Blackthorn
Dir: Mateo Gil
2011
****
Mateo Gil's Blackthorn is a great return to the classic Western that sadly passed the world by back in 2011. I read somewhere, quite incorrectly, that it is a direct sequel to the classic 1969 Paul Newman and Robert Redford team-up; Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The very idea would distinguish most people's interest based on sacrilegious grounds but it isn't a sequel and should never be seen as one. It is however, a rather wonderful story based on the idea that neither Butch or the Sundance Kid died in a gunfight on the 3rd of November 1908 in Bolivia but survived, and in Butches case, into old age under the name Blackthorn. There are some great theories based on what really happened to the infamous outlaws and this is one of my favorites, no matter how fictitious it may be. The direction is beautiful, with every frame thought through and quite epic at times. The performance by Sam Shepherd is one of my favorites of his, it's nothing like the Paul Newman version we all know and love but it is just as likable in its own, but rather serious way. Blackthorn is the Western for everyone. It has the history, the mythology, the likability and the grittiness. Shepherd's Cassidy is a little bit of Newman, Eastwood, Wayne and Stewart all rolled into one but without feeling like a copy of either and the story, direction and performances are just as good as many of the films those actors have been in. It made me want to smack a Horse on the bum and ride off into the sunset but unlike George Roy Hill's classic, the life of an Outlaw is far from glamorous and adventure isn't always a good thing.