Blackthorn 2011

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Each frame is a crystalline jaw-dropper that places the smallish actions of men within a vast canvas of lush jungle, lunar salt flats, Andean snow, and desert sand. The result is a pretty good movie that almost looks better than it needs to. Read more

Rachel Saltz, New York Times: The filmmakers rely on Mr. Shepard to lend the character some of his mythic weight, but it would take an actor with greater range to make Butch more than a cardboard outlaw-saint. Read more

Eric Hynes, Time Out: Gil's alternative history gets one thing bang-on right: If Butch were to live into his senior days, he'd absolutely have to be played by Shepard. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: The filmmakers didn't have a lot of options. In some ways the new picture feels like a boxed-in replay. Read more

Tasha Robinson, AV Club: It never lacks for the arid, vista-prone beauty of a classic Western, or for a sense of lived-in wear and tear that remains convincing even though it's more stylized than realistic. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: It ain't Paul Newman and Robert Redford, but it ain't bad. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Mateo Gil's sturdy Western makes a nicely melancholy flipside to George Roy Hill's more rambunctious classic. Read more

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: [Sam Shepard] delivers a beautifully understated, world-weary turn that largely makes up for the slow-paced film's longueurs, and which in a better film could be described as iconic. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: If nothing else, the film reminds just how arresting an actor Shepard can be. Like Blackthorn, he's only gotten better with age. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: Although Shepard is perfectly cast as a world-weary outlaw reluctantly drawn into one more adventure, the movie doesn't quite justify the resuscitation of classic film characters for another outing. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: This story, parboiled out of one of the most memorable Westerns, is supported all the way by Gil's directing. Read more

Ian Buckwalter, NPR: Shepard sells it with a depth and a conflicted sense of remorse that pulls this folk hero down to earth. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: Director Mateo Gill's autumnal movie has elements of other late-era Westerns in its blood, but it isn't easily pigeonholed. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: In his best performance since "The Right Stuff'' turned him into a reluctant movie star, Shepard makes "Blackthorn'' worth seeing. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Shepard's performance is one to remember. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Butch has grown old? And homesick? And gets waylaid, and is back in action again? Was this trip necessary? Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A different kind of Western - somber, reflective and set in the elevated plains and salt flats of Bolivia. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Spanish director Mateo Gil reappraises the last desperado's legend in a funny, violent examination of America and American cowboy films. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: In place of a rousing adventure, "Blackthorn" is a haunting ode. Read more

Guy Lodge, Time Out: Shepard's crusty charisma gives this dignified genre effort its pulse: a growl-off between his Butch and Jeff Bridges's Rooster Cogburn is surely the next chapter. Read more

Ronnie Scheib, Variety: Shepard delivers in spades, his character weary but just crackpot enough to survive. Read more

Mark Holcomb, Village Voice: This lightness finally overshadows the story's elegiac potential and leaves the toll of Cassidy's exile largely untapped, and even Shepard's magnetism can't lift Blackthorn above the status of cinematic lark. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: "Blackthorn" feels less like a proper sequel to "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," which it purports to be, than a coattail rider. Read more