Lone Star | Stephen J. Lang, Chris Cooper | Lone Star: history against the backdrop of HIstory

Lone Star | Stephen J. Lang, Chris Cooper | Still My Favorite John Sayles Film

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Lone Star

	Lone Star Stephen J. Lang, Chris Cooper Turner Home Ent, 1999 average customer review:based on 78 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Lone Star: history against the backdrop of HIstory

After a failed marriage in another town, Sam Deeds has wandered back home to Rio County like a man staggering home after an accident at the crossroads. There, through the offices of old and conspiring acquaintances, he becomes the sheriff-the very position his father had once held. (For readers of Sophocles, this should sound familiar.) When the film opens, it is two years later. We see a wide stretch of desert and two men. One explores the desert floor with a metal detector and the other reads from a guidebook. When the latter suddenly looks up from the book and then down at the ground, he spies a skull and skeleton only just projecting from the hard desert earth. They call the sheriff and he, in rather sad, short order, has a very dark suspicion of whose body that might once have been and of the man who might have put it there. Sam believes it to be the body of Charley Wade, a former sheriff of Rio County, legendary for his evil; and Sam believes his father, the beloved Buddy Deeds, successor to Charley Wade, killed him. The rest of the film is the story of how Sam uncovers the truth, which forces him, in turn, to reflect on his personal history and the audience to reflect on history itself.

Sam's history doesn't occur in a vacuum-as do so many in the movies-but rather against a background of still other personal histories and a History that has drawn imaginary divisions between individuals and ethnic communities. We see fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, living and dead, rise in conflict over a land divided by color and language. The ethnic balance in Rio County is beginning to shift. Hispanics now outnumber Anglos, both of whom have always outnumbered the African-Americans. And there are those who are sore over the way things were and the way they might be. But the divisions are, in a certain and very real sense, imaginary. If we watch carefully, we will see that lines of division, like borders, are clear and hard and definite only as they appear in books and on maps. In Rio County, there are, despite prejudices and suspicions to the contrary, a plethora of mixed couples--soldiers, lovers, politicians--all united in pursuit of some other, non-dividing reward-a sense of place, love or money and power. And when we see the school raging over what version of history to tell, it seems obvious that events are conspiring to tell another history and another truth. And it should be no surprise that each character will reveal a little something of that truth or its moral. The bartender, Otis, for example, reminds his son that there's no borderline between "the good people and the bad people"; he tells his grandson that "blood means only what you let it"; the history teacher, Pilar, tries to tell people at the committee meeting that the history over which they are arguing is an oversimplification; and an Indian at a souvenir stand tells Sam to be "Careful where you go pokin'. Who knows what you'll find."

Sam thought he wanted to know who was buried in the desert, but discovers that what counts came after. He has come upon some large and unexpected matter regarding his father, the legendary Buddy Deeds, about deceptive ethnic divides, about his childhood sweetheart, Pilar, and about his own misplaced professional ambitions. In the final scene of the movie, Sam and Pilar, are seated on the hood of his car before the dilapidated screen of an old, abandoned drive-in. It is a good metaphor for the lessons, for the truth, they now both want to embrace. "We start from scratch?" says Pilar. "History-the hell with it, right?...Forget the Alamo." And so the sheriff-detective and the history teacher have both come to believe that we can go forward--but only if we abandon the fights over the past, only if we forget history, forget the Alamo.

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Still My Favorite John Sayles Film

I grew up in the foothills of the Appalachians, so my favorite John Sayles film should be MATEWAN. I love that movie, as well as the THINKING IN PICTURES companion book of Sayles' script and the notes (a great volume for anyone interested in independent filmmaking).

But LONE STAR is Sayles at his best. Most Hollywood films don't have the wit and depth in their central story that Sayles accomplishes with every one of his plotlines in this film--and there are a lot of them!

LONE STAR is a movie with an involving mystery and a whole lot to say about a fast-changing multi-cultural society and the personalities at work in it.
Right up to its final memorable line.

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an excellent movie

Chris Cooper plays the sheriff of a Texas County investigating a skeleton found in the desert. As he delves into it he discovers things about his father like the fact that he might have been the one who originally buried the body. There are wonderful flashbacks telling the story as it happened 30 years ago. Kris Kristofferson plays the corrupt sheriff and Matthew McCaunaghy plays Cooper's father. The pace is slow but you don't really notice it because it's not boring. The characters are very well drawn and the pieces of the mystery come together seamlessly. An excellent movie.

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Story Oriented Movie

"Lone Star" directed by John Sayles, is a very story oriented movie. Every aspect of its theme, plot, abstract terms, actors, director, cinematic features, location, mood and final scene all play a role in the complete story line. All these elements fit snugly into the story's puzzle in order to create its mystery and get across its purpose.

"Lone Star" is a murder mystery story, which deals with race relations and bigotry. Sam, a Texas sheriff, is trying to discover if his father killed a former sheriff. Throughout his hunt for the truth, Sam is told many stories. These stories show how one life can touch many others. In addition, these stories emphasize the cultural diversity of the county. In the end, Sam discovers the true killer, and why the truth is being kept a secret. In so doing, he also finds himself.

All the characters in this story are abstract terms. Especially Wade, the old sheriff, who represents the old view southern, white Americans had about others races. Every character represents a portion of Texas culture. Without this array of characters, the movie would just be another simple murder mystery. However, it is what the characters represent that makes this movie stand out from the rest.

The actors themselves must have been chosen because of their racial background and previous acting experience. The main characters had a great amount of previous acting experience. For example, Sam, played by Chris Cooper, played in twenty movies before starring in "Lone Star". These actors added a feeling of realism to the story, which John Sayles wrote and directed.

John Sayles is an amazing director. He has the ability to both write and direct his movies. Other directors have tried this, but they usually seem to be better in a single area. John Sayles pulls both off with amazing grace. His story has depth, discovery, action, mystery, and love. His directing shows he had a vision when writing the story. His ability could be due to his experiences in many different aspects of filmmaking. Before "Lone Star", Sayles had been an actor, director, writer, editor, producer, and part of a production crew. "Lone Star" is a great story. However, a film needs a great story and great cinematic features, which Sayles supplies in a numerous amount.

Cinematic features are used to pull the audience into the film. The camera movements are not pronounced, however the camera angles and rhythmic edits are very appropriate for the feeling the story is trying to portray. Sayles uses these angles to show the power of Wade or the drama of Hollis. For example, in the scene where Wade is about to shoot Otis, the camera continually switches views to close-ups of Hollis' face in order to show the dilemma he is facing. The only spots in which camera movement was purposefully used, was when Sayles wanted to go into the past. For example, for the story about Otis and Wade's first meeting, the camera moves off to where there are no actors and zooms in so that the information to the viewer is limited. Also, the sound was very realistic. When there is music in the background, the audience knows where it is coming from. The scene where Wade is beating up Otis is the only place where that is not true. In that scene, music is playing to such a degree that it blocks out the words spoken. This is done in order to show the audience how physical the memory is. All Otis could remember was the physical beating he took from Wade and the bar in which it took place.

"Lone Star" was filmed on location at Eagle Pass, Texas. This Texas location had been previously used in two other movies, "Heart of the Sunset" and "Como agua para chocolate." The first movie is a western; the second one is a romance. This seems interesting because "Lone Star" is a combination of both these genres and moods.

The mood of the film's story is summarized in the last scene. Where the teacher, Pilar, says, "To hell with history..." and "...forget the Alamo." She is telling the audience to let go of the past. The past is in the past. What matters is how a person conducts his or her future.

I liked the film, but I did not care for the ending. I know it was trying to symbolize how we are all related. However, the film could have done so without going into the taboo subject of marriage between a brother and a sister. It just seems a little disgusting to me. Other than that one area, the story was fantastic. It provides everything a movie needs to be great.

I believe, out of all the aspects that make a great movie, Sayles and his visionary story are what make this movie work. The other areas were little bonuses, which helped, but were not the cause of its success. A movie can lose its integrity because of communication problems between the writer and director. However, when the director is the writer, that problem no longer exists. Some people say a picture is worth a thousand words. Sayles creates a masterfully painted picture of society by writing and directing a fabulous story.

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