The film is worth seeking out for Shepard and Rea’s performances.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 7, 2023

It is an enjoyable western set within a non-traditional location that helps breathe new life into a genre that's long been on life support.

| Nov 19, 2020

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.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 27, 2019

Shepard gives an extremely moving performance as Cassidy/Blackthorn, expertly balancing the traditional romanticism of life in the Old West... with a believable portrayal of an old man yearning to return home.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 23, 2018

It's a perfect part for Shepard, and "Blackthorn" provides considerable pleasure just in watching him ride a horse and bark around.

| Original Score: B- | Jun 22, 2013

This story, parboiled out of one of the most memorable Westerns, is supported all the way by Gil's directing.

| Jun 19, 2013

With Paul Newman no longer with us, no other actor could have fitted so snugly into the legendary outlaw's old boots.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 14, 2013

Sam Shepard delivers a terrific, dry performance as the older Butch Cassidy, his stoic view of life honed by years of reflection and self realisation. It's a well written screenplay and director Mateo Gil makes the most of it

| Jun 18, 2012

Embodied effectively by a craggy Sam Shepard, it is not the physicality of Shepard that convinces us of his identity, but his character and the morals by which he lives

| Jun 18, 2012

Offers a fascinating imaginary sequel to the story of Butch and Sundance.

| Apr 14, 2012

A Western in possession of a social conscience, but without lapsing into preaching or patronising, this is an unassuming film in some ways, but ultimately it's self-assured, elegiac and sometimes strikingly beautiful.

| Apr 13, 2012

A leisurely, elegiac production that needed a sharper focus.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 13, 2012

A subtle film that balances drama with gunplay.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 12, 2012

While Shepard is a classically, charming and grizzled Western anti-hero, his co-star Eduardo Noriega, above, makes for a stiff sidekick.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 12, 2012

Blackthorn is a handsomely mounted film, with many an awesome vista and rolling plain, but compared to the quicksilver brilliance of its predecessors, it comes off as irredeemably minor.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 12, 2012

Nothing more than a passable Western that makes you long for something memorable.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 12, 2012

With westerns rarer than hen's teeth, and decent westerns even rarer, this is certainly one that genre fans should seek out.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 12, 2012

It feels as unique as the way the ageing Shepard's eyes appear weirdly independent of the rest of him. He's a bird of prey gazing through the holes in a crumbling wall.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 12, 2012

Lonesome Dove with a dash of My Name is Nobody and a side of Ride the High Country, but Shepard, Noriega and the exotic Bolivian locations mark Blackthorn out as a notable entry.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 12, 2012

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 12, 2012