The Sunset Limited

Delivery Time: 7 to 15 Working Days Format: DVD

The Sunset Limited is a searing, two character drama that mixes humor and pathos while examining the relationship between two strangers who are brought together by desperate circumstances. The story focuses on two very different men – a deeply religious black ex-con (Samuel L. Jackson) who thwarts the suicide attempt of an asocial white college professor (Tommy Lee Jones), who tried to throw himself in front of an oncoming subway train, the Sunset Limited. As the one attempts to connect on a rational, spiritual and emotional level, the other remains steadfast in his hard-earned despair. As their philosophical debate progresses, each spar passionately to defend their personal credo and convert the other.
That venerable theatrical tradition, the intense two-person talkfest, is tackled by one of America's great living prose stylists in The Sunset Limited. Cormac McCarthy, author of No Country for Old Men and All the Pretty Horses, wrote this play (first produced in 2006) for a pair of unnamed characters who are identified in the credits as White and Black. We are in the rundown apartment home of Black (Samuel L. Jackson), who has just stopped White (Tommy Lee Jones) from committing suicide at the train station. With that situation averted, Black, a devout, Bible-believing Christian, tries to keep White in his apartment long enough to fix him coffee, serve him soup, and possibly convert him to his faith. Or maybe just convert him to something, anything, beyond nihilism and an urge to suicide. McCarthy's script serves up some searching debate on the subject of God's existence or lack thereof, with each man standing his ground--the movie will probably serve as a Rorschach test for each viewer when it comes to judging who gets the better of the argument. Tommy Lee Jones directed, with scrupulous attention to McCarthy's words and a proper avoidance of "opening out" the material, and he keeps his own performance low-key while Jackson takes a more buoyant tone. Watching these highly skilled craftsmen navigate their way through the conversation's ebb and flow is the principal reward of this made-for-HBO production. --Robert Horton