![]() At the state office of the Texas Rangers, Red Barnett (Clint Eastwood) speaks with the Governor by phone. Butch and Terry take the boy, Philip, as a hostage and leave, still in the guard's car. A neighbor tries to save the family but Buzz asks him to drop the rifle because he might hit the boy and the neighbor agrees, a pattern of negotiation and violence avoidance that continues throughout the movie. Then Butch says to point it at him and say "stick em up," a make-believe playful act, but deadly serious, which he does. Butch asks Philip to pick up the "Pistola" and give it to him. Young Philip, who has wandered in, gets on Terry's nerves so he slaps the boy, an action that further infuriates Butch and precipitates a struggle between the two. Terry breaks into the kitchen holding a gun and terrorizes her, grabbing her around the neck for a smooch. Terry is sidetracked by Gladys making breakfast. Once they reach town they commandeer Larry's car and search for a new escape car. Butch and Terry get past the guard at the gate in Larry's car with Larry at the wheel. And Terry agrees with that plan as their hatred for each other coalesces. Once Butch and Terry break through the vents, and it is clear that an escape is underway, Butch tells Terry that they will separate when they get free and reach the state line because he doesn't like Terry. Meanwhile, Larry Billings, a prison guard, returns to the prison to get some paperwork to do at home even as the two prisoners in their cells (Butch and Terry) consult with an elderly inmate regarding where the vents go. Just then the doorbell rings and some children outside yell "trick or treat." Gladys answers the door and explains they don't participate in the holiday because they are Jehovah's Witness. The mother, Gladys Perry (Jennifer Griffin), explains that their religious beliefs put them on a higher plane where such activities are forbidden. In a small town somewhere in Texas, the town kids are trick or treating except for one family sitting at the kitchen table talking about Halloween. The rest of the movie answers the questions posed by that enigmatic opening image. ![]() Both the man and the mask have a faint smile on their faces. The movie opens with the final scene, Butch lying in a field with a Casper the Friendly Ghost mask lying beside him in the grass, a helicopter hovering, and money blowing in the breeze. In going beyond chase-yarn duty, Eastwood and Costner do themselves proud."A Perfect World," ostensibly about the escape of convicts Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) and Terry Pugh (Keith Szarabajka) from a Huntsville prison, quickly focusses on their hostage-taking of an 8-year old boy, Philip Perry (T. Eastwood keeps the action raucous, the humor sharp edged and the focus on the lost boy in Butch, whose attack on a black family spins the film into a shattering climax that indicts the legal system for helping to make career criminals of kids. Eastwood is in rare form, but it’s his keen directorial eye that stops the John Lee Hancock script from slipping into TV formula. Red, who sent Butch away as a juvenile, pursues his man in a trailer where he can trade insults with his deputies and a sexy criminologist (Laura Dern). How do guns and grand theft qualify as fun? Butch, also from a broken home, makes a charming and dangerous teacher. Lowther) and shows him stuff to fry the nerves of his mother, a Jehovah’s Witness. Butch takes a hostage in fatherless, 7-year-old Phillip (T.J. Though both stars have won Oscars for directing, Eastwood grabs the reins and draws Costner’s scrappiest performance since Bull Durham. Clint Eastwood, as Texas Ranger Red Garnett, teams up with Kevin Costner, as escaped convict Butch Haynes, for a gripping manhunt circa 1963.
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