Almost 15 years after first seeing this movie, an image or two in here still haunts me to this day, which is why I gave up ever watching this again after my second look on VHS 6-8 years ago. This is a powerful film, too powerful for me.
What haunts me are the terrible expressions of fear on the face of the young boy who co-stars in this movie. The kid, "Phillip (Buzz) Perry" is memorably played by T.J. Lowther, an actor whose name I haven't seen since this movie. I guess he's mainly done TV. Those disturbing images of the horror on this kid's face as he witnesses tragic things are still too indelibly printed in my memory.
Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern make up an impressive trio of adult actors who star in this story, which certainly is different from most "action" films. It isn't just scenes involving Lowther; there are other unpleasant episodes such as a different kid getting beaten by his father and the "hero" (Costner, playing really an anti-hero), dying in the end as "Buzz" looks on, are not always easy view.
Along the way, we do get some humor and some very endearing moments. The politics is decidedly feminist with Dern's cop role, but I am using to seeing left- wing slants in movies and I like both Dern and her dad Bruce in most films. Eastwood almost always plays someone interesting, so there is a lot to like here, too, if you can put up with some nasty things.
What haunts me are the terrible expressions of fear on the face of the young boy who co-stars in this movie. The kid, "Phillip (Buzz) Perry" is memorably played by T.J. Lowther, an actor whose name I haven't seen since this movie. I guess he's mainly done TV. Those disturbing images of the horror on this kid's face as he witnesses tragic things are still too indelibly printed in my memory.
Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Laura Dern make up an impressive trio of adult actors who star in this story, which certainly is different from most "action" films. It isn't just scenes involving Lowther; there are other unpleasant episodes such as a different kid getting beaten by his father and the "hero" (Costner, playing really an anti-hero), dying in the end as "Buzz" looks on, are not always easy view.
Along the way, we do get some humor and some very endearing moments. The politics is decidedly feminist with Dern's cop role, but I am using to seeing left- wing slants in movies and I like both Dern and her dad Bruce in most films. Eastwood almost always plays someone interesting, so there is a lot to like here, too, if you can put up with some nasty things.