Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov June 24, 2012

Winner of four Goya Awards, including Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design, Spanish director Mateo Gil's "Blackthorn" (2011) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Chelsea Films. Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features on this disc. In English and Spanish, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Adios amigo

They say that Butch Cassidy was gunned down in Bolivia. But was he, really? Spanish director Mateo Gil’s Blackthorn speculates that the famous bandit escaped the Bolivian Army and got old somewhere up in the mountains, and then eventually came back home.

The film begins some twenty years after the big shootout. Butch (Sam Shepard, Don't Come Knocking), now living under the name James Blackthorn, has saved enough to go back to San Francisco and see a young man who may or may not be his son. He bids goodbye to a beautiful woman (Magaly Solier, The Milk of Sorrow) who has been spending time with him and then hits the road.

Soon after, he meets Eduardo (Eduardo Noriega, Burnt Money, Novo), a handsome Spanish thief who causes his horse to run away with his money. Butch spares his life after he reveals to him that he has stolen $50,000 from the richest mine owner in the area. Eduardo promises to give half of the money to Butch if he helps him dodge the men who are after him.

Eventually, a large gang of angry cowboys appear and force Butch and Eduardo deep into the desert. As they run away, Butch recalls some of the best moments of his life as well as the last days he spent with his best friend, the Sundance Kid (Padraic Delaney), and their mutual friend, Etta (Dominique McElligott).

It is difficult not to think of Blackthorn as a European film. It is a slow and very atmospheric character-driven western which is clearly concerned with themes classic westerns rarely tackle. Here, a legendary man has grown old and come to realize that living in peace could be a very lonely experience. He recalls the best moments from his youth and the people he regarded as friends.

Shepard is excellent as the legendary bandit. He exudes confidence and demands respect but at the same time looks like an ordinary man who often struggles with simple emotions. The short scenes where he writes to the young man living in San Francisco who could be his son reveal exactly how he feels.

Noriega, a big star in his native Spain, is also convincing as the handsome thief. One can sense that he has the right amount of respect for his new partner which makes him look credible during the second half of the film. Stephen Rea has a strong cameo as Mackinley, the man who led the hunt for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but failed to capture them. Now he is a broken man who cannot stop drinking.

The film’s greatest strength is the impressive cinematography by Juan Ruiz Anchía, who years ago lensed Mike Figgis’ terrific Liebestraum and more recently worked with Tran Anh Hung on his very atmospheric I Come with the Rain. There are some truly remarkable panoramic shots from the mountains and white deserts of Bolivia as well as very effective long close-ups.

The film is also complimented by an appropriately moody soundtrack by award winning Argentinean composer Lucio Godoy (Fernando León de Aranoa’s Mondays in the Sun, Sergio Castellitto’s Don’t Move, Fabián Bielinsky’s The Aura).

Director Gil is also a prolific writer. He penned the scripts for Alejandro Amenábar’s Open Your Eyes, which inspired Cameron Crowe to shoot Vanilla Sky, and The Sea Inside, which won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film of the Year in 2005.

Note: Earlier this year, Blackthorn won four Goya Awards (the Spanish Oscars), including Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design (Clara Bilbao).

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Mateo Gil's Blackthorn arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British distributors Chelsea Films.

The high-definition transfer is not identical to the one Magnolia Pictures used for their Blu-ray release of Blackthorn in the United States. The key differences are in the area of color reproduction, with the black levels in particular being far more convincing (compare screencapture #1 with screencapture #5 from our review of the U.S. release), and sharpness levels. Generally speaking, the entire film looks more vibrant and richer, and selected sequences also boast much better clarity (such as the one screencapture #3 is taken from). Many of the large panoramic vistas convey excellent depth and fluidity. I specifically would like to point out that none of the nighttime sequences look fuzzy. Edge-enhancement does not plague the high-definition transfer either. Lastly, I did not see any serious compression issues to report in this review. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and English LPCM 2.0 (with portions of Spanish). For the record, Chelsea Films have provided optional English subtitles for the main feature. They appear only when Spanish is spoken, and inside the image frame.

The lossless track has a good range of nuanced dynamics. The surround channels are also intelligently used to enhance the unique atmosphere. The dialog is crisp, clean, and exceptionally easy to follow. There are no serious balance issues with Lucio Godoy's music score either. Lastly, I did not detect any high-frequency distortions or audio dropouts to report in this review.

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Unfortunately, there are no supplemental features to be found on this Blu-ray disc.

Blackthorn Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Sam Shepard is phenomenal as the legendary Butch Cassidy, while Juan Ruiz Anchia's lensing is the best I've seen in years. As long as one does not compare Blackthorn to George Roy Hill's classic western, one is bound to have a terrific time with it. Chelsea Films' release does not have any of the supplemental features found on the Magnolia Pictures release, but the technical presentation of the film is better. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.