Blackthorn
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: October 7, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
11
Mixed:
7
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsOct 21, 2011
In place of a rousing adventure, Blackthorn is a haunting ode. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 13, 2011
Blackthorn imagines a scenario for Butch's later years and gives us a different kind of Western - somber, reflective and set in the elevated plains and salt flats of Bolivia. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 13, 2011
Watching Shepard work his pony down a snaking mountain pass, playing a mandolin and singing the blues, or seeing him sitting, stone-still, beneath a railroad water tank, waiting for something to happen - these are scenes to be cherished, from an actor who has found the soul of the character he's playing. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 13, 2011
Blackthorn is less interested in realism than in elegy, and in bringing this American folk hero in line with the Latin American places and people with whom he ended his days. Given a choice between the legend and the facts, Gil and Barros make up a new legend - and then gild it with light. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickOct 7, 2011
With Paul Newman gone, you couldn't ask for a better senior-citizen representation of Butch Cassidy than Shepard. In his best performance since "The Right Stuff'' turned him into a reluctant movie star, Shepard makes Blackthorn worth seeing. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonOct 5, 2011
Blackthorn could use more depth and less of a sense of weary inevitability, but it never lacks for the arid, vista-prone beauty of a classic Western, or for a sense of lived-in wear and tear that remains convincing even though it's more stylized than realistic. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyOct 7, 2011
There is that allure of the Old West that is hard to resist, and there's plenty of grist in the story worth milling and mulling. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMark HolcombOct 4, 2011
This modest oater should tickle western fans. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckOct 2, 2011
The actor (Shepard) delivers a beautifully understated, world-weary turn that largely makes up for the slow-paced film's longueurs, and which in a better film could be described as iconic. Read full review
70
VarietyRonnie ScheibOct 2, 2011
Shepard delivers in spades, his character weary but just crackpot enough to survive. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovOct 19, 2011
The film has a Leone eye (courtesy of cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía) coupled with a drowsy, doomy pace which, emboldened by the salt-licked Bolivian settings and the finely calibrated acting from all, makes for a phantasmagoric trip down a strangely different memory lane. Read full review
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