Lone Star (1996)

Exceptional.

I had forgotten how good Lone Star is. The simplest way to explain it, is that its No Country For Old Men without the blood bath. But its much more, with its interlocking stories about forgiveness.

It will seem as slow as a Texas border town to those looking for Young Guns. Their loss. August 17, 2008

A lot of power

Excellently subtle tapestry of race matters, family secrets & romantic irony in a sleepy Texas border town. A film to watch more than once. Excellent casting. May 12, 2008

Lone Star

Reuniting Sayles with his "Matewan" star Cooper, this border-town mystery exemplifies Sayles's talent for telling compelling human stories that deal with important social issues- in this case, illegal immigration, family legacies, and the scourge of racism. Cooper, Pena, and then-unknown McConaughey are superb in their roles, and Kristofferson stands out as the mean, rough-edged, intimidating Wade. Sayles's low-key approach works in favor of the film's almost novelistic feel, which nicely balances elements of suspense with heartache as it alternates between past and present. "Lone Star" is a complex, thought-provoking look at love, race, and border culture in the American Southwest. July 13, 2007

American Masterpiece

There have been six Masterpieces produced in American Cinema that go to the heart of being an american (if this doesn't start a war I don't know what will!). They are in order:

Citizen Kane - 1941
Casablanca - 1942
The Last Picture Show - 1971
American Graffitti - 1973
Parenthood - 1989
Lonestar - 1996

They vary as much as they remain cohesive. They were made by visionary Directors, with the exception of Casablanca which represents the best of American film making by committee, and they all share one American attribute that will garner them immortality - they have Heart.

Few films can compare, none can surpass.

While The Last Picture Show is the best of the lot in that it captures the changing of our country from rural to urban from the fifties onward and the beginning of the ache for that lost Americana, Lonestar does the same thing with the results of those changes we are all experiencing now - proving that that ache still resonates in our souls.

The other four movies deal with different aspects of the American experience, but do so equally well in their own arena.

I cannot recommend Lonestar highly enough. You will be moved in ways that cinema moves it's audience best - in your heart of hearts.

May 16, 2007

You are your family, like it or not

"Lone Star" is another amazing John Sayles film. It takes place in a small Texas town on the Rio Grande. The town is shaped by the constant influx of Mexicans hoping for a better life. It begins with the discovery in the desert of a skull, a Masonic ring, and a sheriff's badge. The present sheriff is the son of a past, deceased sheriff who is revered by the residents. By investigating the death in the desert, he starts uncovering secrets from before he was born. As a son, he never knew his father the same way everyone else knew him. Part of his investigation is curiosity about who his father really was.

Meanwhile, an Army colonel who left town never expecting to return again finds himself in command of the Army base there, where his father is "the mayor of Darktown", i.e. the informal leader of the African-American community. The colonel is both a son of this man, and a father to his own son, who is also curious about his heritage.

The third family to be explored is that of the sheriff's high school sweetheart who is now a teacher in that same school. Her mother, a Mexican, is a pillar of the community and owns a successful restaurant. Again, the teacher is both a daughter of a stern, disapproving mother and a mother to her own children, who are teenagers with teenager problems.

The histories of these three families are interwoven with creative use of flashbacks and the dogged investigation by the sheriff of the death of the murdered sheriff. As the sheriff explores the classic principles of motive and opportunity for a murder that happened before he was born, he learns more than he wanted to know about the history of his town and his family. April 23, 2007

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