A Perfect World

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.

• Director:Clint Eastwood
• Genre:Crime / Drama / Thriller
• Runtime:133 minutes

Cast

Kevin Costner : Robert ‘Butch’ Haynes
Clint Eastwood : Chief Red Garnett
Laura Dern : Sally Gerber
T.J. Lowther : Phillip ‘Buzz’ Perry
Keith Szarabajka : Terry Pugh

The film is set in Texas in the fall of 1963. Robert “Butch” Haynes (Kevin Costner) and Terry Pugh (Keith Szarabajka) are convicts who have just escaped from a Huntsville prison. Fleeing from the clutches of the law, the pair stumble into the kitchen of a house where eight-year old Phillip Perry (T. J. Lowther) lives with his devout Jehovah’s Witness mother and two sisters. Needing a hostage to aid their escape, Butch grabs the boy, who meekly accompanies them. The trio’s journey starts off on an unpleasant note as Butch is forced to shoot his fellow escapee with a stolen revolver, following the latter’s attempts at molesting the child. With his partner out of the way, the convict and his young victim take to the Texas highway in a bid to flee from the pursuing police.

Meanwhile, Texas Ranger Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood), riding in the Governor’s sleek airstream trailer, is in hot pursuit of the duo. With criminologist Sally Gerber (Laura Dern) and trigger-happy FBI sharpshooter Bobby Lee (Bradley Whitford) in tow, Ranger Garnett is determined to recover the criminal and the hostage before they cross the Texas border. The plot thus alternates between a manhunt unfolding on one level, and on the other, the blossoming of a tender bond between the convict and his “prisoner.”

As the plot unfolds, it is revealed that Phillip comes from a family whose attachment to their religion forbids him from indulging in any of the normal pursuits common for children of his age. All of eight years old, the boy has never participated in Halloween or Christmas celebrations, and has seemingly had all the fun completely cut out from his life. Escaping with Butch, however, he experiences a joy of freedom which he finds exhilarating, as Butch gladly allows him the kind of indulgences he has been forbidden all along. Gradually, the kid becomes increasingly aware of his surroundings, and with constant encouragement from Butch (whom he now sees almost as a father figure), seems to acquire the ability to make independent decisions on what is wrong and right. For his part, Butch sees in the boy’s innocence a bit of his own lost childhood, and slowly finds himself drawn into giving Phillip the kind of fatherly presence which (as is subsequently revealed) he himself never had. Read more

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