A new Western classic, enough to make Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid seem like a sappy prequel. Old Butch (Sam Shepard), now called Blackthorn, hides out in deep Bolivia raising horses and loving a village woman (but still able to ride hard and shoot fast) when a Spanish mining engineer (Eduardo Noriega) leads him into harm’s way. The stuff about a pursuing consul (Stephen Rea) is hazy. But the flashbacks are restrained, the Andean landscapes are brilliantly shot by Juan Ruiz Anchía, and Mateo Gil’s genre-hip direction of a strong script by Miguel Barros lets Shepard achieve hard, smart, career-topping form. This rugged satisfaction is close to Budd Boetticher’s Westerns about tested male rivalry and friendship. (2011) — David Elliott
This movie is not currently in theaters.