Blackthorn (2011)

Director Mateo Gil

In a tense postscript to the Wild West, director Meteo Gil imagines a world where Butch Cassidy has burned slowly rather than going out in a blaze of glory. In Gil’s world, Cassidy has lived for another 20 years as James Blackthorn (Sam Shepard), raising horses in an isolated Bolivian village, wishing he could return to America. But when a Spanish mine robber (Eduardo Noriega) offers him a chance to pull one last heist, Blackthorn sets off into the wilds of Bolivia with a partner hiding secrets of his own. To return to his first home he’ll have to leave the one he has, changing back into the man he was.

Anchored by Shepard’s performance as a man left alive long after his best days, the movie is a nod to a genre that’s nearly as neglected as Blackthorn’s namesake. And in true Western style, Gil’s Butch Cassidy sets out to prove that even the lawless can follow a code. - Calgary International Film Festival 2012