Review of All the Pretty Horses (2000) by Ed A — 01 Jul 2010
A decent enough movie, but definitely the least of the three Cormac McCarthy adaptations Hollywood has made so far. The movie misses the feel of the book by being too light-hearted and happy in the early scenes, and too weepy and sentimental in the later ones.
It lacks the constant tough stoicism that for me characterizes all of McCarthy's works, and which I thought the No Country for Old Men and The Road movies both nailed. You can tell how the film is off by listening to the music score.
While the music isn't bad in itself, if you've ever read All the Pretty Horses or any other McCarthy novel, you'll just be able to feel that this sort of music doesn't fit McCarthy's style.
I think No Country for Old Men did it right by having essentially no music. The movie also leaves out a couple of characters, scenes, and speeches from the book, and the knife-fight scene is strangely made less elaborate and exciting than it is in the book, but overall the movie does follow the book's plot reasonably closely.
Matt Damon gives a decent performance: he understands the character of John Grady, I think, but he was too old for the part. The same is true of Penelope Cruz: she gives it a good shot, but is too old.
Billy Bob Thornton's direction is fine, allowing the movie an appropriately stately pace. The movie does have great scenery and nice cinematography to capture it all. It's not like it's a bad movie, it's just a less-than-perfect adaptation.
If I hadn't read the book, I wouldn't have seen so many problems with it.
This review of All the Pretty Horses (2000) was written by Ed A on 01 Jul 2010.
All the Pretty Horses has generally received mixed reviews.
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