Blaine: Day Four - Clint Eastwood

I am so happy right now. Why? Because Blaine did me the huge solid of making me re-watch one of my all time favorite films...Eastwood's 1993 hug of a movie...
A Perfect World

They really don't make 'em like this anymore. Which is a weird thing to say about a movie made in 1993. Oh wait, that was 25 years ago? Nevermind.
I was pretty happy to find this one on Blaine's list for a number of reasons: 1) we actually saw this in the theater together back in the day and 2) I've seen it several times since (although it's been a while). And, as seems to be the case with all of these movies I've seen before, I learn something new upon every viewing.

One thing is for sure -- I love this screenplay. It's not perfect (few are), but it's rich and layered and really has the feel of a novel. It has recurring themes throughout and a fair balance between the bad guys on the run and the good guys giving chase. Eastwood's direction and acting are exactly what you would expect -- not too flashy and just right for the story.

Set in the early 60's, Texas, the story revolves around Butch Haynes, an escaped convict who, along with his partner in crime (Pugh) end up taking an 8-year-old boy hostage. Pugh is the poster boy for an escaped convict -- a pervert with a big mouth -- a lot of bark with no bite but you still don't wanna cross him. Haynes, on the other hand, is a complex character with demons and values and whole lot in between.

We'll dig a little deeper into Costner's performance later. For now just enjoy the view.

On the other side of the law is Eastwood's Texas Ranger, Red Garnett. Red seems put out by the whole ordeal but he's a professional so he'll do what he has to do to apprehend these criminals. But Red won't be alone...

Oh, hello Mrs. Merrill. Nice to see you again. It's a shame you serve no purpose in this film other than exposition but you know what? I'll take it.
Dern plays Sally Gerber, a psychologist who knows what makes Haynes tick. She's the polar opposite of Red in that she uses a psychological profile to catch the bad guys and Red uses his intuition. And while they don't always agree they do have one thing in common:
They both hate this guy...

Bobby Lee (Bradley Whitford), FBI. He's a chain smoking, deadly serious, stone cold assassin who just wants to end this whole charade with a bullet. You'll get your chance, Bobby Lee. Now, fuck off.

It doesn't take very long for Pugh to do something stupid, leaving Butch no choice but to end him. Pugh was getting a little too "handsy" with Phillip... Oh, did I mention the star of this movie?

Meet Phillip (aka Buzz). Kids usually ruin movies like this but not this guy. His chemistry with Costner is what makes this movie work. In fact, upon this most recent viewing I had actually forgotten all about Eastwood and Dern and Whitford. That's because when all is said and done, this movie is about two men who have a lot in common -- They're both handsome devils, they both love RC cola, and neither one of them have an old man worth a damn. According to Butch, that is.

And for the record, kidnapping Phillip was never Butch's plan. Like everything else that went south, Phillip just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when Pugh decided to feed his urges. But as soon as Butch gets rid of Pugh, the tension is lifted and Phillip and Butch become friends.

Now, I could sit here and go scene by scene, beat by beat, but none of that matters. What matters is this:

Look how happy they are. Butch has a cigarette and a make-pretend son and Phillip has a costume and a make-pretend dad. Why is this important? I'll tell you why.

You see, Phillip comes from a family of Jehova's Witnesses. They do not partake in Halloween, or amusement parks, or anything really. So when Butch has to improvise his way through roadblocks and potential threats against his freedom, he maybe, sometimes, uses Phillip's naivete to his advantage. It's an interesting dilemma for Phillip. On one hand he's fully aware of right and wrong but on the other hand, when is he going to get a chance like this again?

There are so many wonderful scenes between Butch and Phillip -- from the Friendly's store fiasco (not only does Butch get cornered by local police, but Phillip ends up shoplifting a Casper costume), to the improvised (and day late) trick-or-treating as a way to get some food. They end up with some bread, onions, and mustard so Butch puts Phillip to work and has him make them some mustard sandwiches. Throughout this entire ordeal we learn more about Butch, not only as a criminal, but as a human being. His father left when he was young and when he was 8 he shot a man who was hurting his mom. That led to Juvie which led to prison which led, well, here.

As it turns out, Red is connected to Butch more than he would care to admit. You see, back when he was just an officer, he recommended to the judge that Butch be put away. At the time Red thought he was doing the right thing by Butch. His home life was a disaster and maybe some incarceration would put him on the straight and narrow. It's a guilt he's had to carry to this day. And it's written on that weathered face...

It not only ties the film together nicely, but also explains the discomfort Red has towards the psychologist. She puts the pieces together pretty quickly and forces Red to face his own past. So, maybe she's not just there for exposition after all.

In the end, as these things tend to do, Butch and Phillip find themselves at a crossroads. When they're taken in by a nice family, Butch reacts poorly to the father slapping his son around. So much so that he intends to kill the dad and maybe the whole family. It's Phillip who saves the day by doing something that, ironically, Butch had to do when he was the same age -- shoot a man who's hurting someone. Only this time that man is Butch.

Phillip ditches the pistola and makes a run for it. Butch follows him but he's bleeding out and knows he doesn't have much time. All of this while Red and his team catch up to the outlaws which gives us the final few minutes of this glorious tale.

Butch puts Phillip's mind at ease: he probably wasn't gonna kill that family. He only killed two people in his entire life -- one hurt his momma, the other hurt Phillip. 
Phillip may have shot Butch but he still loves him. And although Butch is outnumbered and doesn't have a weapon, he takes this time to show Phillip that life is short -- and to live it fully. He makes Phillip's mom "swear" that she'll take him trick-or-treating every year and that she'll take him on rollercoasters and anything else he wants to do. But Phillip simply tells Butch that it's okay. His mom is a good mom. And our trigger-happy FBI asshole gets his wish by killing Butch.

And now a moment for Costner's performance. My all-time favorite of his. He's so charming and smart that when he turns cold, he turns hard. When he loses that smile of his he nearly sucks the oxygen out of the room. It's a shame he never got to play more of these types of characters (Open Range being another great one). I like to think that it was working for Eastwood (who I can only assume is his idol) that made him step it up a notch.  All in all, this is a movie that I hope to watch every few years or so if for no other reason than to remind myself that Costner CAN be great.

Rating: 19 out of 20

Bechdel test: Fail. I think. It's close. The two ladies in the store have names ( Lucy and Paula?) but when they talk to each other they're just talking about Butch and Phillip. So close.

Top Five Costner Performances:
5) No Way Out
4) Revenge
3) Bull Durham
2) Open Range
1) A Perfect World

Next up we go to America's other poster boy...

Hey, Tom. What's going on? Oh your plane landed on the Hudson? Tell me more...

Perhaps because Blaine has seen just about every other Eastwood film, or because, more recently I made a comment about this movie being surprisingly good, we now take a look at Eastwood's well-oiled-machine...

Sully

Unless you've been living in a cave, in 2009, Captain Chesley Sullenberger had to make an emergency landing on water. And every single passenger survived.

I'm going to say it right now. This movie is near perfect. And also, you never need to watch it and maybe even, it never needed to be made. But still, this is a movie about professionals made by professionals and it's almost sickening how easy they make it look.

The script is tight and concise and rarely gives us wasted moments. From the opening scene to the last frame, this film tells us, in precise detail, the events of that fateful day and how everything actually went right. If you leave this film with one thought it will be, most likely, those people should have died that day. And that's a chilling thought.

The movie wastes zero time in opening with Captain Phillips, oops, I mean, Captain Sully taking off from LaGuardia only to encounter a flock of birds that utterly destroy his airplane. He has to make a life or death decision and the plane ends up crashing into some random building and THAT'S WHAT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED. But it didn't. Thank God. Turns out, this is Sully's daily nightmare. And it makes sense. It's not so much asking what could have gone wrong, but rather, what could he have done differently? Even after saving 155 people, he's still haunted by his decisions. But a lot of that could also be these assholes:

That's right. Apparently after Walter died, Skylar joined the NTSB along with Burt Hummel from Glee. And these two can't seem to let things go. It's not their fault that their job sucks, but here's the deal -- they are pretty confident that Sully could have gotten the plane back to LaGuardia and the insurance company is REALLY confident that he could have. So, they ran some computer simulations and discover that in every scenario the plane, does indeed, make it back to LaGuardia.

Sully disagrees and when you live through the experience with him, you disagree too. Sully calls in some favors and asks that they also include human pilots to attempt the return as well. We sit through two human simulations and guess what? They both make it back as well. Things aren't looking too good for New York's "hero".  Not to mention that the initial report from the plane indicates that the left engine may have still had some power. Sully disagrees again, stating that he "felt" both engines go.

Care to explain yourself, Captain Sully?

The room is stunned. This man whom everyone has been hailing a hero, it turns out, made a decision that put 155 lives at risk, destroyed an entire airplane, and maybe even the credibility of US Airways. But then Sully asks one simple question that turns the movie around...

"Can we get serious now?"

There's some back and forth by what, exactly, he means by that. He goes on to say that they haven't accounted for the human factor. These computers and these simulations make immediate calculations to turn back to LaGuardia after the birds hit. He goes on...

"No one warned us. No one said 'You're going to lose both engines at a lower altitude than any jet in history. But, be cool, just make a left turn for LaGuardia like you are going back to pick up the milk'. This was dual engine loss at 2800 feet followed by immediate water landing with 155 souls on board. No one has ever trained for an incident like that. No one."

And Hanks delivers this line with icy cold precision. He follows up by asking how many practice runs the pilots had to successfully return to LaGuardia. Turns out, A LOT. Like, 17. Nice try, Skylar. So after some discussion the panel finally concedes to add 35 seconds to the simulation. 35 seconds to react to duel engine failure and go through the motions of a possible crash landing. Doesn't seem like enough but Sully takes it.

They run through the simulations again, this time with 35 seconds added for "reaction time", and it's not even close. Both pilots crash the planes. He had no chance to make it back to LaGuardia or Teterboro. Needless to say this new information shuts Skylar up for a hot minute.

In the end, United Airways flight 1549 had the only person alive flying the plane who could make the calculations needed to safely land on water. It's really a phenomenal story. And again, one that you don't necessarily need to watch.

That being said, the crash scenes are truly spectacular. Arguable the best I've ever seen (and this includes Fearless and Flight). And I skipped over a bunch of stuff like the fact that Sully has several phone conversations with his wife:

Seriously. That's her entire role. Her and Tom Hanks do not share a second of screen time together. But as with the other Laura, I'll take what I can get. Linney and Dern are always a win.

Rating: 16 out of 20.

Bechdel test: Pass. Barely.

Things I never want to hear two flight attendants yell in unison: "Brace! Brace! Brace for Impact!"

It was a very pleasant day of sobriety and I have a feeling tomorrow we're gonna be in for some real turbulence....