All the Pretty Horses

All the Pretty Horses (2000)

Some passions can never be tamed.

The year is 1949. A young Texan named John Grady finds himself without a home after his mother sells the ranch where he has spent his entire life. Lured south of the border by the romance of cowboy life and the promise of a fresh start, Cole and his pal embark on an adventure that will test their resilience, define their maturity, and change their lives forever.

Date of release
2000-12-11
TMDB
5.7 / 10 (250)
Runtime
1h 57m
Genres
Drama, Romance, Western
Director
Billy Bob Thornton

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Based on: All the Pretty Horses
  • Filmed in: Mexico and New Mexico

All the Pretty Horses is a 2000 American Western film produced and directed by Billy Bob Thornton, based on 1992 novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy. Starring Matt Damon, Henry Thomas, Lucas Black, Penélope Cruz, Rubén Blades, Robert Patrick, Bruce Dern, and Sam Shepard. It was released on December 25, 2000, by Miramax Films and Columbia Pictures in other territories to mostly negative reviews. It grossed $18.1 million worldwide on a $57 million budget, making it a box office bomb.

Production

All the Pretty Horses was filmed in New Mexico and Texas. The production was a partnership between Columbia Pictures and Miramax Films, with Columbia initially handling the film's domestic release and Miramax Films overseeing international distribution. The studios switched distribution roles reportedly, due to Billy Bob Thornton's refusal to cut the film, which was said to have a total runtime of three hours and 40 minutes.

In his 2004 book Down and Dirty Pictures, Peter Biskind detailed the troubled post-production process of the film. Matt Damon publicly criticized Weinstein's decision to edit the film, and is quoted by Biskind as saying: "It was like you bake a soufflé and somebody wants you to make it half the size, and you just chop the thing in half and try to mold it and make it look like that was how you made it to begin with.

In a 2012 interview with Playboy, Damon reiterated his displeasure with the changes, saying: "Everybody who worked on All the Pretty Horses took so much time and cared so much. As you know, the Cormac McCarthy book is set in 1949 and is about a guy trying to hold on to his old way of life. The electric guitar became popular in 1949, and the composer Daniel Lanois got an old 1949 guitar and wrote this spare, haunting score.

In 2008, Thornton confirmed his possession of the director's cut on VHS and said it is "two hours and 42 minutes" in length, not over three hours as has been reported. He said he has no intentions of releasing it to the public, despite offers from Miramax Films to release his cut on DVD with Lanois's original score, out of respect for Lanois who owns the rights to the score.

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