This is volume three of "The Border Trilogy". In "Cities of the Plain", two men marked by the boyhood adventures of All the Pretty Horses and The Crossing now stand together, between their vivid pasts and uncertain futures, to confront a country changing beyond recognition. In the fall of 1952, John Grady Cole and Billy Parham are cowboys on a New Mexico ranch encroached upon from the north by the military. On the southern horizon are the mountains of Mexico, where one of the men is drawn again and again, in this story of friendships and passion, to a love as dangerous as it is inevitable."In a lovely and terrible landscape of natural beauty and impending loss we find John Grady; a young cowboy of the old school, trusted by men and horses, and a fragile young woman, whose salvation becomes his obsession...McCarthy makes the sweeping plains a miracle" - "Scotsman". "This haunting, deeply felt novel completes one of the literary masterworks of the 1990s" - "Daily Telegraph". "The completed trilogy emerges as a landmark in American literature" - "Guardian".
"They stood in the doorway and stomped the rain from their boots and swung their hats and wiped the water from their faces. Out in the streets the rain slashed through the standing water driving the gaudy red and green colors of the neon signs to wander and seethe..." Thus begins Brad Pitt's throaty, near whispered telling of Cormac McCarthy's
Cities of the Plain, the final installment of the Border Trilogy, which includes
All the Pretty Horses and
The Crossing. Pitt captures the essence of young John Grady, a pensive cowboy and brilliant horseman working a ranch in southeastern Texas in the early 1950s. Pitt glides smoothly from one character to another with subtle changes in voice and accent (although you'd never peg him as a fluent Spanish speaker); his performance gives enough to understand the differences in personality without ever becoming cute or obnoxious.
On the ranch, John Grady joins up with Billy Parham, and the two form an abiding friendship. Though Parham is much more a realist, he finds himself drawn further into Grady's dreams, namely a beautiful teenaged Mexican whore whom John Grady is determined to release from bondage and to marry. Through physical injuries, personal trauma, and many dangerous trips across the Mexican border, the two young men struggle to do what they think will make things right. A full cast of cowboys, landowners, barkeeps, pimps, and desperate whores set the stage for the final curtain call on the American West. (running time 3 hours, 2 cassettes) --Colleen Preston
