In the decade between The Untouchables and Tin Cup, Kevin Costner was at his commercial and creative peak. In the second half of the 1980s and first half of the 1990s, he starred in many of the era’s biggest films, worked with some of its most important auteurs – from Brian De Palma to Oliver Stone – and, in 1991, won the Academy Award for Best Director. Costner was the definitive Hollywood icon of the period, playing roles rooted in American myth, like the faded baseball star, the Civil War officer and the outlaw, as well as men like Jim Garrison, Wyatt Earp and Eliot Ness, historical figures who weigh heavy on the American psyche.

It was the era in which he switched political allegiances from Republican to Democrat, and gravitated towards themes and ideas that are deeply embedded in American history, like baseball and the West, two notions he would return to throughout his career, both as actor and director, and ones which are epitomised in Bull Durham and A Perfect World. Together, the pair capture the Kevin Costner of the period, showing his impressive breadth, his dominating presence and his elusive magic – they are unmissable dispatches from the time when Costner was the king of America.

A Perfect World (25th anniversary screening, Prince Charles Cinema, 7 August 2018)

After a botched prison escape, convict Butch Haynes (Kevin Costner) finds himself on the run with a seven-year-old hostage (T.J. Lowther), pursued by Clint Eastwood’s grizzled Texas Ranger and a young criminologist played by Laura Dern. This brooding thriller set on the eve of the Kennedy assassination is the sole collaboration between Costner and Eastwood and widely regarded as among both star and director’s finest work.

Bull Durham (30th anniversary screening, Regent St. Cinema, 21 August 2018)

Kevin Costner plays minor-league catcher “Crash” Davis, competing for the affection of poetry-loving spiritual seeker and muse Annie Savoy (Susan Sarandon), alongside hotheaded greenhorn pitcher “Nuke” Laloosh (Tim Robbins). This piece of summer twilight Americana is one of the sexiest, funniest, most poignant examples of modern American cinema.

You can view a pdf of the programme booklet for our Costner mini-season here.