Convicts
by Peter Masterson
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Carlin Glynn, James Earl Jones, Lukas Haas, Robert Duvall, Starletta DuPoisDirector: Peter Masterson
Brand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-04-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Convicts
Movie Review: It's Horton Foote Quality, Which Some Viewers "Miss"
Summary: 4 Stars
I'm giving it four stars only because it's not as good as some of his masterpieces like TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL, or his adaptations of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD and OF MICE & MEN. But it's still a great film.
When you read the reviews, take into account the reviewers. The ones who dismiss it as boring will be bored by anything Horton Foote writes. His work is too subtle to be popular, so if you want a shoot-em-up Western like THE LONG RIDERS or Hollywood fare like SILVERADO, you won't get that here. This is a play, adapted beautifully for screen, filled with nuances and surprises that are for viewers who notice, or care to notice, such moments in life. Foote attracts great actors for his plays because he gives them the chance to do this kind of work that will hold up for generations and won't be tied to trends or formulas.
CONVICTS is in the same category as TOMORROW, 1918, ON VALENTINE'S DAY, COURTSHIP, LILY DALE, TENDER MERCIES, HABITATION OF DRAGONS, OLD MAN... wonderful screenplays that rely on an attentive and sensitive audience. I've seen every movie he's written, over and over, love them all, and wish the world could enjoy them like I do... but most people fall asleep.
Summary of Convicts
Oscar?(r) winner* Robert Duvall "is terrific" (The New York Times) in this "vividly realized" (Variety) drama co-starring Lucas Haas (Witness) and James Earl Jones (Field of Dreams). "Gracefully adapted to the screen" (Los Angeles Times) by Horton Foote (Of Mice and Men) and ably directed by Peter Masterson (Blood Red), this riveting tale of an unlikely bond is "a tasty feast" (LA Weekly)! In rural Texas 1902, 13-year-old Horace (Haas) toils on a run-down plantation to buy a tombstone for the father he lost a year earlier. Soll (Duvall), the crusty old Confederate who owns the plantation, has yet to pay the boy a pennyof the money he owes him. But on Christmas Eve, as Soll becomes obsessed with his own mortality, hemakes a grand promise forcing Horace to confront his fear of death and the harsh truths of a decadent society. *1983: Actor, Tender MerciesThe works of Texas-born writer Horton Foote are always dealing with transition and transformation, caused by the intermingling of time and experience, and Convicts is a prime example of Foote's thematic consistency. It's also one of several fruitful collaborations between Foote and actor Robert Duvall, whose career has connected with Foote's at pivotal moments since Duvall's screen debut in the Foote-scripted classic To Kill a Mockingbird. And while Convicts may lack the emotional power of 1971's Tomorrow or the dramatic delicacy of 1983's Tender Mercies, it adds resonance to their mutual body of work. Here, in a story set in coastal Texas in 1902, Duvall plays an eccentric, dying sugar-plantation boss who takes a young boy (Lukas Haas) under his wing to teach him a few of life's harsher lessons.
His frontiers long since conquered, with slaves of the past now replaced by local convict laborers, the boss is a stubborn, violent, hardened relic of a bygone era, and Duvall's performance breathes feisty life into a man who's ready for death (well, almost), but not without firing a few more rounds from his trusty Colt .45. It's a bit theatrical (and veteran stage director Peter Masterson--Mary Stuart's father--approaches Foote's play adaptation with dry visual style), but Convicts is bathed in the candlelight of a passing age, and its tone is suitably wise and keenly observant. Barely released in theaters, this film is ripe for rediscovery. --Jeff Shannon
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