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TV show review: CONTINUUM season 4
PHOTOGRAPHY

BLACKTHORN
DVD Review by David Blackwell'

DETAILS:  102 minutes, ten deleted scenes, featurettes, short films, trailer
VIDEO:  2.35:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)
AUDIO:  English 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles:  Spanish, select English subs, English close captioning

STUDIO:  Magnolia Home entertainment/ Magnolia Pictures/ Arcadia Motion Pictures/ Nix Films/ Eter Pictures/ Manto Films/ Six Sales/ Noodles/ Canal+
RELEASE DATE:  12-20-2011

James Blackthorn (Sam Elliot) has been leading a quiet life in Bolivia for almost the last 20 years.  He is actually Butch Cassidy whom everyone believes was killed in 1908.   BLACKTHORN picks up in 1927 as Blackthorn/ Cassidy is about to make a trip home to the USA for good to get to know his      nephew (the son of Etta Place who has just died).    He is on his way to make long journey from the secluded Bolivian village and comes across a young ambitious Spanish criminal who has stolen 100,000.   He sets out on one last adventure with people giving chase (because they want the money that the criminal has stolen).

 

BLACKTHORN is a classic Western.   It shows off the landscape of Bolivia in a way that it make you pay attention not just to the characters, but you also notice this new landscape you usually don't see in Westerns (because most Western viewers see many of the same Southwest United States landscapes over the years).   The film balances out a fictional tale of what if Butch Cassidy survived and the events of his last travels with the Sundance Kid and Etta Place. In many ways, it is the classic Western journey of one last adventure full of twists, shoot outs, chases, and romance.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

10 deleted scenes (about 20 minutes in total) with material cut for pacing reasons.

 

MAKING OF BLACKTHORN (which is in Spanish with English subtitles) covers the making and shooting the film in Bolivia where BLACKTHORN takes place.

HDNet:  A LOOK AT BLACKTHORN is a promotional featurette on the film.

 

Also included on the disc is the theatrical trailer and short films by the director of Blackthorn: BREAKING AND ENTERING (which bored me) and SAY ME (which is charming).

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:   BLACKTHORN is in the classic Western mold showing a landscape usually not seen in a Western.    I wish they made more Westerns like this one.

 

this DVD review is (c)12-20-2011 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com