King of Texas (2002)

It's Shakespeare meets Texas!

This is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear (New Folger Library Shakespeare). I read LEAR in college and the basic storyline is fairly close to the play. Almost none of the lines out of the play are used, however. It would not have worked that way as the film takes place in 19th century Texas. It would have been anachronistic for the personas in the play to recite Shakespeare out on a Texas ranch.

To portray the story in this way was an interesting idea. It actually "works" as Texas was largely lawless in the 19th century (they didn't call it the "Wild Wild West" for nothing!). In a way, the owner of a major cattle ranch could be comparable to an English King during the middle ages. The parallels w/the conflicts over land are believable.

At heart, however, LEAR has always been a story about the repercussions of growing old. We all want to be cared for by our children. The question is, what if they don't want to have anything to do w/us? What if our children turn out to be self-serving, insidious characters? What if they could care less about our-well being, and only want to serve their own avarice? These troubling questions are taken up in this tragedy.

The film features an impressive ensemble cast that includes Patrick Stewart (as John Lear, standing in for King Lear), Roy Scheider, Lauren Holly, Colm Meaney and Patrick Bergin. It's a well-done movie and perhaps makes the story slightly more "accessible" to Americans than if they had done a version of the original. If you like Shakespeare (and we all should!), then this one belongs on your DVD shelf at home. December 17, 2007

King of Texas - Excellent movie

Pretty much everyone else has said everything I wanted to say. This is a very well done adaptation of King Lear. I highly recommend watching this movie. September 21, 2007

Very good!

It's based on Shakespeare's King Lear except it's in the 1800s in Texas. Patrick Stewart is John Lear, owner of a 200,000 acres ranch. He has three daughters and he wants to give each of them land but first they must tell him how much they love him. Two of the daughters hate him, especially the oldest, but lie to get his property. Once it's theirs, they let him know their real feelings toward him and also try to takeover their neighbors land.

I never read King Lear but it sure made a darn fine western! Good acting and great plot. Of course it's a great plot, it's Shakespeare! And Patrick Stewart was wonderful but he was trained to play Shakespeare. This is another movie that will please all kinds of people. August 9, 2006

SHAKESPEARE GOES WEST

KING OF TEXAS is based on Shakespeare's KING LEAR. Not being knowledgeable of Shakespeare's play, I'm not sure how faithful the adaptation is, but one thing's for sure: it plays like a true tragedy with some vile characters. Patrick Stewart who also co-produced with his missus plays John Lear, the patriarch who has decided to divide his vast empire between his three daughters, only one of them he disowns because she doesn't answer a question he posits to them all: why do you love Me? This sets up a tragic series of consequences certainly evident in most of Shakespeare's tragedies: greed, jealousy, murder, revenge. The results are surprisingly good. Stewart is top notch and he gets tremendous support: Roy Scheider has his rancher friend has his best role in years; Marcia Gay Harden is stunning as the most vile of the daughters; Lauren Holly comes in second with her self-centered demeanor; and Julie Cox, the disowned daughter, is the soft and gentle daughter who is really the only one who loves her papa; Matt Letscher is a two-faced son of Scheider's; Liam Waite is the misunderstood brother; Steven Bauer is the Mexican whose land the girls want to take over; Colm Meaney is Harden's upstanding husband; and David Alan Grier is superb as Stewart's loyal "slave" and friend. KING OF TEXAS is an excellent made for TNT movie and quite different.
January 8, 2006

CLASSIC WESTERN DRAMA WITH ITS ROOTS IN SHAKESPEARE

If the immortal Bard could only have imagined the adaptations that his work would inspire! There have been numerous modernizations of Shakespeare's work. From WEST SIDE STORY to TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU. There have also been various different stagings for practically all of Shakespeare's stories. So why not a Western?

We get just that in KING OF TEXAS, King Lear set in post-Alamo Texas. The story adaptations flows marvelously with Patrick Stewart starring as John Lear, a Texas patriot turned cattle baron. As with the Shakespeare original, Lear here has built an empire, complete with the pride and ego that attend it. He determines to leave his massive ranch to his daughters, Susannah (Academy Award winner, Marcia Gay Harden), Rebecca (Lauren Holly) and Claudia (Julie Cox). In a show of pseudo-love, the two older daughters charm the aging Lear, get the ranch for themselves and set in motion a chain reaction of drama and tragedy that Old William would have heartily approved of.

Some wonderful twists in the story include the part of the fool from the original play becoming a faithful black servant, Rip, played wonderfully by David Alan Grier (JUMANJI, RETURN TO ME). Keeping with the timeframe involved, it's the only natural solution. His playful banter with John Lear is wonderful and warmly draws the audience in.

The movie's depiction of the tense interplay between the Republic of Texas and Mexico is also a terrific twist as, historically, these two opponents continued to spar with each other for decades following the events that led to Texas independence.

One minor disappointment for me was the resolution of the original relationship of the two brothers, Edmund and Edgar, replaced in the Western drama with Emmett (Matt Letscher) and Thomas (Liam Waite) Westover. Just as in the original play, the scheming and corrupt Emmett works to disinherit his brother, Thomas, the rightful heir. When their father, Henry (Roy Scheider) continues his allegiance to Claudia and goes to warn her of pending trouble, he is blinded (just as with Gloucester in the original play). But in the original play the faithful son returns incognito and plays his father's servant, working carefully back into his father's good graces while waiting for the chance to avenge himself on his brother. Still in disguise, he then confronts his brother in a classic Shakespearean standoff. For the sake of not giving the story away here, let's just say it doesn't happen quite that way in this version.

I also very much missed a corresponding character in KING OF TEXAS for King Lear's faithful friend and advisor, Kent.

But, as mentioned, these are very minor issues at the very worst.

This is a classic Western with all the drama of its roots in Shakespeare with the spectacular setting of Texan grandeur. Not one that you will want to miss.

THE HORSEMAN November 9, 2005

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