Neo-Noir Texas Watch: Lone Star (1996)

Watched:  01/09/2025

Format:  Criterion 4K

Viewing:  Unknown - likely 4th or 5th

Director:  John Sayles

I remember going to see this opening day in Austin at the Arbor 4 at, like, a 4:00 pm show, thinking "no one will be there.  It's John Sayles.  And, I'm going by myself, I can find a seat.".  

Y'all, it was so packed when I showed up, I wound up in the front row staring straight up at the screen for the duration.

And I loved it.  

At the time I was double-majoring in film and history at the University of Texas.  As part of my load, I took as much local and regional history as my degree plan would allow.  And, yes, the courses I took illuminated the material certain officials are currently screaming to the heavens about colleges teaching.*

The point is, Lone Star (1996) hit me square where I was living in 1996.  It's an amazing collision of past and present, the macro historical and the micro personal, how race works and doesn't.  It takes on the realities of Texas in a way I don't know any Texan could be clear-eyed enough to do.  Fortunately, writer-director John Sayles is from New York, and probably said more to the Texans who watched the movie about their own state and State than they'd ever probably processed on their own - all wrapped up in a compelling mystery.  

The film is also an oddly informative way to remind you how long the conversations that led to our current moment have been in action.  And what people think they have to lose when the importance of retaining the myths, big and small, supercede dealing with reality looking them in the face.

Told in the present of 1996 or so, a courthouse is being named after the now-deceased Sheriff, Buddy Deeds (Matthew McConaughey).  His son, Sam (Chris Cooper), who does not share the public's high opinion of Buddy, is now the Sheriff of Frontera, and is called in when a skeleton pops up and is swiftly identified as likely Buddy's predecessor, the brutal Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson).  Wade ruled over the county like a gangster, and the legend of Buddy Deeds started with Deeds supposedly chasing off Wade in the dark of night.

But that's just the skeleton holding the story together (pun intended).  Sam brushes up against his high school love, Pilar (Elizabeth Peña), the daughter of an Hispanic woman who prides herself on her American-ness.  The sole bar in town serving the small Black population was part of the story of Charlie Wade's disappearance, and as this is happening, the owner, Otis (Ron Canada) sees the return of his son, Del (Joe Morton), returned as the commanding officer at the local Army base - and lifeline for the bar serving soldiers.

That there is no real mystery as to the identity of the body and Sam's suspicions regarding what really happened is obviously unusual if this were a straight crime movie.  But instead, it's about what recovering the history and what really happened in Frontera decades prior means to all involved.  And what the forces at work were then and now as history spills out - far beyond the reach of just what happened to Charlie Wade.

Del, a Colonel, is the storyline people rarely discuss when talking Lone Star.  But Del is the counterpoint to Sam - also wrestling with his father's history, also still angry with him.  But he has a wife and son and he's also returned to Frontera in a position of authority.  The two never share the screen, but they're counterpoints, especially in the last act as Del realizes his father has cared all along, and just as Sam accepts the legend of Buddy Deeds may be what is needed, after all.

The movie also has a very young Chandra Wilson, Stephen Mendillo, Clifton James, Miriam Colon, Frances McDormand and plenty of other folks.

As the film progresses, Sam and Pilar rekindle their high school romance - he now a divorcee, she a widow.  And, gang, it is hard not to see how Elizabeth Peña would seem like a very good idea.

  

I forgive her for not even trying a Valley accent

Sayles manages to drift back and forth between the past and present seamlessly - a neat trick that is part of the storytelling, as the camera pans away from the past and characters of the present stand feet away, recalling prior events.  It's part of the understated nature of the film, delivering the story and issues in simple, straightforward South Texas fashion - a place where history really is everywhere.**

That the past and present are inextricably tied is beautifully illustrated, but it's also shown to be a truism, something we can only learn from and decide what we want to do once we learn the realities of our past and from those we sprung from.  

The film wants us to look at all the borders between people, to see they're an illusion and question why we cling to the idea that people belong here or there - whether that's people crossing a river or walking into a bar or the one between a father and son.  

It's hard not to see the entire film as an allegory more than a story, and the final scene certainly seems to lock that idea in.  If the school scene earlier as Peña is asked by Anglos to stop teaching the history of Texas (and likely, specifically, that of The Valley) beyond the textbook feels like it's engaging in the conversation, the reality of Sam and Pilar's relationship seems to push the film into metaphor.  

The pacing and deliberate nature of Sayles' work is not for everyone, but this movie always feels like a rewarding watch.  And it's making me re-think my plan to watch the Robert Wise filmography and maybe do Sayles movies?  I mean, this, Eight Men Out and Matewan are some of my favorite flicks but I haven't ever properly looked into the rest of Sayles' work.  

*I have deep opinions about the cowardice of those who would control what can be taught in the classroom, especially in higher ed.  If you're not challenged by historical material and learning some things that will shove you out of your comfort zone, you're not taking real courses.

** I used to work with UT Brownsville/ Texas Southmost College, now UT Rio Grande Valley, which sat literally on the Rio Grande - and the Mexican border was open, people moving back and forth all day.  In fact the campus was built on Fort Brown, built in 1846 and a major location tied to the Mexican-American War.