All the Pretty Horses (2000)

Two Texas cowboys head to Mexico in search of work, but soon find themselves in trouble with the law after one of them falls in love with a wealthy rancher's daughter

Director:

Billy Bob Thornton

Writers:

Cormac McCarthy (novel), Ted Tally (screenplay)

Stars:

Matt Damon, Henry Thomas, Penélope Cruz

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Matt Damon	...	John Grady Cole
Henry Thomas	...	Lacey Rawlins
Penélope Cruz	...	Alejandra
J.D. Young	...	Grandfather
Laura Poe	...	Mother
Sam Shepard	...	J.C. Franklin
Robert Patrick	...	Cole
Lucas Black	...	Jimmy Blevins
Yvette Diaz	...	Girl
Imelda Colindres	...	Girl's Mom
Augustin Solis	...	Manuel (as Agustin Solis)
Rubén Blades	...	Don Hector de la Rocha
Elizabeth Ibarra	...	Maria
Miriam Colon	...	Doña Alfonsa (as Miriam Colón)
Lonnie Rodriguez	...	Esteban

Storyline

A young Texan drifter named John Grady Cole who seeks a better life in Mexico, but when he crosses the border, all he finds is adventure and hardships.

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Plot Keywords:

mexico | cowboy | texas | 1940s | stabbed with knife | 

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Taglines:

Some passions can never be tamed.

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Genres:

Drama | Romance | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence and some sexuality

Details

Official Sites:

Miramax Films

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

25 December 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

De si jolis chevaux

Filming Locations:

Abiquiu, New Mexico, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$57,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£41,644 (UK) (25 May 2001)

Gross:

ESP 108,589,809 (Spain) (29 June 2001)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation, Miramax Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

116 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although Robert Patrick plays Matt Damon's father, he is only 12 years older than his 'son'.

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Goofs

When getting drinks at the first cantina they come to in Mexico, Blevins takes a sip of his drink from a glass. A few seconds later the girl is filling a glass and hands it to Blevins. He says appreciate it and starts drink his drink from the glass.

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Quotes

John Grady Cole: What the hell are you doing?
Jimmy: Just sittin' here.
John Grady Cole: If this rain hits hard, there's gonna be a river come down through here like a train. You thought about that?
Jimmy: You ain't never been struck by lightning. You don't know what it's like.
John Grady Cole: You're gonna get drowned sittin' there.
Jimmy: Why that's all right, I ain't never been drowned before.
John Grady Cole: Well...I say no more.

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Crazy Credits

In the opening credits, the Columbia Pictures emblem is not the 2000 one. Instead, it is the circa 1949 version with the woman holding the torch. This is what would have been used at the time the story is set.

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Connections

Referenced in Gossip Girl: All the Pretty Sources (2011)

User Reviews

Unreleased Potential

Cormac McCarthy's novel, All The Pretty Horses, the first part of his breath-taking Border Trilogy, is one of the most perfect source materials ever written. Add to this the impressive line-up of talent (Ted Tally adapting, Thornton directing, Matt Damon, back when he was a hot property the first time around, starring) assembled for the film version and it's fair to say my expectations were raised sky high. When the film came out it was buried by the distributor. I managed to catch it in the one week it played at a single cinema in Edinburgh and I would be lying if I didn't admit that the whole experience was a crushing disappointment. It wasn't that the film makers had ballsed the whole thing up, no it was much more frustrating than that. You could tell that somewhere in that film there was a masterpiece straining to get out. Individual sequences impressed but the whole thing moved at such a frenzied pace that the main characters' journey, a true rite of passage in the novel, had become damagingly truncated. The result was underwhelming but at the same time as been annoyed at the film I could tell it wasn't the film makers' fault. It was all too apparent that this was a great film that had had it's guts, it's heart, it's very essence, chopped out of it by a greedy distributor trying to market the film as some kind of Titanic / Young Guns cross over. Guess what, this movie was never going to appeal to the teeny boppers. If only the studio could have realized that and been true to the property they acquired in the first place. My suspicions were confirmed recently when I read an article wherein Matt Damon, a fine actor despite the criticism, claimed that Billy Bob Thornton's integral cut of the movie is the best he's ever been involved in. I don't know about you but that makes me want to see it. Apparently the studio are willing to release this extended cut on DVD (all revenue streams reach the ocean eventually) but Thornton won't settle for anything less than a full cinematic re-release. I can't say I blame him, I get the impression his film deserves at least that much. So for now I can't recommend this film, check out the novel instead and then the rest of Cormac McCarthy's back catalogue. But let's hope that in the not too distant future this film finally gets the treatment I suspect it deserves.