Leaving Bolivia and heading back to the U.S., the outlaw formerly known as Butch Cassidy (Sam Shepard) has a final adventure, an adventure that aligns him with a young robber and makes the duo a target for gangs and lawmen alike.
A Western in possession of a social conscience, but without lapsing into preaching or patronising, this is an unassuming film in some ways, but ultimately it's self-assured, elegiac and sometimes strikingly beautiful.
Shepard's crusty charisma gives this dignified genre effort its pulse: a growl-off between his Butch and Jeff Bridges's Rooster Cogburn is surely the next chapter.
Sam Shepard delivers a terrific, dry performance as the older Butch Cassidy, his stoic view of life honed by years of reflection and self realisation. It's a well written screenplay and director Mateo Gil makes the most of it
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
October 21, 2011
In place of a rousing adventure, "Blackthorn" is a haunting ode.
Although Shepard is perfectly cast as a world-weary outlaw reluctantly drawn into one more adventure, the movie doesn't quite justify the resuscitation of classic film characters for another outing.
