Kevinography, part 2: A Perfect World (1993)

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This is part 2 in a series in which, for reasons not really clear, I watch all watchable movies with Kevin Costner. And maybe even some unwatchable ones. I will then comment on them here for you, including a synopsis in case you aren't familiar with them.


Synopsis: Kevin Costner plays Butch, a serial criminal currently breaking out of jail with his hated but useful partner Terry. The pair's escape escalates as Terry kills the owner of a car they hijack, and Butch can only closely prevent him from killing Philipp, a young boy they're taking hostage. On a wild flight throughout the southwest, Butch and the boy get close. At the same time, marshalls and other law enforcement are hunting them, led by a gruff veteran named Red, played by Clint Eastwood, and assisted by Laura Dern's Sally, a psychologist.

Analysis: I had never heard of this movie before I started the project, and so I came to it completely fresh. Didn't know what to expect. The story starts off incredibly generic. You get the feeling of having watched the same movie countless times before. Bafoonish cops, comically evil criminal, criminal with a heart of gold, gruff veteran policeman with a personal connection, adorable kid. There's even incredibly on-the-nose dialogue like "I don't like you and if I could I would go on without you" or some such.

However, after twenty minutes or so, the movie subtly changes course, and you realize that you're watching something far more complex. Butch surprisingly kills Terry and removes the character set up as the major antagonist (which is the very correct move to take here), which switches focus to Eastwood's Red, who in turn doesn't become the major antagonist but rather the protagonist of his own story. In a sense, the movie is lacking in any antagonist that's not the psychology of everyone involved. And isn't it a lucky coincidence we have a psychologist to comment on exactly that?

The emotional heart of the movie is clearly the relationship between Butch and Philipp. Whenever you think you have an idea where it's going, the movie subverts your expectations with a twist that let's you think "Ah, of course he would react like that". Without talking clearly about it, both characters are gaining a lot of depth, and Butch starts to try to mold Philipp into a better version of him, putting his own twisted idea of parenting on the boy.

This makes for an odd dynamic that never forgets the fact that Philipp is an abductee, but he's also not really a hostage anymore. Their relationship isn't romanticized; the movie goes out of its way to kill the cuteness of it just at the right moments and show once again that while Butch is a nice guy for a criminal, he's still a criminal.

This becomes especially apperent in the finale. You'd never think it'll be the finale until it's over, but that's because this isn't a movie with flashy showpieces but rather intimate character moments, and when Butch snaps and his own repressed childhood trauma leaps forward and gets him to abuse a generally nice guy who also happens to abuse his grandchild, the resulting attempt in rectifying it isn't pretty. When Philipp breaks with him and runs, and Butch chases after him not to keep a hostage but because he wants to make it up, you realize you're in the home stretch, but there's no way this is going to end well. And of course, it isn't.

The movie subverts expectations by not showing the violence as well, as if it wanted to target the audience of Philipp's age group (it decidedly doesn't, don't get ideas). This is further reinforced by the goofy nature of the cops and some slapstick antics surrounding them, but here again, the movie has a darker undercurrent that breaks this levity whenever it might dominate. In the end, it's murder-by-cop that ends it.

In that, the movie feels topical. However, in the very cutesy and comical way the cops chase Butch, and the lengths they go to not to kill him (rather simply avoiding conflict until competent personell arrives that knows how to shoot), it also shows a White Privilege that is painfully apparent these days. Butch isn't shot to pieces because he's white in the south, and because the police in the early 1990s wasn't nearly as trigger-happy then as it is now. It's a clear artifact of its time in that regard.

The verdict: A surprisingly good movie that despite its age can still be watched today and is oddly touching.