Review of All the Pretty Horses (2000) by Ryan S — 08 Apr 2009

After reading Cormac McCarthy's nearly perfect book, I was hesitant to check out the movie based on all the issues I heard about (ol' Billy Bob couldn't get the film to the length he wanted, because Miramax wanted it under two hours and the fact that he couldn't use the score he wanted are the bigger ones).

But I figured I'd see it anyways, and I'm glad I did. For the most part, it's a relatively faithful adaptation, though it does lack some of the books prose and poetic nature. The film definitely does suffer from a truncated feel, lacking the book's epic feel both in scope (the characters travels do not feel as vast) as well as character.

For this reason, it's very hard to admire the film; where it is easy to admire is in the film's cinematography. The film is beautiful, and even as some scenes simply do not mesh together well with the preceding or following scenes, they are always easy on the eyes.

Maybe some day Thornton will actually get to release a director's cut like he's talked about that will fill in the rest of the story, and maybe he can even use the score he wanted to, because the one used here was pretty mundane.