Butch Cassidy's last ride in 'Blackthorn'

The fogginess of fact surrounding outlaw Butch Cassidy's death by the Bolivian army in 1908 (the version opted for in George Roy Hill's celebrated 1969 movie) provides the glimmer of credibility necessary to Mateo Gil's "Blackthorn": Cassidy didn't die in '08, it says. Instead, he lived a quiet life in a quiet village until homesickness and a potential late-inning payday -- offered by an alleged mine-robbing Robin Hood (Eduardo Noriega) -- inspired the old codger to get back in the saddle.

One can see what Gil wanted to do -- create a revisionist Western with a central performance so charismatic that the implausibilities would blow away like tumbleweeds. But Gil's destination is always somewhere over the next ridge. And the Butch Cassidy played by Sam Shepard, who has become the spitting image of Walter Huston in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre," is so little nuanced and inexplicably nasty that you don't want to spend a lot of time with him.

Much of "Blackthorn" is atmospheric and convincing; Stephen Rea hams it up as an aging, alcoholic lawman, which adds some energy to the proceedings. But the recurring flashbacks to the younger Butch, Sundance and Etta Place (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Padraic Delaney and the stunning Dominique McElligott), cavorting around Bolivia, come off as really bad TV -- of the kind that killed Westerns and just about assassinates this one.

PLOT In late 1920s Bolivia, Butch Cassidy goes on one last ride. RATING R (viiolence, language)

CAST Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Magaly Solier

LENGTH 1:38

PLAYING AT Manhasset Cinemas

BOTTOM LINE Scenic but stilted adventure with Shepard giving a convincing performance as a cranky old man