Barnes & Noble

Billy Bob Thornton's film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's award-winning novel is an elegiac, handsomely rendered western about a young Texas cowboy whose inchoate longing for adventure takes him south of the border. Matt Damon portrays John Grady Cole, a dispossessed rancher joined by best friend Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas) on his trip to Mexico, by where wealthy rancher Don Hector Villarel (Rubén Blades) offers them work. Cole falls in love with Don Hector's spirited daughter, Alejandra (a luminous Penelope Cruz), but their tempestuous romance is disrupted when he's imprisoned for crimes instigated by another traveling companion. The story unfolds in the years immediately following World War II, during which time the last vestiges of the Wild West were disappearing. Director Thornton (Sling Blade) wants us to empathize with his young protagonists: They're more than boys but not yet men, yearning to be part of a tradition already receding into history. A contemporary evocation of western-movie themes, All the Pretty Horses is also a lovingly crafted, occasionally plaintive celebration of an all-but-vanished way of life. The DVD edition includes production notes, talent files, and theatrical trailers. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

Director Billy Bob Thornton explores coming of age in this Western based on Cormac McCarthy's prize-winning novel of the same name. John Grady Cole (Matt Damon) and Lacey Rawlins (Henry Thomas) are young Texan men who seek a more fulfilling life as cowboys in the slowly fading Old West, circa 1949. One night, the duo head for Mexico in hope of finding some adventure and employment, and along the way run into Blevins (Lucas Black), an even younger drifter who has supposedly stolen a horse from private property. Begrudgingly, Cole and Rawlins take him under their wing before they eventually find themselves in Mexico, working for a wealthy landowner (Ruben Blades). His stalwart and beautiful daughter Alejandra (Penelope Cruz) develops a romantic interest in Cole, which threatens the friendship between him and Rawlins, not to mention their living quarters, where Alejandra's watchful aunt (Miriam Colon) warns Cole that she has professed allegiance to her. Cole and Rawlins' thrill-seeking adventures with Blevins and the stolen horse catch up to them, however, and they are held prisoners in a brutal penitentiary, where their cowboy instincts are put to the ultimate test. Cole, meanwhile, wants nothing more than to get back to Alejandra and resume their love affair. The film also features Bruce Dern in a small role as a judge who eventually gives much-desired guidance to Cole. Jason Clark

Chicago Sun-Times

You can see how this movie could have been jacked up into a one-level action picture, but what makes it special is how Thornton modulates the material. Even the prison knife-fight scenes aren't staged as action confrontations, but as quick, desperate and strangely intimate... Roger Ebert

Product Details

• UPC: 043396046054
• Source: SONY PICTURES
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français
• Time: 1:57:00
• Sales Rank: 4,405

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• All the Pretty Horses / Missing
• Geronimo/All the Pretty Horses

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