful. There's one particularly memorable sequence where the men have to cross some very impressive salt flats. Little attempt is made to make the characters sound period--they talk just like characters in films set in 2011. Sam Shepherd isn't bad, he does the grizzled old man bit well, but we have to endure his singing in several scenes (the reason he agreed to appear in this low-budget film, probably). There's also several flashbacks to Butch and Sundance's South American Adventure (1900-1908) which, if I recall, was adequately covered in another film. The plot turns out to be rather stupid, but the photography is very nice.

[Dust Devil]

Yeah that's it more or less, more more than less. Outstanding locations.


6/10

[Spikeopath]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1629705/reference

Ain't no grave hold my body down.

Blackthorn is directed by Mateo Gil and written by Miguel Barros. It stars Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, Magaly Solier, Nikolaj Costsr-Waldau, Padraic Delaney and Dominique McElligott. Music is by Lucio Godoy and cinematography by Juan Ruiz Anchia.

It was believed that Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid both perished at the hands of the Bolivian army in 1908. Not so, for here is Butch Cassidy 20 years after the supposed event, alive and well and living in a secluded Bolivian village under the name James Blackthorn…

What a lovely idea, that of one of history's most famous outlaws actually living longer than history led us to believe. OK, it's a scratchy premise but it allows for a quite elegiac film as we follow an older and grizzled Cassidy on another adventure. That adventure sees him team up with mischievous Spaniard Eduardo Apodaca, the latter of which tries to rob Blackthorn/Cassidy and then offers to repay the old outlaw with the proceeds from some hidden loot stashed away from a robbery. They set off and sure enough there is a posse on their tail, meaning the pair have to stay one step ahead of their pursuers, something which puts the twinkle back in Cassidy's eyes. But not all is as it seems and with flash backs showing Butch and Sundance in their prime (Waldau as the young Cassidy is an inspired choice as per likeness to Shepard), aided by the feisty Etta Place, this is a fully rounded tale.

The film quite simply is unhurried and respectful to the art of story telling and is rich with a lead characterisation of considerable substance (Shepard is wonderful, really gets to the soul of the character). Oh it is punctured by the odd action scene, even some humour is in the mix, there's even time for machismo and romantic threads of worth, but this beats a melancholy heart and is All the better for it. It also happens to be one of the most gorgeously photographed Westerns of the modern era. Filmed primarily on location in Bolivia, the landscapes – be it the mountainous ranges or pin sharp salt flats – are sublime, God's wonderful Earth in all its glory expertly realised by Anchia, marking this out as an absolute Blu-ray essential for Western fans big into location photography. While Godoy's musical score is pitch perfect for the tonal flows in the narrative.

There's the odd cliché, Rea is a touch wasted and some may decry the simplicity of plot, but this is thoughtful and awash with the love of the Western genre. If only for Shepard and the photography then this is worth it for Western fans, as it is it also calls out to those who like some emotional reflection in their Oaters. 8/10

[cigar joe]

Agree, beautifully shot, by cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía. This is, hands down, one of the best Westerns, albeit actually a "Southern American" Western of this century. It has what Tarrantino Westerns lack and that is breathtaking landscapes, it fits perfectly in the same time period as The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre, The Good The Bad The Weird, and the "Northern" Death Hunt. The plot is plausible enough. Agree about an 8/10

Worth a purchase.

This is the second feature connected to director/screenwriter Mateo Gil that was impressive. The first was as screenwriter for Agora (2009)

[stanton]

This I wrote a few years ago:

"Blackthorn - Mateo Gil, 2011

A western shot in Bolivia by a Spanish director, who earned some fame by writing several screenplays with and for Alejandro Amenable (Tesis ; Obre los ojos and its remake Vanilla Sky; Mar adentro and others). Blackthorn is the name under which Butch Cassidy, who apparently here wasn't shot back in 1908, lives in Bolivia since then. The film is set in 1927 when Cassidy wants to return to the states. But a Spanish mine engineer and his robbed money involves him in another adventure which also brings some memories back on his days with Sundance Kid and Etta Place.

It is one of those more realistic feeling modern westerns like Appaloosa, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford or The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, which don't point the western in a new direction, but which walk on a viable path to visit the genre without relying on the past.
Blackthorn is a fine film, and Sam Shepard gives the old Cassidy the earthed enough presence to contrast the him surrounding myth. The long chase and fight in the salt desert is one of the best western scenes since the 70s. 8/10 "

Actually I had forgotten that I viewed the film so positive, my memory (mostly reliable, this time not) wanted to give only a 6/10 ...

[cigar joe]

Actually I had forgotten that I viewed the film so positive, my memory (mostly reliable, this time not) wanted to give only a 6/10 ...

I think it's probably because the actors are all pretty forgettable.

[stanton]

But Shepard is Shepard, and apart from that incredible revelation actors are cattle, and cattle does not hurt any film.

[dave jenkins]

But Shepard is Shepard, and apart from that incredible revelation actors are cattle, and cattle does not hurt any film.

Da best cattle is dem wid udders. 

[cigar joe]

The trouble is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was never a serious Western for me, it hit the tipping point into light farce, and then add the "music video" sequence too boot.

We need a serious treatment of the Holel In The Wall/Wild Bunch gang, they were sort of the 1880-90s eqivalent of organized crime. The "Hoot Owl Trail" stretched from the Canadian Border to Mexico with hideouts placed like rest stops along the way. The Little Rockies, Hole In The Wall, Brown's Hole, Robbers Roost, to name a few. You'd almost have to do it in a Mini Series like Deadwood to cover all the characters and various locations.

Also I detected a quote to "Two Mules For Sister Sara" I think, when Eastwood takes the Yaqui arrow in the shoulder and proceeds to get drunk, he's singing the same song "Sam Hall" that Blackthorn sings on the ukelele.

"Well, my name it is Sam Hall, Sam Hall.
Yes, my name it is Sam Hall, it is Sam Hall.
My name it is Sam Hall an' I hate you, one and all.
An' I hate you, one and all
Damn your eyes.
I killed a man, they said, so they said.
I killed a man, they said, so they said.
I killed a man, they said an' I smashed in his head.
An' I left him laying dead,
Damn his eyes.
But a-swinging, I must go, I must go.
A-swinging, I must go, I must go.
A-swinging, I must go while you critters down below,
Yell up, "Sam, I told you so."
Well, damn your eyes!
I saw Molly in the crowd, in the crowd.
I saw Molly in the crowd, in the crowd.
I saw Molly in the crowd an' I hollered, right out loud
"Hey there Molly, ain't you proud?
"Damn your eyes."
Then the Sheriff, he came to, he came to.
Ah, yeah, the Sheriff, he came to, he came to.
The Sheriff, he come to an he said, "Sam, how are you?"
An I said, "Well, Sheriff, how are you?"
"Damn your eyes."
My name is Samuel, Samuel.
My name is Samuel, Samuel.
My name is Samuel, an' I'll see you all in hell.
An' I'll see you all in hell,
Damn your eyes."

[cigar joe]

Just belatedly added to the American Western Index