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A PERFECT WORLD
Directed by Clint Eastwood; with Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura
Dern, T.J. Lowther, Keith Szarabajka, Leo Burmester, Paul Hewitt, and
Bradley Whitford
1993
exas
is a logical locale for chase movies because it offers so much state
to chase through. A Perfect World has all the familiar elements
of the genre: miles of roads, pit stops, and a showdown at the catch,
but in this one, the pairing up of a criminal and a kid makes for a
refreshing twist. Costner plays Butch Haynes, a smart, relatively good-natured
escaped convict forced to take an eight-year-old boy hostage. Red Garnett
(Eastwood) is the Texas Ranger on their tail, a hard-working lawman
with a cross to bear. No doubt it's the relationship between Haynes
and the boy that makes up the meat of the movie, but that could take
place anywhere. What's Texcentric about the film is its study in law-enforcement,
and the unique situation the Texas Rangers find themselves in when solving
a crime. Nowhere else is there an agency like the DPS's mythic old-school
rangers, separate from the county sheriff's department and local police
force. The struggle between Garnett, local authorities, the FBI, and
the female criminal psychologist (played by Dern) assigned to the case
by the governor also heralds a time of change for Texas and the nation
itself. Set in the pre-assassination 1960s, A Perfect World portends
the imperfect one that is just around the corner, without innocence
and hindered by bureaucracy. In A Perfect World, the perfect
metaphor is an Airstream trailer presented to Garnett for travel, a
shiny beacon of the future that proves too cumbersome for an old-fashioned
Texas manhunt.
exas
is a logical locale for chase movies because it offers so much state
to chase through. A Perfect World has all the familiar elements
of the genre: miles of roads, pit stops, and a showdown at the catch,
but in this one, the pairing up of a criminal and a kid makes for a
refreshing twist. Costner plays Butch Haynes, a smart, relatively good-natured
escaped convict forced to take an eight-year-old boy hostage. Red Garnett
(Eastwood) is the Texas Ranger on their tail, a hard-working lawman
with a cross to bear. No doubt it's the relationship between Haynes
and the boy that makes up the meat of the movie, but that could take
place anywhere. What's Texcentric about the film is its study in law-enforcement,
and the unique situation the Texas Rangers find themselves in when solving
a crime. Nowhere else is there an agency like the DPS's mythic old-school
rangers, separate from the county sheriff's department and local police
force. The struggle between Garnett, local authorities, the FBI, and
the female criminal psychologist (played by Dern) assigned to the case
by the governor also heralds a time of change for Texas and the nation
itself. Set in the pre-assassination 1960s, A Perfect World portends
the imperfect one that is just around the corner, without innocence
and hindered by bureaucracy. In A Perfect World, the perfect
metaphor is an Airstream trailer presented to Garnett for travel, a
shiny beacon of the future that proves too cumbersome for an old-fashioned
Texas manhunt. 
