Leaving their childhoods behind them in San Angelo, Texas, they travel towards the border and a time of their lives that will scar them forever. A world without horses to John Cole Grady is unimaginable, which is why, when his mother tells him that their ranch is being closed, he decides to set out on horseback with is friend Lacey Rawlins, to find work in Mexico. Our protagonist is a sixteen year old of few words, who spends most of his time among the horses, whispering to them, calming them and of course riding them. It is a book about love and friendship and although not quiet as desperate or bleak as The Road, it sure has its moments. If you have ever read a book by Cormac McCarthy, then you will understand that his writing is unique and often very depressing.Īll the Pretty Horses is no exception. I read The Road a few months ago and so I knew that I had to prepare myself when sitting down to begin All the Pretty Horses.

As, naturally, do a great deal of attractive horses.This isn’t the first book that I’ve read by McCarthy. In fact, doom, sadness and no small amount of death will trace his painful trajectory into adulthood. Cole falls for the smouldering daughter (a limp Cruz) of his ranchero boss (Rubén Blades), stirring up all sorts of bother - enough to land him in possibly the least authentic Mexican prison in movie history - which leads him to seek solace from a judge (Bruce Dern, in a role severely reduced from the book). In a spirited supporting role, Lucas Black is an irresponsible urchin whose impulsive actions ultimately effect all their lives - one of the film's themes is man's slavery to the cruel vagaries of fate. Throughout their odyssey - directed in a graceful road movie arc of journey and discovery - a spread of characters stumble into a story with variable influence. It is left to a terrific Henry Thomas to truly bring life to Ted Tally's drawly, sing-song dialogue, as a young man driven by a moralism way beyond his years. Damon makes for a noble and handsome protagonist, but he's too rigid and lugubrious to communicate Cole's inner torment and experience. Certainly he's drummed up an austere beauty - less golden sunsets than muddy realism - backed by a surging score from Marty Stuart that smacks of the Old West without resorting to cliché. The problem may stem from Thornton's demands for a three and a half hour cut he was denied such indulgence, and there is a sense of crucial elements missing from the ebb and flow of the story. What does is a lavish, sporadically poignant rites-of-passage flick, which paradoxically feels slow while never giving the plot room to manoeuvre. And while Billy Bob Thornton's attractive, sombre Western doesn't exactly pull up lame, the award-winning book's poetic grandeur never makes it up there on the screen. Famed novels do not always make the trip to celluloid dignity intact.

John grady all the pretty horses