A Perfect World (1993)

Set along the dusty back roads of Texas, Clint Eastwood's A Perfect World stars Kevin Costner as Butch Haynes, an escaped convict on the run from local authorities with Phillip, a young boy, as his hostage.  On the other side of the law and hot on his trail is Texas Ranger, Red Garnett played by Eastwood, his deputies, and a young criminologist played by Laura Dern.  As the story unfolds, it is revealed that Phillip's circumstances at home aren't all too different from Haynes's own childhood, both having to cope with the pain of growing up without a father by their side.  A strong friendship quickly develops between the two, as the boy begins to regard Haynes as the father figure missing from his life.  The title "A Perfect World" comes from one of earlier scenes in the film when an officer in discussing their rigorous pursuit of Haynes says, "In a perfect world we'd all lock arms and thrash the bushes 'til he turned up", to which Dern's characters corrects, "In a perfect world things like this wouldn't happen in the first place."

Often criticized for being dull or meandering in pace, Eastwood's work has always tended to be more classical in nature; exploring interpersonal relationships and important themes over forms of physical action.  In A Perfect World, he attempts to explore the underlying nature of violence, drawing a deep line in the sand between the truly evil individual and one whose evil deeds have come as a result of past and almost unavoidable circumstances.  Butch Haynes is not an evil individual.  While, he doesn't represent the best man has to offer, he certainly doesn't represent the worst either.  He had a miserable youth, as we learn his father was largely absent from his life and that his mother was a prostitute.  These are clearly not the ideal conditions for a child to be raised in and it is not entirely surprising that these circumstances produced a criminal.  Haynes killed two people in his life: One who hurt his mother and another who was about to bring harm to young Phillip.   Now, the conditions of his childhood do not forgive him for these violent actions, but taking in consideration the circumstances of his youth, it is relatively easy to comprehend  how these forms of violence came about.  ~ 9.0

Christopher Misch

Next Projection, Managing Editor and Contributor