blackthorn movie review rotten tomatoes

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, raindrops still falling on butch's head.

Now streaming on:

There is a list of people whose deaths remain "unresolved." Jimmy Hoffa. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Judge Crater. Amelia Earhart. B. Traven. They all must be dead by now anyway, but we have a need for closure. Such cases also provide an excellent inspiration for movies.

The test of these movies is simple enough: If they were about fictional people, would they be worth seeing? Sometimes the answer is yes, as in several tales about the alleged later life of Sherlock Holmes. I know, I know, he was never alive in the first place, but give me a break here. In the case of Butch and the Kid, how many people had even heard of them before the 1969 movie? In it there was the possibility that they escaped to Bolivia, and that's where "Blackthorn" joins Butch in old age, circa 1928.

Played by Sam Shepard , who may be the most photogenic of modern playwrights, he inhabits an isolated horse ranch in a severe landscape and shares the company of the comely Yana ( Magaly Solier ). But memories of past glory fill him with thoughts about a return to America, where a son may live, who would be his child with Etta Place — or with the Kid, if you follow me.

He cashes in all his money and sets off across the Bolivian vastness on horseback, where he's waylaid by Eduardo ( Eduardo Noriega ) a mining engineer. Butch's net worth was stashed in the saddlebags of his horse, which runs away, making him rather hard to steal from. Butch knows that this Eduardo may have stolen the fortune of a local millionaire, and Eduardo leads him on what is possibly a wild goose chase down into the abandoned mine where it's perhaps hidden.

What Edurardo needs is protection from the millionaire's men, who are following him. Meanwhile, they're trailed by a man who is either the most stubborn or the most foolish of Pinkerton agents, Mackinley ( Stephen Rea ), who has allegedly been tirelessly tracking Butch for 20 years.

This story is well-acted by Sam Shepard, who I have never seen unconvincing. There's a dash of Kris Kristofferson in his performance, as when he ambles through the country singing rusty old songs like " Sam Hall ." ("Damn your eyes!") The cinematography is breathtaking; we rarely see Bolivia in Western-style films, and the way it looks here might have persuaded John Ford to move on from Monument Valley.

But the movie as a whole isn't much. Flashbacks to the good old days, with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Padraic Delaney standing in for Paul Newman and Robert Redford , are unconvincing and without much purpose, and given the moral twistiness of the original story, this rehash seems to lack purpose. Butch has grown old? And homesick? And gets waylaid, and is back in action again? Was this trip necessary?

The first-time director is Mateo Gil , known for the screenplays of "Open Your Eyes," " The Sea Inside " and " Agora ." Ironic, that the film's weakness is its screenplay.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Simon Abrams

Blood for Dust

Matt zoller seitz.

The Big Cigar

Robert daniels.

Monica Castillo

The Fall Guy

Brian tallerico.

Film Credits

Blackthorn (2011)

Rated R for violence and language

Magaly Solier as Yana

Eduardo Noriega as Eduardo

Stephen Rea as Mackinley

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Young Butch

Sam Shepard as Blackthorn

Padraic Delaney as Sundance Kid

Dominique McElligott as Etta

• Miguel Barros

Directed by

Latest blog posts.

Cannes 2024: Megalopolis

Cannes 2024: Kinds of Kindness; Oh, Canada; Scénarios

Book Excerpt: Hollywood Pride by Alonso Duralde

Cannes 2024: Megalopolis, Bird, The Damned, Meeting with Pol Pot

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

Blackthorn – review

B ack in 1969 George Roy Hill brought Paul Newman and Robert Redford together in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid , a self-consciously stylish western in which two notorious bandits were celebrated as forerunners of the outlaw sensibility of the 1960s. A decade later, Richard Lester, one of the film-makers credited for shaping the artistic expression of the 60s with The Knack and two Beatles films, made his only western, Butch and Sundance: The Early Days . Featuring two young actors, Tom Berenger and William Katt, with uncanny resemblances to Newman and Redford, the film took a quirky but generally realistic look at frontier life as it related to the pair's early criminal life and friendship, ending in the 1890s at the point where they were becoming aware of being legends, leaders of a gang called the Wild Bunch. By this point Robert LeRoy Parker was styling himself Butch Cassidy and Harry Longabaugh was known as the Sundance Kid. The film was advertised as "a prequel", one of the earliest uses of this neologism, and in my 1979 review I rather pedantically objected to what I called "an etymologically meaningless term", suggesting it was unnecessary when prelude, prologue, preamble and prolegomena remained available.

Hill's film ended with the death of Butch and Sundance at the hands of the Bolivian police in 1908 after they'd been robbing banks in Latin America for the previous decade. The event was recorded with a shot of the pair defiantly brandishing guns, now as celebrated as the freeze-frame of Jean-Pierre Léaud on the beach that concludes Truffaut's Les Quatre cents coups . Such a finale should preclude a sequel. But long before the 1969 picture it was believed that Butch and Sundance might have survived the shootout in San Vicente and secretly returned to the States, just as some believe that Fletcher Christian, the leader of the mutiny on the Bounty, returned to England from Pitcairn Island. There is little hard evidence for this, but then there is no specific proof of their deaths, and in Blackthorn , Mateo Gil, the Spanish film-maker best known for his screenplays for Alejandro Amenábar, offers a fascinating imaginary sequel to the story of Butch and Sundance.

The setting is Bolivia in the 1920s, and Butch (Sam Shepard), now in his grizzled mid-60s, is on to his third name, living a simple, contented life as James Blackthorn with his devoted Indian peasant lover, Yana (Magaly Solier), in a beautiful, thinly populated mountainous region. He's a taciturn man, a successful horse breeder, but his settled existence is about to be disrupted and new moral and political challenges placed in his path. He takes a batch of horses to the distant nearest town and, having sold them, empties his bank account with the intention of giving money to Yana and returning to the States. But on his way back he helps a man whose horse has died in the wilderness. His kindness is repaid by being bushwhacked, and the stranger turns out to be a Spanish engineer, Eduardo Apocada (Eduardo Noriega). During a subsequent scuffle, Blackthorn/Cassidy's horse runs away with his money in the saddle bags, and the pair are left stranded.

The handsome engineer is apparently on his way to an abandoned mining town to recover a large sum of money he's hidden. The money belonged to a crooked capitalist who's sent a 14-man posse after him. So to recover his fortunes Blackthorn accompanies him first to the old mine and then on a painful journey across a giant salt flat and through snow-covered mountains, pursued first by the posse and then the Bolivian army. The beautiful, awesome landscape is superbly photographed by Juan Ruiz-Anchía, a Spanish cinematographer who has worked several times with David Mamet.

The engineer, however, is a devious charmer, treacherous and deceitful in ways that Blackthorn cannot understand. And along the way there are violent encounters, deprivations and puzzling moral decisions that contrast with the playful flashbacks to the time Blackthorn/Cassidy was travelling with the Sundance Kid and their shared lover, the beautiful Etta Place (Dominique McElligott). It's in the first of these flashbacks that we encounter Mackinley (Stephen Rea), a Pinkerton detective and stern upholder of the law who has come out of drunken local retirement to join in the pursuit of the newly notorious Butch. The outlaw and the lawman realise there's an ambiguous bond between them in this radically changed world. Butch gradually discovers that, like the gang in Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch , he's been lured into working with the wrong side in linking his fortunes to the engineer. His instinct for and trust in friendship has betrayed him. Gil's sinuous film is cleverly plotted, and it ends with a flashback and final freeze-frame of Butch, Sundance and Etta in their happy, earlier days in America.

Sam Shepard has for 30-odd years now been associated with the American west as a writer and actor, usually the modern west of motels, pickup trucks, rodeos and rundown cow towns as in his play Fool for Love , which Robert Altman filmed, and Paris, Texas . But he has also been involved in more traditional westerns such as the mysterious Silent Tongue , which he wrote and directed, and Andrew Dominik's masterly The Assassination of Jesse James . To Blackthorn , which is essentially a small-scale psychological film, he brings a whole body of work and personal experience. His version of the elderly Butch Cassidy, a man of a certain probity still attempting to make sense of himself, is among his finest, most nuanced performances. Watching this sombre, elegiac film I was reminded of Shepard's book Motel Chronicles , a beguiling collection of observations, jottings and poems he made while drifting around the west, and particularly of one endearing item dated "4/28/80, Santa Rosa, Ca":

I keep praying

for a double bill

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK

• The Observer
• Sam Shepard

Comments (…)

Most viewed.

Blackthorn (2011)

• User Reviews

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews

• User Ratings
• External Reviews
• Metacritic Reviews
• Full Cast and Crew
• Release Dates
• Official Sites
• Company Credits
• Filming & Production
• Technical Specs
• Plot Summary
• Plot Keywords
• Parents Guide

Did You Know?

• Crazy Credits
• Alternate Versions
• Connections
• Soundtracks

Photo & Video

• Photo Gallery
• Trailers and Videos

Related Items

• External Sites

Related lists from IMDb users

Recently Viewed

Blackthorn Review

13 Apr 2012

102 minutes

This sparse, handsome what-if Western discovers that Butch Cassidy did not perish at the hands of the Bolivian army, but has grown old and reflective among the South American mountains under the name of James Blackthorn and the weathered guise of Sam Shepard. Intent on getting home again, he is bushwhacked by a young, Sundance-like thief (Eduardo Noriega) who cajoles him into one last misadventure, cracking the dam on a flood of memories including the fate of his former partner. In a sense it is a sequel, with plenty of well-meant references to the original film — including flashbacks to Butch and Sundance’s heyday as playfully done as George Roy Hill’s classic — but the gist here is elegiac, unhurried, more Unforgiven, as it mixes Shepard’s tired-gun sermons with horsey clichés and the odd flare of originality. Worthwhile.

Search Reeling Reviews

Everyone knows that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed in a shootout with Bolivian soldiers, right? Well, what if they managed to escape death? And, what if one of them survived and lived a quiet rancher’s life as “Blackthorn”?

Laura's Review: DNS

Robin's review: b.

I like a movie, especially a western, which turns perceived history on its ear and tells a story of what could have been. Screenwriter Mateo Gil returns to the helm for the second time with a script by Miguel Barros and the craggy, handsome face of Sam Shepard as Butch Cassidy, AKA James Blackthorn. Blackthorn has led a quiet life raising horses and loving his Indian mistress, Yana (Magaly Solier). That is, until he learns that he has a son living in California. He then decides to sell his ranch and take his fortune back to the US and reunite with the grown up son that he never met. While Blackthorn is making his way through the remote Bolivian countryside on his way to a shipping port, he is ambushed and his horse taken. But, before the thief can make his getaway with James’s ride and all his money, Blackthorn knocks him off the horse with a single shot. Unfortunately, Blackthorn’s horse gets spooked and charges off with James looking helplessly on as his fortune speeds away. The horse thief, it turns out, is a fugitive from a mining operation who stole $50000 from the wealthy owner of an ore mine. Spaniard Eduardo (Eduardo Noriega) tells Blackthorn that he is being pursued by a bloodthirsty posse of a dozen or more riders who want their boss’s money back. He thought, Eduardo explains, that Blackthorn was a member of the hunting party. He offers the old outlaw part of the treasure he has hidden if he will help the thief get it. Old Butch agrees and the adventure really kicks in. The story goes in unexpected directions when James and Eduardo must trek across a forbidding salt flat, ala “Lawrence of Arabia,” to escape their pursuers. “Blackthorn” is an old fashioned western that brings the mystery of the demise of Butch and Sundance to closure. Craggy-faced Sam Shepard gives a taciturn performance as the former bank robber who went straight and lived his adult life in peace – until Eduardo enters the picture. Then, the film becomes an exciting chase as Blackthorn must use all his wiles to save his neck and make his getaway. The only shortcoming is a tacked on side story with Stephen Rea as Butch’s old nemesis from the railroad robbing days. It did not fit with the otherwise tightly told tale. Shot on location in Bolivia, Mateo Gil uses his locales to excellent advantage and gives the film a realistic feel – no Hollywood sets were injured during the making of “Blackthorn.” Techs are solid across the board with Juan Ruiz Anchia using his lens and stark and beautiful landscape to great effect. I love westerns and a good story that opens new doors of imagination to the viewer. “Blackthorn” is both.

REELING IS A PROUD MEMBER OF…

Laura and Robin's reviews are also featured on Rotten Tomatoes , the Movie Review Query Engine , and the IMDB .

• Reeling’s Top 10 Lists
• All Reviews
• Past Episodes
• Broadcast Schedule

Reeling: The Movie Review Show

has been produced by Robin and Laura Clifford at the Malden, Massachusetts cable access television station, MATV, since March 16, 1991.

• Reviews RSS

The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet.

Movie Review: Blackthorn

Blackthorn , Magnolia Home Entertainment, 102 minutes, 2011, $26.98

Director Mateo Gil’s Western Blackthorn is, in a word, “strange.” The film is built around the premise that Wild Bunch outlaw Butch Cassidy (popularly portrayed by Paul Newman in the 1969 movie classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid ) survived the 1908 gunfight with Bolivian soldiers. Since Butch and Sundance were buried in unmarked graves, no one has been able to “prove” that the dynamic duo actually died in that one-sided conflict near San Vicente, Bolivia. Well, there once was a TV movie about George Custer surviving the Battle of the Little Bighorn and standing trial, so anything’s possible on the big or small screen.

It’s 1927, and an aged Butch Cassidy (Sam Shepard), now calling himself James Blackthorn, has “gone straight.” He has settled down in the beautiful Bolivian countryside, enjoying time with local girl Yana (Magaly Solier). But as the saying in Western film lore goes, an outlaw can never truly “retire.” Even when he’s no longer looking for trouble, it still finds him. While making a return trip to the States, Butch gets stranded in the desert with a young Spaniard named Eduardo Apodoca (Eduardo Noriega), who has stolen and hidden $50,000. Butch decides to help Eduardo survive both the harsh country and a posse (no Joe LeFors to worry about here, but the posse is still persistent) in exchange for half the loot.

Blackthorn is not strange for the manner in which things happen or the manner in which it is filmed. It is strange because Gil doesn’t explore the movie’s premise—Cassidy’s living well beyond 1908—until the film’s final 30 minutes, by which point it has become almost entirely irrelevant to the narrative. During the film’s first hour, one might ask: What’s the point of even having the main character be Butch Cassidy? What’s the point of establishing an alternate history if you’re not going to really explore that alternate history? Gil might as well have had Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven character, Will Munny, move to Bolivia and change his name to Blackthorn.

Then, perhaps, Gil wouldn’t have found it necessary to insert clunky flashbacks of the bad old days, with a younger Butch (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), Sundance (Padraic Delaney) and Etta Place (Dominique McElligott) narrowly escaping the law on many occasions. These flashbacks serve no real purpose, other than perhaps to remind us our protagonist is actually Butch Cassidy. Once a former Pinkerton agent named Mackinley (Stephen Rea) discovers Butch, the outlaw’s history finally comes to the forefront of the film. Unfortunately, the revelation results in a cramped and unsatisfying finale.

While the narrative and character development may at times be a bit of a mess, the diverse and untouched Bolivian countryside lends itself well to the Western genre, and the grand way in which it is filmed would have made John Ford proud. The landscapes, most memorably a long journey across miles of desolate and white salt flats, have a color and magnificence to them. So, too, in his own way, does Sam Shepard. The movie’s problems are not the fault of this dependable character actor, whose other Western credits include The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and the miniseries The Streets of Laredo (1995). He portrays Butch as a complex man who shows grit, a sense of humor and a certain amount of intellect without ever falling into the wise old man convention. His performance is great in its own right, and there’s no need to call for a comparison to Newman’s Butch.

Gil understands what it means to capture the essence of a Western landscape through a film lens, seamlessly showing off the land’s vividness and enormity. Because of the director’s superb visual tones and scale, as well as Shepard’s performance, Blackthorn is not a bad film. But it is too flawed to be called a good film. So, then, it is a strange film. It’s not a strange film that will die in one final, glorious gunfight, though. Perhaps it will linger on for years at the bottom of a $5 movie bin—a place as hidden as Bolivia.

  —Louis Lalire

Related stories

Portfolio: Images of War as Landscape

Whether they produced battlefield images of the dead or daguerreotype portraits of common soldiers, […]

Jerrie Mock: Record-Breaking American Female Pilot

In 1964 an Ohio woman took up the challenge that had led to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance.

This Patient Rider Spent Months Retracing the Pony Express on Horseback

In 2019 Will Grant embarked on a 142-day, 2,000-mile horseback journey from the Pony Express stables in St. Joseph, Mo., to trail’s end in Sacramento, Calif.

10 Pivotal Events in the Life of Buffalo Bill

William Frederick Cody (1846-1917) led a signal life, from his youthful exploits with the Pony Express and in service as a U.S. Army scout to his globetrotting days as a showman and international icon Buffalo Bill.

Blackthorn Review

By Rich Cline

Facts and Figures

Year : 2012

Run time : 102 mins

In Theaters : Friday 1st July 2011

Box Office USA : $0.2M

Distributed by : Magnolia Pictures

Production compaines : Quickfire Films, Arcadia Motion Pictures, Noodles Production

Contactmusic.com : 4 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes : 75% Fresh: 54 Rotten: 18

IMDB : 6.6 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director : Mateo Gil

Producer : Ibon Cormenzana , Andres Santana

Screenwriter : Miguel Barros

Starring : Sam Shepard as James, Magaly Solier as Yana, Eduardo Noriega as Ing. Eduardo Apodaca, Stephen Rea as Mackinley, Daniel Aguirre as Ivan, Luis Bredow as Doctor, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Young James, Pádraic Delaney as Sundance Kid, Dominique McElligott as Etta, Cristian Mercado as General of the Bolivian Army

• Blackthorn Movie Site
• Rotten Tomatoes

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Movie Review

After the thunderous reception for J.J. Abrams' Episode VII: The Force Awakens two years ago,...

Daddy's Home 2 Movie Review

Like the 2015 original, this comedy plays merrily with cliches to tell a silly story...

The Man Who Invented Christmas Movie Review

There's a somewhat contrived jauntiness to this blending of fact and fiction that may leave...

Ferdinand Movie Review

This animated comedy adventure is based on the beloved children's book, which was published in...

Brigsby Bear Movie Review

Director Dave McCary makes a superb feature debut with this offbeat black comedy, which explores...

Battle of the Sexes Movie Review

A dramatisation of the real-life clash between tennis icons Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs,...

Shot Caller Movie Review

There isn't much subtlety to this prison thriller, but it's edgy enough to hold the...

The Disaster Artist Movie Review

A hilariously outrageous story based on real events, this film recounts the making of the...

Stronger Movie Review

Based on a true story about the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, this looks like one...

Only the Brave Movie Review

Based on a genuinely moving true story, this film undercuts the realism by pushing its...

Wonder Movie Review

This film may be based on RJ Palacio's fictional bestseller, but it approaches its story...

Happy End Movie Review

Austrian auteur Michael Haneke isn't known for his light touch, but rather for hard-hitting, award-winning...

Patti Cake$ Movie Review

Seemingly from out of nowhere, this film generates perhaps the biggest smile of any movie...

The Limehouse Golem Movie Review

A Victorian thriller with rather heavy echoes of Jack the Ripper, this film struggles to...

Actors Index: 0 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Help Contact Us About Us Advertise Business Write For Us T&Cs Privacy Cookie Policy Site Map Consent Settings

Copyright © 2024 Contactmusic.com Ltd, all rights reserved

• Editors Recommended Editors Recommended
• News Headlines News Headlines Trending Headlines
• Music / Festival News Music / Festival News Musicians & bands in the news
• Movie / TV / Theatre News Movie / TV / Theatre News Actors & filmmakers in the news
• Lifestyle / Showbiz News Lifestyle / Showbiz News Celebrities in the news
• News Archive News Archive
• Music Reviews Music Reviews Best Rated Music Reviews
• Music Video Music Video Top Music Videos
• Most Mentioned Most Mentioned Bands and Musicians in Music
• Movie Trailers Movie Trailers
• Movie Reviews Movie Reviews Best Rated Movies
• Most Mentioned Most Mentioned Actors and Filmmakers in Film
• Latest Photos
• Popular Photos Latest Photos Updated Galleries
• Most Mentioned Most Mentioned People in Photos
• Photo Archive Photo Archive
• Trending Artists Trending Artists
• Actors and Filmmakers Actors Filmmakers
• Celebrities Celebrities
• Bands and Musicians Bands Musicians
• Interviews Interviews
• Movie Trailers Movie Trailers Top Movie Trailers
• Video Chart Video Chart
• Most Mentioned Most Menioned Artists in Video
• Music Video
• Movie Trailers
• Video Chart
• Most Mentioned
• Trending Artists
• Actors and Filmmakers
• Bands and Musicians
• Celebrities
• Popular Photos
• Photo Archive

Go Back in Time using our Photos archive to see what happened on a particular day in the past.

• Movie Reviews
• Music Reviews
• News Headlines
• Music / Festival News
• Movie / TV / Theatre News
• Lifestyle / Showbiz News
• News Archive

Go Back in Time using our News archive to see what happened on a particular day in the past.

• Editors Recommended

Blackthorn | Review

Resurrecting the dead in Bolivia.

While the bastardized remake may be the zenith of sacrilege in cinema, something that takes a close second is the unwarranted and unnecessary reimagining of an enduring classic and rewriting its trajectory. The baggage associated with films belonging to a classic cannon or pantheon in cinema, especially classic American cinema, oftentimes squeezes the credibility out of lazy remakes or films creating a direct dialogue to a past classic. They, more often than not, are setting themselves up for failure. While the idea of Hungarian filmmaker Bela Tarr helming a project about Luke Skywalker as a wizened Jedi in the waning golden years of his existence may sound like an intriguing film (he isn’t planning that, by the way), the mere association with such a classic cinematic character is an automatic encumbrance. And the same can be said for Spanish filmmaker Mateo Gil’s latest film, Blackthorn , which asserts that Butch Cassidy survived that blasted Bolivian shoot-out at the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and picks up twenty years later. What has happened over the past twenty odd years is apparently of no importance, but sadly, Gil’s film concerning Cassidy’s need to travel back into the United States before he kicks the bucket, can’t muster any momentous interest either.

The grizzled Sam Shepard stars as the eponymous Blackthorn, the pseudonym Butch Cassidy adopted. Learning that the mother of his twenty year old son (or is it Sundance’s son?) has died, Blackthorn feels the need to sell off his land and horses and trek back to the US to be with him. Withdrawing all his money from the bank (yes, there’s a reference to his wild youth as a shameless bank robber) he saddles up and is quickly accosted by a Spanish thief (Eduardo Noriega) who has recently robbed the mine he worked for. As Blackthorn loses his horse in the scuffle, and, therefore, all his money, the two vagabonds forge on together when the thief promises Blackthorn half of his loot if he provides him with protection. A certain tenuous friendship develops between the two, and we’re treated to reminiscent flashbacks of Butch, Sundance, and Etta, the woman they both loved. As those in pursuit of the stolen cash from the mine get closer to the duo, Blackthorn loses his Native American housekeeper/lover while an indefatigable pursuer from his youth (Stephen Rea) becomes alerted that Butch Cassidy is still alive, after all.

While the Bolivian landscape is certainly a sight to behold, Blackthorn feels like a cheap attempt at invigorating interest by exploiting a classic film character. The character, as played by a Sam Shepard (who is certainly the best aspect of the film) could be anybody. Making him Butch Cassidy anchors the film to such a degree that we’re never able to move forward. Add to that some terribly wrought flashbacks between Butch, Sundance, and Etta, attempting to rewrite the Cassidy mythos, and the film ends up being an accidental comedy. The Newman and Redford stand-ins should have been switched and the young woman playing Etta (Dominique McElligott) is an extremely poor rendering, shown as a brazen cowgirl smiling insipidly here. There’s a hammy, cornball essence about these flashbacks that take away any brevity mustered by Shepard in the present circumstances. While Eduardo Noriega is generally a welcome screen presence (his best work happens to be in films Mateo Gil has written, such as Thesis , 1996, or Open Your Eyes , 1997) he’s completely underwhelming here, and his friendship that’s supposedly established with Blackthorn is lazily developed and unbelievable.

Gil’s film ends in a showdown that solves a moral dilemma that crops up about the thief. Wasn’t half the appeal of the original Butch and Sundance that we rooted for them even through the absence of morals? Sitting through Gil’s addendum, one can’t help but feel how unnecessary this whole treatment is. Just like that terrible 2005 Jennifer Aniston comedy, Rumor Has It… attempted to give us a geriatric Mrs. Robinson, Blackthorn is an apathetic exercise in its proposal to serve us a compelling continuation of Butch Cassidy. You may need to revisit George Roy Hill’s classic in order to get the taste of this frumpy toadstool out of your mouth. As one of the notable characters shouts into the Bolivian desert at this film’s conclusion, “Damn you, Butch Cassidy!” you’ll want to scream the same. After you stop laughing.

Rating 2 stars

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.

More in Reviews

Emilia Perez | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review

Risky Business: Audiard Surprises with Vibrant Genre Musical Although it’s assembled from unlikely, even questionable sources,...

Caught by the Tides | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review

The Tide is High: Zhangke Splices Thwarted Romance Across Changing Times Filmmaker Jia Zhangke presents something...

In Retreat | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review

A Man of Constant Sorrow: Ali Explores the Network of Disconnection There’s an inescapable sense of...

Most People Die on Sundays | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review

A Month of Sundays: Said Squeezes Magic Out of Melancholy The tagline for Iair Said’s sophomore...

Savanna and the Mountain | 2024 Cannes Film Festival Review

Once Upon a Time in Barroso: Carneiro Speaks Truth to Power Opening with the gusto of...

Jeanne du Barry | Review

Film Festivals

Live from cannes meet the jury for our 2024 cannes critics’ panel.

Aisha | Review

Andrea Arnold’s Bird – 2024 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 3

Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis – 2024 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 3

Evil Does Not Exist | Review

Magnus von Horn’s The Girl with the Needle – 2024 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 2

Agathe Riedinger’s Wild Diamond – 2024 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Day 1

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy .

• TV Listings
• Cast & Crew

Blackthorn Reviews

• 61   Metascore
• 1 hr 38 mins
• Action & Adventure
• Watchlist Where to Watch

After hiding out in Bolivia for 20 years, legendary criminal Butch Cassidy attempts to return to the U.S. and joins up with a Spanish outlaw who promises to share with him a fortune hidden in the desert in this riveting Western. Meanwhile, an obsessive ex-railroad employee and his posse close in on the two desperadoes.

In its early seasons, Saturday Night Live used to have a recurring sketch called What If?, which took the form of an absurd children’s television show in which kids wrote in with questions that turned key moments in history on their ear: The cast tried to show us what might have happened if, say, Eleanor Roosevelt were able to fly, or if Spartacus had access to a small airplane. This is a narrative trick that has popped up in the movies plenty of times over the years, as films imagined what would have happened if H.G. Wells had a working time machine (Time After Time) or if Albert Einstein had a date with Marilyn Monroe (Insignificance). Spanish director Mateo Gil confirms that the What If? scenario can be the basis of an intelligent, thoughtful, and entertaining drama with Blackthorn, a tale that rewrites the last days of Butch Cassidy and gives Sam Shepard a platform for one of the most-engaging performances of his career. Blackthorn opens with a title card that reminds us of what most folks who’ve seen the classic Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid surely remember -- that in 1908, after making their way to South America, Butch and Sundance were killed in an ambush led by American lawmen and the Bolivian army. However, the titles go on to mention that some believe that the two men shot down that day were not actually Butch and Sundance, and we’re soon introduced to James Blackthorn (Shepard), an American in his late sixties who lives on a small farm in Bolivia, where he breeds horses. Blackthorn often writes to a nephew in the United States, and he feels the years catching up with him and believes it’s time to return home. Blackthorn is, of course, the fugitive Butch Cassidy, who has been living quietly in the mountains after witnessing the death of his best friend Sundance (Padraic Delaney) and watching the woman he loved, Etta Place (Dominique McElligott), return to the States to raise her son. After drawing his savings from the bank, selling some horses and winning a high-stakes poker game, Blackthorn has six thousand dollars in his saddle bags as he returns home to pack following a visit to the city. However, Blackthorn runs afoul of Eduardo Apodaca (Eduardo Noriega), a Spaniard who mistakes him for a bandit on his trail. A skirmish causes Blackthorn’s horse to run off with his bankroll, but after Blackthorn saves Apodaca’s life, the Spaniard reveals a secret -- he used to work as an engineer for a wealthy but corrupt mining tycoon in Bolivia, and he’s hidden $50,000 in British currency in a mine shaft. Blackthorn is wary, but tags along and discovers Apodaca is good to his word and is willing to help him recover the cash in exchange for a 50/50 split. However, a ragged but determined group of bandits are on their trail, and it doesn’t take long for Apodaca to suspect that he’s not traveling with an ordinary horse breeder. Blackthorn is clearly not a sequel to 1969’s Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and it doesn’t assume the audience is familiar with that film (occasional flashbacks remind us about the main character’s salad days and the love triangle between Butch, Sundance, and Etta), but in a very real way, it absorbs the mood and flavor of the earlier movie, lets it age for 20 years, and then offers us a look at a man who not only isn’t dead but isn’t prepared to lie down just yet. Blackthorn also isn’t as witty as the 1969 picture (which was as much a comedy as a Western), but Sam Shepard manages to be just as charming and resourceful as Paul Newman was when he played Cassidy. With a grey beard and a full array of scars and wrinkles (doubtless enhanced by the film’s makeup team), Shepard looks noticeably older than his 67 years in Blackthorn, but Butch’s mind seems as sharp as ever, and Shepard gives his performance a weathered but lively texture that reveals strength, wiles, and imagination. This is among the very best and most-effective performances Shepard has ever given onscreen, and he steals this movie from a very capable supporting cast, including Noriega as his uninvited sidekick Apodaca, Stephen Rea as a Pinkerton agent with an old score to settle with Cassidy, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as the younger Butch in the flashback sequences (Dominique McElligott, who also dominates the flashbacks, provides Etta with a great deal more backbone than she had in the 1969 film, and the character is interesting enough to have merited more screen time). Director Mateo Gil is best known as a screenwriter, having penned the scripts for The Sea Inside and Open Your Eyes, but he’s certainly learned what to do behind the camera for Blackthorn, his second theatrical feature. Visually, Gil captures the beauty of Bolivia’s open spaces with clean, bold framing (cinematographer Juan Ruiz-Anchia gives the film a subtle but creative color palate and sharp, evocative images), and he moves the film along with the grace and force of a classic Western, albeit one that takes place in South America. One of the most-familiar elements of the revisionist Westerns of the late 1960s and ‘70s was the disappearance of the American West and the men who thrived in its lawless days, but in Blackthorn, Butch Cassidy is not only still around in 1927, he’s found a way to make his own personal moral code work a long way from home; the result is a Western that’s both unique and familiar in its approach. Director Gil and leading man Shepard have hit just the right balance between revisionism and classicism, and Blackthorn is one of the year’s most-pleasant surprises.

• Coming Soon Theaters • Online
• Advanced Search
• Collections Top 500
• Film Awards
• Recommendations Movies • TV Shows
• Search by Name
• Popular Top 500
• My TV Shows
• My Calendar
• Coming Soon Premieres

Movie's ratings

• Kinorium 5.9 100+
• IMDb 6.5 10 374
• Critics 75% 76

Awards and Nominations

• Cast & Crew
• Screenshots
• Technical Data

Related Movies There are no related titles yet, but you can add them:

Add a short review

280 characters

Sign up and you will see here friends impressions of the movie.

Friends comments and ratings, movies by televisión española (tve).

Trending movies

The best website for movie search and thoughts sharing with friends

• Browser extension

More From Forbes

‘back to black’: amy winehouse biopic gets roasted by rotten tomatoes critics.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Marisa Abela in "Back to Black."

The Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black is not the toast of Rotten Tomatoes movie critics.

The biographical music drama—which opens in theaters nationwide Friday—recounts the rise and tragic fall of the late singer, who died of alcohol poisoning on July 23, 2011, at age 27.

Directed by 50 Shades of Grey filmmaker Sam Taylor-Johnson and starring Marisa Abela as Winehouse, the official logline from Back to Black studio Focus Features reads:

“The extraordinary story of Amy Winehouse’s early rise to fame from her early days in Camden through the making of her groundbreaking album, Back to Black that catapulted Winehouse to global fame. Told through Amy’s eyes and inspired by her deeply personal lyrics, the film explores and embraces the many layers of the iconic artist and the tumultuous love story at the center of one of the most legendary albums of all time.”

As of Thursday, Back to Black had an aggregated “rotten” rating of 36% from Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 104 reviews.

The critic consensus on the site reads, “ Back to Black 's sympathetic approach to its subject's story is an overdue antidote to the tabloid treatment she often received in life, even if the end results are disappointingly pedestrian.”

Ghost Of Tsushima Is Already Flooded With Negative Reviews On Steam

Wwe smackdown results, winners and grades with stratton vs. belair, biden trump debates what to know as trump pushes for 2 more faceoffs.

Winehouse’s life was previously chronicled in the 2015 documentary Amy , which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

What Did Specific Critics Say About ‘Back To Black’?

Among the reviews from major outlets on Rotten Tomatoes , Alissa Wilkinson of the New York Times New York Times wrote, “ Back to Black is far from the first biopic that smooths the edges off real people for the Hollywood treatment. But because the movie’s stated aim is to re-center Amy in her own story, it feels gross.”

The headline for the New York Times even takes a line from Winehouse’s hit single Rebab , but not exactly in a complimentary way. The headline simply states, “ Back to Black Review: No, No, No.”

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson also criticized the biopic, questioning in his analysis why it was the right move to let Abela do her own singing in Back to Black —but only to a point.

“Lip-synching might have been ghoulish, a strange half-resurrection of the dead. Abela can certainly carry a tune, and she convinces us of Winehouse’s singular vocal muscle,” Lawson wrote in Vanity Fair .

“But then when one relistens to the real thing, it becomes glumly obvious what is missing in the film: the true pain and passion behind what Winehouse was doing, the feeling that she described as pouring out of her, as necessary as breath” Lawson continued. “ Back to Black is a pleasant enough homage to what Winehouse sounded like, but it is only that.”

Back to Black was received favorably, however, by Variety film critic Owen Gleiberman, who wrote, The film’s snaky on-and-off power begins with the British actor Marisa Abela, whose lead performance nails Amy Winehouse in every look, mood, utterance, and musical expression.”

Back to Black opens in theaters nationwide on Friday.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Join The Conversation

One Community. Many Voices. Create a free account to share your thoughts. 

Forbes Community Guidelines

Our community is about connecting people through open and thoughtful conversations. We want our readers to share their views and exchange ideas and facts in a safe space.

In order to do so, please follow the posting rules in our site's  Terms of Service.   We've summarized some of those key rules below. Simply put, keep it civil.

Your post will be rejected if we notice that it seems to contain:

• False or intentionally out-of-context or misleading information
• Insults, profanity, incoherent, obscene or inflammatory language or threats of any kind
• Attacks on the identity of other commenters or the article's author
• Content that otherwise violates our site's  terms.

User accounts will be blocked if we notice or believe that users are engaged in:

• Continuous attempts to re-post comments that have been previously moderated/rejected
• Racist, sexist, homophobic or other discriminatory comments
• Attempts or tactics that put the site security at risk
• Actions that otherwise violate our site's  terms.

So, how can you be a power user?

• Stay on topic and share your insights
• Feel free to be clear and thoughtful to get your point across
• ‘Like’ or ‘Dislike’ to show your point of view.
• Protect your community.
• Use the report tool to alert us when someone breaks the rules.

Thanks for reading our community guidelines. Please read the full list of posting rules found in our site's  Terms of Service.

Shogun Just Proved Everything That's Wrong With This $450 Million Tom Cruise Movie

• Shogun's success lies in its attention to detail and commitment to accuracy in reconstructing 17th-century Japanese life.
• Both Shogun and The Last Samurai explore themes of cultural immersion, but Shogun places Japanese characters at the forefront.
• Shogun's portrayal of Japanese culture as everyday, rather than exotic, enhances its immersive storytelling and character development.

FX's Shogun has won consistent critical praise for its authentic evocation of 17th-century Japanese culture, providing a stark contrast with a 21-year-old Tom Cruise blockbuster. Based on the novel by James Clavell, Shogun blends fact and fiction in telling the story of John Blackthorne – an English pilot who finds himself shipwrecked on the shores of Japan before the nation was in regular contact with most of Europe. Although the story is remarkable – not least because of its real-life origins – it's success highlights problems with other representations of Japanese culture, including in Cruise's movie.

Shogun 's success is grounded in its world-building. The slow-burn drama pays painstaking attention to detail, recreating many of the most intimate aspects of Japanese life in the early modern period. According to the critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes , the show is " visually sumptuous and enriched with cultural verisimilitude ", highlighting its commitment to accuracy. Beyond this, however, Shogun 's narrative structure sets it apart from previous stories set in the period – highlighting where other productions have fallen short in the process.

Shogun Takes A Different Approach From The Last Samurai

While many projects provide an interesting comparison to Shogun , not least of which is the novel's earlier 1980 miniseries adaptation , one of the most prominent is with Tom Cruise's 2003 feature film, The Last Samurai . While Shogun and The Last Samurai 's Japanese setting provide a clear connection, other aspects of the two stories also make them very similar. For instance, both involve a man unfamiliar with Japanese culture immersing himself in a new way of life, experiencing alien customs for the first time and learning to respect and appreciate his surroundings.

There are also similarities between the two stories' contexts. In Shogun , the bigger picture concerns a power struggle at the top of the Japanese government between the seemingly righteous Toronaga and the scheming Ishido. Likewise, The Last Samurai stars Ken Watanabe as a renegade warlord , fighting against the central leadership of the nation and pernicious forces who have undue influence over the emperor. Just as in Shogun , Tom Cruise's Last Samurai character finds himself beguiled by the charismatic outsider and compelled to fight for his cause.

In Shogun , while John Blackthorne is an important character, he is not the center of the narrative.

These parallels indicate a clear crossover between the two projects. However, while there is an undeniable connection, they also have very different approaches to their stories. In Shogun , while John Blackthorne is an important character, he is not the center of the narrative. Beyond his journey of discovery, the show is really about Toronaga's political ambitions and his ascent to power, as well as the Machiavellian interactions he has with those around him. By contrast, The Last Samurai is almost entirely told from Nathan Algren's (Cruise) perspective . This provides the biggest distinction between the projects and is the biggest problem with Cruise's film.

Why The Last Samurai's Story Is Problematic

By many metrics, The Last Samurai was a major success. Made on a budget of $140 million, the movie made $456.8 million at the global box office. It was also generally well-reviewed, securing 66% positive reactions from critics (via Rotten Tomatoes ) and earning four Academy Award nominations. However, while the movie's impressive visuals, battle sequences, and performances were widely praised, other aspects of the movie came in for criticism.

Shogun is available to stream on Hulu

A key concern for many critics was that telling the movie from Algren's perspective resulted in a romanticized view of both the real history that inspired the story and the culture it wished to portray. Many critics suggested that the movie perpetuated the so-called " white savior " trope that has historically been a feature of Hollywood, while others highlighted the relative voicelessness of many important Japanese protagonists. In a review for Variety , Todd McCarthy neatly summed up the problem, calling it " far too dominated by Tom Cruise " before adding:

Clearly enamored of the culture it examines while resolutely remaining an outsiders romanticization of it, yarn is disappointingly content to recycle familiar attitudes about the nobility of ancient cultures, Western despoilment of them, liberal historical guilt, the unrestrainable greed of capitalists and the irreducible primacy of Hollywood movie stars.

The Last Samurai 's box office performance and comparative critical success highlight that it was far from an outright failure. However, where Shogun centers the story firmly on Japanese characters , with much of the dramatic action unfolding in the Japanese language with no Europeans present, The Last Samurai tells almost everything through the lens of Algren's experience . The result is a story that is inevitably diluted, less believable, and ultimately less interesting.

Shogun Fixes The Last Samurai's Perspective

Shogun 's decision to place Japanese characters at the heart of the story is central to the show's success. Not only is most of the show in Japanese, an approach that deliberately and effectively ostracizes Blackthorne through his inability to understand the language, but it also helps emphasize the point that European influence is a small factor in the broader political game that's unfolding. Instead of being the protagonists driving the story forward, Blackthorne and the Portuguese are simply pawns to be manoeuvered by Toranaga and Ishido . This makes for a much more accurate representation of the true story.

By telling the story primarily from the Japanese perspective, Shogun lays plain how everyone can have contradictory and conflicting motivations.

In emphasizing Toranaga and his associates as the true protagonists, Shogun also helps make them more well-rounded characters. In The Last Samurai , there's a sense that characters like Katsumoto and Ujio are simply fulfilling archetypes , with little nuance to their personality. By telling the story primarily from the Japanese perspective, Shogun lays plain how everyone can have contradictory and conflicting motivations – making its main players more sympathetic and relatable. More than simply correcting a historical Hollywood wrong, Shogun 's perspective change has tangible benefits for the story.

Shogun Finale Ending Explained: Does Toranaga Become Shogun?

Shguns finale masterfully concluded the series with an episode that subverted expectations and revealed Lord Yoshii Toranagas true goal.

Why Shogun Is Better Than The Last Samurai

In many ways, Shogun and The Last Samurai are a neat way of demonstrating how the desire for progress in entertainment and storytelling can yield positive results. Like the FX show, The Last Samurai takes a fascinating true story from Japanese history and fictionalizes key elements to form a compelling and engaging narrative. However, because much of the movie is overly romanticized and told from an outsider's perspective, it ends up feeling much less believable. While neither production is a documentary, the artifice is much more obvious in The Last Samurai because of its perspective.

The Last Samurai is available to rent on Apple TV+

In Shogun , Japanese culture is not presented as a curiosity to be ogled at. Instead, it is simply represented as the way the world is – instead, it is Blackthorne who is strange, uncivilized, and at odds with the rhythms and rituals of life. In observing cultures from a purely Westernized perspective, movies and TV shows are far less able to represent them accurately – instead, obsessing over what makes them different or strange. With Shogun 's matter-of-fact representation of life in Japan, the whole show becomes immediately more immersive – and the drama more affecting as a result.

Sources: Rotten Tomatoes , Variety

Cast Yki Kedin, Anna Sawai, Hiroyuki Sanada, Tadanobu Asano, Cosmo Jarvis

Streaming Service(s) Hulu

Writers Emily Yoshida, Rachel Kondo, Maegan Houang, Justin Marks

Screen Rant

Shōgun season 2 & 3 in development at fx & hulu.

Your changes have been saved

Email Is sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Shogun Finale Ending Explained: Does Toranaga Become Shogun?

Our biggest worry about shogun season 2, how shogun's story can continue in seasons 2 & 3 (based on real life history).

• Shōgun will continue with seasons 2 and 3 on FX.
• Most of the creative team will return, including co-creators Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo.
• There is currently no production start date yet, but writing will commence this summer.

Despite Shōgun initially being a limited series, FX is now developing seasons 2 and 3. Based on James Clavell's novel of the same name, the historical drama unravels a political conflict in 1600s Japan as Lord Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada) combats a united council. Shōgun quickly emerged as a critical and commercial hit as it became FX's most-watched series of all time, along with earning a 99% critical score and 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Now, FX has announced that they plan to continue Shōgun with seasons 2 and 3 . Co-creators, executive producers, and writers Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo will return as part of the creative team, while Sanada continues his role as producer and lead star. There are no additional updates on when filming will start, but the writing team will begin work this summer . Additional seasons also mean that Shōgun is no longer a limited series and will now join the drama series categories for the Emmy Awards.

Shōgun’s finale masterfully concluded the series with an episode that subverted expectations and revealed Lord Yoshii Toranaga’s true goal.

How Can Shōgun Continue Its Story Into Seasons 2 & 3?

Shōgun season 1 completed the content from the book.

Shōgun was intended to be a limited series as it adapts the entirety of the story told in Clavell's 1975 novel, but there are still several ways that it can continue. While the season 1 finale reveals Toranaga's true intentions and his intricate journey to becoming Japan's Shōgun, he has yet to actually achieve this goal. Shōgun seasons 2 and 3 can further explore Toranaga's rise to power , showing the much-anticipated battle between Toranga and the council that opposes him, and exploring if reality will play out as he intended.

There are also plenty of stories left to tell about John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) , who remains in Japan and has found a new purpose in building a fleet for Toranaga, unaware that Toranaga views him as a source of amusement and diversion. Toranaga and Blackthorne's relationship could continue to be a focal point for Shōgun , and may become a source of conflict if Blackthorne learns the devastating truth about why Toranaga keeps him around. Blackthorne's story in Japan can also bring clarity to the ambiguous scenes of his future teased in the finale.

Another possible way to continue the series is to adapt one of the other novels in Clavell's Asian Saga . Shōgun is only one of six historical fiction books in this series, with each book focusing on Europeans in various parts of Asia at different points in history, as Eastern and Western cultures collide. Adapting one of the other novels may be a morefeasible approach as it can build off existing source material and focus on new characters and a new story without needlessly overextending the acclaimed adaptation of Shōgun .

All episodes of Shōgun are available to stream on Hulu.

Shogun is an FX original mini-series set in 17th Century Japan. Shogun follows John Blackthorne, who becomes a samurai warrior but is unknowingly a pawn in Yoshii Toranaga's plan to become Shogun. The series stars Cosmo Jarvis as John Blackthorne and Hiroyuki Sanada as Yoshii Toranaga, along with Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano, and Yûki Kedôin.

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Fandango at Home
• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Link to Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Link to Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• The Last Stop in Yuma County Link to The Last Stop in Yuma County

New TV Tonight

• Evil: Season 4
• Trying: Season 4
• Tires: Season 1
• Fairly OddParents: A New Wish: Season 1
• Stax: Soulsville, U.S.A.: Season 1
• Lolla: The Story of Lollapalooza: Season 1
• Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: Season 1
• Mulligan: Season 2
• The 1% Club: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• Bridgerton: Season 3
• Dark Matter: Season 1
• Outer Range: Season 2
• Bodkin: Season 1
• X-Men '97: Season 1
• Fallout: Season 1
• Baby Reindeer: Season 1
• Doctor Who: Season 1
• Hacks: Season 3
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Bridgerton: Season 3 Link to Bridgerton: Season 3
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

Cannes Film Festival 2024: Movie Scorecard

The Best Movies of 1999

Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage

What to Watch: In Theaters and On Streaming

What’s Next For Marvel’s Merry Mutants In X-Men ’97 ?

Kinds of Kindness First Reviews: Unpredictable, Unapologetic, and Definitely Not for Everyone

• Trending on RT
• Cannes Film Festival Scorecard
• Best Movies of 1999
• Movie Re-Release Calendar 2024
• TV Premiere Dates

Black Twitter: A People's History: Limited Series Reviews

The famous, the semi-famous and the ordinary got together on the platform for comedy as well as comfort.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | May 10, 2024

Black Twitter: A People’s History is a fun and informative document of a phenomenon that is endemic to this particular era of social media discourse, but also helped change the discourse that was happening in general culture.

Full Review | May 10, 2024

For anyone who was there, it feels ultimately thankless due to our shared experiences down paths we don't necessarily want to reminisce on. And it breezes through topics ripe for deeper conversation.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | May 10, 2024

While “Black Twitter” isn’t revelatory for those who were there, seeing the tweets, memes and moments displayed on the screen with contributor context does provide insight to those on the outskirts.

Full Review | May 9, 2024

It’s an engagingly specific snapshot of the Twitter era and the social period it overlapped with: a time that was serious even when it was silly, that was fun until it wasn’t.

Gorgeously shot with a mix of experts from a plethroa of backgrounds, genders and professional lanes, this doc is hilarious and poignant illustrating the solid contributions Black people made for this particular social media platform

If Black Twitter isn’t much for deep dives, it’s effective as a primer for anyone still trying to wrap their minds around the sheer breadth of its central topic — which, this soon after the golden age of Black Twitter, is probably most people.

Offers a level of comprehension that anticipates and speaks to the continued agency, authority, and art of Black voices in this kind of online space.

Full Review | May 6, 2024