Within hours they will learn to understand, respect, and even love each other as two people seldom do. What's perfect, however, is the match between Butch and Phillip. If there's anything 'perfect' now, it would seem to be that Phillip can hold a gun, protect his mother, and stop more violence.

When he was eight, Butch shot and killed a man who was beating his mother. Butch escapes with Phillip and Terry.īutch's first experience outside prison recalls the memory of himself as a child, a fatherless eight year old like Phillip but living with his mother in a whore house. A neighbor bursts in with a shotgun, Gladys' daughters appear in the kitchen, the phone rings, and Butch grabs Phillip up in his arms, Butch now holds the gun, and this young boy becomes not only an instant friend but also a hostage. Butch and Phillip instantly engage each other. Perhaps Phillip is the 'perfect' reminder of the moment when Butch picked up a gun to protect his mother. Now say, 'stick em up.'' 'Stick em up.' 'Perfect,' Butch says. Pick it up and bring it over to me.' As Phillip picks up the gun and slowly walks toward Butch, we hear Butch say, 'Point it at me.point it. Butch kneels down, takes his time, and talks directly and personally: 'What's your name, boy?' 'Phillip.' 'Well okay, Phillip, reach down and pick up that pistola for me. Phillip stands and rubs his cheek while we notice the gun now on the floor at his feet. Her son, Phillip, enters the kitchen, Terry sadistically backhands him across the face, and out of nowhere we see Butch's foot smash the side of Terry' head. Terry gets out to look around, finds Gladys Perry fixing a very early breakfast, and he breaks in and attacks her. Butch and Terry cruise a neighborhood looking for another escape car, a Ford this time. It's the night of the prison break and still dark. When Butch and Phillip talk, they pull the audience in, and the depth of their talk challenges every other spoken word, every gesture or action. The road conversation is the power of this film. We need to understand the father-son theme that unites Butch and Phillip to appreciate the central conversation that supports their relationship. Phillip is a kind spirit-'Caspar the friendly ghost'-but he can be dangerous too. Butch escapes from a Texas prison on Halloween, Phillip from the oppressive rules of his Jehovah's Witness mother, and with them come the released traumas and dreams of their combined childhoods. Remember that the film opens with Halloween, the night when ghosts escape. These themes form the heart and subplot of the film through the relationship between Butch, Phillip, and the 'ghost child' of Butch's past. John Lee Hancock as screenwriter and Clint Eastwood as director explore psychological currents of child abuse, of violence, and of sons and fathers (fathers missing, longed for, or brutally present). Flight and pursuit drive the film but this is not a chase film. Butch steals a Ford and travel supplies with his new young friend, eludes a manhunt led by Texas Ranger Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood), aims his stolen Ford toward Alaska, and finally dies in a grassy field in the Texas panhandle. Lowther), and the next day Butch kills Terry for hurting and threatening Phillip. They kidnap an eight year old boy, Phillip (T.J. It's 1963 and Butch (Kevin Costner) escapes from prison with his cellmate, Terry. Virtually everyone threatens this one extended conversation that Butch and Phillip risk their lives for. From most of the characters who pursue Butch and Phillip we hear clichés, talk to overpower, humiliating talk, meaningless banter, and stereotyped assumptions. The resonance of the words that pass back and forth between Butch Haynes and Phillip Perry establish a measure by which almost all other conversations in this movie fail. A PERFECT WORLD draws its emotional power from a man and a boy who find that they'll do just about anything to go on talking to each other. Clear talking and respectful listening are difficult skills for most of us to master. Originally published by The Freelance Screenwriter's FORUMĪs a psychoanalyst I see everyday how difficult it is for people to talk to each other. 1993.Ĭommentary by Donald Williams, Jungian Analyst (Boulder, Colorado)

A perfect world movie watch