Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie Review

Butch Cassidy rides again.

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater December 21, 2011

There’s an ambiguous freeze frame of Paul Newman and Robert Redford charging into the fray, pistols drawn, but at the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, we can probably assume the two outlaws die in a blaze of glory, squaring off against a squadron of Bolivian soldiers. The fact is, historians can’t say for certain what happened to Robert Leroy Parker--better known as Butch Cassidy--and there’s always been speculation that he may have survived his South American travels and returned to the U.S. to live the rest of his days in anonymity. We’ll probably never know the truth, but it’s fun to imagine the inveterate robber settling into old age, perhaps giving up his gun ‘n’ run antics for a simpler, more honest life. That’s the starting point for Blackthorn, the latest film from Spanish director Mateo Gil, the co-writer of Abres los ojos and it’s U.S. remake, Vanilla Sky. Gil’s premise is simple: What if Cassidy had survived? What sort of man would he be? What made him give up stealing from the rich, and what could tempt him back to it?

Cassidy is played by actor, playwright, director, and all-around American badass Sam Shepard, whose grizzled face, under a wind-sculpted mane of gray hair, looks to be carved out of solid granite. (Talk about gravitas. You get the feeling he could change the movement of the tides with one steely-eyed glare.) His Cassidy is well on his way to old age, but still spry enough to run a remote ranch way up in the Bolivian mountains, far from the federales and Pinkerton agents who’ve long since presumed he was dead. He goes by James Blackthorn now, and eeks out an honest living selling horses. For company, he’s got an Inca mistress, Yana (Magaly Solier), who drops by every now and then to spend the night, but you can tell his heart is back in San Francisco, where his grown “nephew”--who may actually be his son--is living. It’s time to go home.

Blackthorn makes one final sale, gathers six-thousand dollars in a satchel, and sets off on horseback across the barren lowlands, heading to the nearest port. His journey is interrupted when he comes across a dead horse--ridden too hard--and gets off his own to investigate. Bad move. A gunshot comes out of nowhere and spooks Blackthorn’s own steed, sending the animal bolting for the hills. There goes his life’s savings. The culprit is Eduardo (Eduardo Noriega), an engineer being pursued by a 12-man posse after stealing 50-grand from the filthy rich owner of a nearby mine. Reluctant but desperate--and unable to resist scratching that itch for adventure--Blackthorn agrees to help Eduardo escape in exchange for half of the loot.

It’s the age-old “one last heist” trope, and yes, Blackthorn becomes a kind of buddy film, but the cliches have been freshened up by setting the action in such inhospitable terrain, where every decision takes on life-or-death immediacy. Blackthorn and Eduardo’s biggest concern, of course, is the horde of armed-to-the-teeth men just a day’s ride behind them, but they also have to contend with the brutality of the environment, particularly when crossing Salar de Uyuni--the world’s largest salt flat--an expanse of bright white nothingness that leaves them chapped, thirsty, and exhausted. This portion of the chase is the most visually arresting part of the film, with gorgeous vistas of the stark landscape dotted by lone riders silhouetted against the sky.

And then there’s the honor-among-thieves issue of whether or not the two men can really trust one another. Blackthorn talks a lot about the value of friendship, and Eduardo eventually becomes a kind of stand-in for the Sundance Kid--Blackthorn even gives Eduardo the Kid’s old fur-lined jacket--but $50,000 is a lot of money, and there’s a lot of room for mutual mistrust. If that weren’t enough potential danger for one western, Blackthorn’s old nemesis, McKinley (Stephen Rea)--a washed up former Pinkerton agent--has new suspicions that the erstwhile Mr. Cassidy is very much alive and well. Shepard may carry the film with his loveably irascible crankiness, but Rea gives plenty of support as a drunk who’s wasted his life chasing after a phantom.

Periodically, the film flashes back twenty-odd years to explain what really happened when Butch and Sundance--their younger selves played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Padraic Delaney--went up against the Bolivian army. These scenes are secondary to the plot, and Coster-Waldau and Delaney are a far, far cry from Newman and Redford, but we do get a sense of how strong the bond was between the partners in crime and fast friends. This allows us to see what you might call a Sundance-shaped-hole in the elder Cassidy’s life, a hole that Eduardo--especially once he pieces together Blackthorn’s real identity--is all too willing to fill.

Like most of the films in the recent mini-revival of the western, Blackthorn stays faithful to the tenets of the genre while updating the look and attitude for a more modern age. The always-excellent Sam Rockwell gets to curse like a Deadwood character and this is cause for some unexpected moments of comedy, like when he has to apply makeshift salve to Eduardo’s saddle sores and remarks, “Your ass is softer than a bookkeeper’s.” He also drops a few satisfyingly explosive F-bombs. But there’s tragedy here too, and heartbreak, and the film’s overwhelming tone is a mix of world-weariness and nostalgia for the good old days. It’s nicely acted and entertaining, and the variety and beauty of Bolivia’s topography will certainly make you consider South America for your next vacation destination, but what Blackthorn leaves you with most is a keen desire to rewatch Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Double feature, anyone?

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Magnolia Home Entertainment has wrangled up a generally good-looking 1080p/AVC encode for Blackthorn. The film was shot digitally, with Sony's F23 HD camera, and the resulting picture is rich and warm, with a strong--but not quite exemplary--degree of clarity. You'll notice that most close-ups convey lots of high definition detail--Cassidy's blown-back hair and salt 'n' pepper whiskers, for instance, or the defined stalks of desert brush-- while many longer shots seem slightly soft, a trait that's almost certainly inherent in the source footage and not the product of a sloppy encode. Color is nicely saturated, with a frequently sun-soaked yellow cast, and skin tones are balanced. Where the picture quality loses a few points is in slightly hazy, elevated black levels--especially in interior scenes, but also visible in some outdoor shots--and blotchy-looking chroma noise that occasionally peppers darker portions of the frame. This isn't distracting in the slightest, but it is noticeable if you've got a relatively large screen. There are no other overt compression issues, though, and no problems with noise reduction or edge enhancement either. A serviceable image, overall.

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

More consistently impressive is the film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track, which, for a fairly low budget movie, does a good job of creating immersion. The rear speakers frequently come alive with the sounds of wind and birds and other outdoorsy ambient noises, and there are a few potent directional effects as well, including one gunshot that made me physically jolt in my seat. The score is mostly comprised of plaintive guitar plinkings, along with occasional songs--like "Ain't No Grave (Can Hold My Body Down)"--and the music sounds decently full and clean, taking up space in all channels. The track, as a whole, is clear and dynamically solid, and vocals are balanced cleanly at the top of the mix. No problems here whatsoever. The disc includes optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles.

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 22:24): A lengthy selection of cut scenes. There aren't any that would've drastically altered the film, but they do flesh out the characters somewhat.
• Making of Blackthorn (1080p, 10:27): The film's director and writer discuss the real story of Butch Cassidy and the path that led them to speculate about the outlaw's hypothetical survival.
• Short Films by Director Mateo Gil: The best extras on the disc by far are these two short films. Breaking and Entering (1080p, 17:26) is about a pair of door-to-door scam artists, and Say Me (1080p, 15:05) is an unlikely romance between a man and a woman who both just dumped their respective partners.
• HDNet: A Look at Blackthorn (1080p, 4:57): A typical HDNet promo, with a synopsis of the film and some short interviews.
• Trailer (1080p, 2:25)
• Also from Magnolia Home Entertainment (1080p, 8:08)

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Sam Shepard is the man. There's no doubt about that, especially after seeing his performance as the aging Butch Cassidy, who--dammit--just wants to get back to the U.S. of A and live his life in peace. Blackthorn may not be quite as good as some other recent westerns--like the Coen brothers' remake of True Grit--but it's certainly worth a look if you're jonesing for more outlaw action. Worth a rental, at least!