A Perfect World [Blu-Ray]

As the deceptively literal title suggests, each individual has their own idea of a "perfect world" and the related sense of morality and social conduct associated with it. This is why people get offended over arbitrary crap like etiquette and ideological views (or movie reviews), drawing on our limited consciousness and inability to process motivators and signifiers external to our own. Of course, in such there comes the possibility of learning the humbling lesson of implicit flaws, wherein we realize our absolutes aren't so absolute after all. This is the crossroads reached by escaped convict Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) and the man hunting him down, Chief Red Garnett (Eastwood), in A Perfect World, as both men confront their sanctimonious sensibilities and realize their potential for error and poor judgment. Most of the film follows Butch and the fatherless, kidnapped boy he takes hostage early on, detailing their growing bond while on the road through a fractured and inherently insincere world. Initially, Butch's fatherly compassion for the child and tendency to punish only those that abuse their children or portray a contrary identity plays as heroic, like an ersatz cowboy, but Eastwood's surprisingly timeless analysis of social disarray isn't interested in pointing fingers in only one direction. Just as Garnett learns that his assumptions of criminal intent and resultant punishment may have exacerbated and ultimately decimated those teetering on the edge, we learn that Butch's tendency to enforce his sense of rightness on those who may be well-intentioned but prone to error actually proves hypocritical in the grander scheme of things, as reflected through the young boy looking up to him as the absolute he pretends to be. The bigger message here is that of good intentions gone wrong and how the world we live in can never be "perfect" as a result. It's an astute observation and one that can easily be lost on most, which is what makes this thoughtful testament to human folly a work of significance that continues to stand the test of time. Unfortunately, no supplements come with the Blu-Ray, since this was a film pre-dating the era of electronic media and blogger dilettantes.