A Perfect World

Director: Clint Eastwood

Overview

Clint Eastwood, hot off of his Academy Award win for Unforgiven, directed this small character study, appearing in the guise of a cops-and-robbers action picture. The film takes place during the fall of 1963. Eight-year old Phillip Perry (T.J. Lowther), the son of a devout Jehovah's Witness mother, is staying home while all the other children are out trick-or-treating. But then prison escapee Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) appears in his kitchen. Needing a hostage to aid him in his escape from jail, he grabs Phillip. Phillip curiously looks up to Butch and willingly accompanies him. Butch gets rid of his fellow escapee after he tries to molest the child, and Butch and Phillip take to the Texas highway, on the run from the cops. The cop in pursuit in this instance is Police Chief Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood), riding in his sleek Populux Airglide trailer -- his "mobile command headquarters." On the road with Garnett is Sally Gerber (Laura Dern), a pushy pre-feminist criminologist, along with a creepy federal agent who is an expert sharpshooter. Butch is not particularly anxious to make it to the Texas borderline, and neither is Garnett in any particular hurry to catch Butch. As Butch and Phillip form a father-son attachment, the paths of Butch and Garnett gradually come together, in time for a final confrontation, after which Garnett confesses, "I don't know nothing. I don't know a damn thing."

Product Details

Release Date:	06/01/2010
UPC:	0883929126682
Original Release:	1993
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Letterbox]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:18:00
Sales rank:	18,037

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Kevin Costner	Butch Haynes
Clint Eastwood	Red Garnett,Composer
Laura Dern	Sally Gerber
T.J. Lowther	Phillip Perry
Keith Szarabajka	Terry Pugh
Paul Hewitt	Suttle
Bradley Whitford	Bobby Lee
Ray McKinnon	Bradley
Bruce McGill	Paul Saunders
Jennifer Griffin	Gladys Perry,Actor
Leslie Flowers	Naomi Perry,Ruth Perry
Dennis Letts	Naczelnik
John M. Jackson	Bob Fielder
Connie Cooper	?ona Bobby'ego
Cameron Finley	Bob Fielder Jr.
Wayne DeHart	Mack
Darryl Cox	Mr. Hughes
Rodger Boyce	Mr. Willits
Margaret Bowman	Trick 'r Treat Lady
Leo Burmester	Tom Adler
Jay Whiteaker	Actor
Taylor McBride	Actor
Christopher Ammons	Dancing Skeleton
Mark Voges	Larry Billings - Prison Official
James Jeter	Oldtimer - Perrys' Neighbor
Vernon Grote	Prison Guard
Ed Geldart	Fred Cummings
Gary Moody	Local Sheriff
George Haynes	Farmer
Nik Hagler	General Store Manager
Lucy Lee Flippin	Lucy - Friendly's Clerk
Elizabeth Ruscio	Paula - Friendly's Clerk
David Kroll	Newscaster
Marietta Marich	Farmer's Wife
Gabriel Folse	Officer Terrance
Gil Glasgow	Officer Pete
John Hussey	Governor's Aide
Katy Wottrich	Patsy Fielder
Phyllis Huffman	Actor
Marco Perella	Road Block Officer
Linda Hart	Eileen, Waitress
Brandon Smith	Officer Jones
George Orrison	Officer Orrison
Mary Alice	Lottie
Tony Frank	Arch Andrews
Woody Watson	Lt. Hendricks
Kevin Woods	Cleveland
James Gavin	Helicopter Pilot
Craig Hosking	Helicopter Pilot
Lennie Niehaus	Composer

Technical Credits

John Lee Hancock

David Amborn	Special Effects
John Frazier	Special Effects
Phyllis Huffman	Casting
Mark Johnson	Producer
J.W. McCormick	Special Effects
David Valdes	Producer
Buddy Van Horn	Stunts
John Lee Hancock	Screenwriter
Daniel W. Barringer	Stunts
Rick Alexander	Sound Effects
Bobbi Banks	Sound Effects
Stu Bernstein	Sound Effects
Milton C. Burrow	Sound Effects,Sound Effects
Liz Keigley	Casting
Brian Smrz	Stunts
Clint Eastwood	Producer
John Robotham	Stunts
Andy Gill	Stunts
Orwin Harvey	Stunts
Spike Silver	Stunts

Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Perfect World
1. Sky Above [1:31]
2. No Part of Halloween [1:11]
3. Huntsville Breakout [4:33]
4. Terror Before Dawn [6:27]
5. Govenor's Assignee [3:25]
6. Caravan Departs [2:42]
7. Threats and Facts [2:41]
8. At Gunpoint [7:00]
9. Pair of Intelligent People [4:25]
10. Time Machine [3:15]
11. Partners in Theft [5:22]
12. Guys on Our Own [1:38]
13. Gallow Humor [1:36]
14. Friendliest Store in Texas [7:33]
15. Good Size [2:10]
16. A Haynes History [2:57]
17. On-and-Off-Road Passersby [4:40]
18. Last of the Wild Frontiers [2:07]
19. Trick or Treat [3:01]
20. Putting the Breaks On [7:46]
21. Meat and Potatoes [:40]
22. His God-Give Right [1:28]
23. Bobby Lee Makes a Move [1:38]
24. Dottie's Squat 'N' Gobble [4:18]
25. Same Difference Wish List [4:03]
26. Right Thing to Do [3:10]
27. Mack's Invitation [1:46]
28. Dancing All Around [4:42]
29. Butch's Breaking Point [3:02]
30. Say Love and Mean It [1:46]
31. Prayer For the Dying [3:43]
32. Reluctant Gunshot [2:41]
33. Talking Man to Man [4:28]
34. "I'm Glad it Was You" [5:01]
35. Today's the Day [3:48]
36. Goodbye to a Ghost [1:34]
37. Hand in Hand [2:54]
38. "Do I Know You?" [:53]
39. Dead Aim [2:43]
40. He Didn't Say When [:31]
41. "I Don't Know Nothin'" [1:43]
42. End Credits [5:16]

Menu

Disc #1 -- Perfect World
Play Movie
Scene Selections
Special Features
Cast & Crew
Kevin Costner - Butch Haynes
Clint Eastwood - Red Garnett
Laura Dern - Sally Gerber
Written by John Lee Hancock
Theatrical Trailer
Languages
Subtitles: English
Subtitles: Español
Subtitles: Français
Subtitles: Off
Spoken Languages: English
Spoken Languages: Français

Editorial Reviews

Clint Eastwood followed up his Oscar-winning, critically acclaimed Unforgiven, the Western to end all Westerns, with another impressive, but grossly underappreciated work, A Perfect World. The film is portentously set in Texas in 1963, and it offers a compelling examination of the nature of American violence. Some Eastwood fans were probably put off by the fact that it's Kevin Costner who plays the traditional Eastwood part, the outlaw with a code of honor, while the man himself is relegated to playing, very effectively, the inept authority figure. In fact, by directing White Hunter, Black Heart, Unforgiven, and this film in succession, Eastwood demonstrated his willingness to critique his own status as an American icon, to an extent that few actors in such a position ever had. These films feature some of his best work as an actor, and there's not an unconditionally heroic figure in any of them. A Perfect World is probably the most moving of the three films, with the wonderful complexity of Kevin Costner's performance as the well-meaning but emotionally combustible Butch Haynes, playing off a touchingly naturalistic performance by child-actor T.J. Lowther as his entranced hostage, Phillip Perry. The film compellingly contrasts the uncontrollable violence of Haynes -- which arises from his own history of abuse and from his passionate beliefs -- with the calculated, state-sanctioned violence of the FBI sharpshooter, Bobby Lee (Bradley Whitford), whose cold competence in the name of ideology tellingly alludes to the contemporaneous assassination of President John F. Kennedy. With its well-drawn characters, its action and humor, and its moral complexity, A Perfect World is one of Eastwood's strongest films, as both an actor and a director.