A Perfect World

1993 Directed by Clint Eastwood

A kidnapped boy strikes up a friendship with his captor: an escaped convict on the run from the law, headed by an honorable U.S. Marshal.

Kevin Costner Clint Eastwood Laura Dern T.J. Lowther Bradley Whitford Keith Szarabajka Leo Burmester Paul Hewitt Ray McKinnon Jennifer Griffin Leslie Flowers Belinda Flowers Darryl Cox Jay Whiteaker Taylor Suzanna McBride Christopher Reagan Ammons Mark Voges Vernon Grote James Jeter Ed Geldart Bruce McGill Nik Hagler Gary Moody Mary Alice Wayne Dehart Kevin Woods Linda Hart Connie Cooper John Hussey

Alternative Titles

Perfect World, Un mondo perfetto, Tökéletes világ, 强盗保镖, 퍼펙트월드, Un mundo perfecto, Perfect World, A

drama crime thriller

138 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by josh lewis ★★★★★

no country for broken boys
Review by Gabriel Gundacker 1

Asked my friend Steve if I could borrow his HBO Max to watch a movie with my parents again. He said only if I watched this Clint Eastwood movie from 1993. So we did that, but now we have his log in and can watch whatever we please tomorrow! Fair trade.
Review by Willow Maclay ★★★★½ 5

"In Eastwood's filmography knowing how to use a gun and the consequences of that knowledge are addressed in the hands of fathers and their sons, whether they be surrogate or natural born. The most famous example of this is in Unforgiven (1992) where William Munny (Clint Eastwood) consoles “the Schofield Kid” (Jaimz Woolvett) after he kills a man for the first time. The Kid is struggling to grasp what he has just done. He's in disbelief, chugging whiskey and holding back tears before Munny utters a few words on killing that resonate beyond Unforgiven and are applicable to many of Eastwood's films. “It's a hell of a thing, killing a man. You take away all he's got...and all he's ever…
Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★★

A rocket ride through the world of men and all tje laws, written or otherwise, that regulate it. Every bit with Costner and the kid is a marvel. The stuff inside the trailer can be more staid despite some wonderful back and forth between Eastwood and Dern, but the intercut between lawless and order is essential to what the movie is doing and it moves very strong from one to the other. Good to know this still makes me cry hard as it has been a few years. My pick for greatest movie made in Hollywood after the studio system collapsed.
Review by Joe ★★★★★

After tearing down the western in Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood decided to do some mythmaking of his own, about an outlaw instead of a lawman. His mastery of relaxed pacing makes this a pleasure to watch, but not without darkness - the late sequence with Costner's Butch Haynes coming harrowingly close to gunning down a family In-Cold-Blood-style is a great illustration of how heroes sometimes (maybe inevitably) end up failing us.
But my favorite part of the movie is T.J. Lowther as Butch's 8-year-old "hostage" Phillip. Movie history is full of precocious, hyperverbal youngsters who talk like grownups and are able to fully articulate all of their complex emotions in a way that adults aren't even able to in the real…
Review by Michael501 📺 ★★★★½ 1

Clint Eastwood A Retrospective - Week 39
Butch (Kevin Costner), a escaped state prisoner from a Texas jail, kidnaps Philip (T.J. Lowther), a young, impressionable boy. As they embark on a trip across the American Southwest together, a surprising bond grows between the convict and his captive, even as law enforcement forces slowly catch up with them. An honorable Texas Ranger, Red Garnett (Clint Eastwood), understands Butch has a heart of gold, but must pursue him anyway out of duty to the law and a desire to protect the child.
Hands down I think this is my favourite Eastwood movie, I liked it originally when it first came out, but since then it’s kinda been forgotten about a little bit,…
Review by eddie ★★★★★

hell no, phillip. good size for a boy your age
most of the runtime consists of intercutting costner teaching a jehova's witness youth about outlaw moralism with clint the texas ranger fighting off the governer's criminologist (laura dern) and the fbi's sharpshooter (bradley whitford), who were assigned to assist his highway manhunt, which is... perfect. eastwood is a master of balancing the melodramatic and the procedural, which makes the clash of the two at the climax that much more painful. whitford looking down the scope, followed by a series of reaction shots that seem to punctuate the dramatic thread of each character. buzz asks butch "are you bad?", and this ironic question has as much weight as henry fonda's "by jing, that's all there is to it. right and wrong" in young mr. lincoln. myth-making in the gray area.
Review by Monday Seagull 4

It’s easy to forget stuff.
Like what’s 7 multiplied by 9? Or how do you say octopus in French? Or what was the B-Side of I Wanna Be Your Man?*
You can even forget how good Kevin Costner is. It can slip your mind. A Perfect World is a really good reminder. The scenes with him and the kid got that Paper Moon type magic.
An enjoyable rewatch.

*63, Poulpe, Stoned
Review by Pedro Lovallo ★★★★½

Um dos grandes filmes já feitos sobre pais e filhos e as diversas maneiras como esse tipo de relação se manifesta. Além disso, é um grande êxito porque entende que humanizar personagens vai além de forjar carisma ou encontrar formas de justificar seus erros, mas sim de retratá-los tanto em suas virtudes quanto em seus defeitos, fugindo de qualquer dicotomia fajuta de bem x mal: são personagens que erram, acertam e até erram para corrigir/evitar erros dos outros. E, ironicamente, os únicos coadjuvantes unidimensionais acabam sendo punidos de alguma forma.
Review by Ashton Kinley ★★★½

If I’m a young boy whose family is a part of Jehovah’s Witnesses and I get kidnapped and taken on a road trip by Kevin Costner DO NOT arrest him, in fact DO NOT come find me I don’t want to go back home.
Review by Glenn Heath Jr. ★★★★★

Men trying to be fathers, boys trying to be sons. What a wonderful film.
Review by Ian Curran ★★★★

An Eastwood directed Costner movie? How have I not seen this before?!
What a strange movie. It’s way too long and has so much unnecessary fat in terms of pointless characters and plot lines.
Yet, I found myself really liking it. Despite being deeply confused about how to portray parenthood, masculinity and what it means to be a good person, this movie has a feel good thread through out. It’s a fantastic showcase for Costner’s charisma. Looks great too!🙌

Recent reviews

Review by Carla ★★★★★

As perfect as the first time I watched it.
Sometimes I don't want to rewatch my favorite movies because I'm afraid I may not like them as much as I think I do.
Well, it's never happened with this one. I don't even know how many times I've seen it.
The story of a kidnapped boy and his kidnapper becoming friends while trying to escape from the police.
Kevin Costner and T.J. Lowther are amazing in this movie. Clint Eastwood and Laura Dern add two great characters.
This is my all-time favorite movie.
I think that says it all.
Review by maggie ★★★★

this movie peeled me like a goddamn orange
Review by Ashton Kinley ★★★½

If I’m a young boy whose family is a part of Jehovah’s Witnesses and I get kidnapped and taken on a road trip by Kevin Costner DO NOT arrest him, in fact DO NOT come find me I don’t want to go back home.
Review by ericdilena

Blu-ray Warner
Review by gaiacillo ★★★½

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

the only reason i am not drowning in my own tears is because i jumped straight into denial. like, the last fifteen minutes? they don't exist man, what are you taking about?
Review by Israel Matos ★★★★½

Como Clint Eastwood filma bem. PQP!
Tem, no mínimo, umas três cenas antológicas e Kevin Costner brilha.
Review by Sahan ★★★★

A nice and emotional road movie. Kevin Costner did a very good performance. Another good work of the legendary Clint Eastwood.
Review by Tim Sanders ★★★★★

Ass an actor, Clint Eastwood has had a pretty spotty record, and just like anyone else who been in the business as long as he has, there are a number of regrettable films on his resume. He has been much chooosier as a director, and while there have been misfires there s well, the projects he aligns himself with are diverse nd impressive bunch.
"A Perfect World" is one of the great1 ones, a gorgeous and sensitive pictures that has a lot to say all while working at a leisurely, laid-back paced making perfect use of Eastwood's trademark humor in its the right amounts. The opening scenes are familiar, ;ending you to believe that this is going to be just…
Review by Daniel Fonseca ★★★★

Na minha experiência senti durante todo o tempo de tela a expressão de um descontentamento geral, que as vezes era moderado e as vezes era radical, com todos os valores parentais não só contemporâneos como num geral. A via fácil de se pensar no longa é pela interação dos dois protagonistas com o que é burocrático e, por extensão, com o que é material, e o ato final reforça ainda mais isso. Mesmo quando se tenta resolver um conflito já resolvido e, portanto, inexistente, a soma dos valores que mantém a sociedade em coesão pesam para mais uma resolução desnecessária e, no caso dessa trama, trágica.
Review by Unreal Review ★★★★½

This was great, it was very good movie from Eastwood.
Review by Derek Operle ★★★★½

“Yeah, I love her ... I kissed her butt, didn't I?”
Review by John_John ★★★★

No better or worse than your average Clint, which is to say that it’s very very good.