(USA 1996 134m) DVD1
A sixty room hotel with bars on the windows
p Maggie Renzi, Paul Miller d/w John Sayles ph Stuart Dryburgh ed John Sayles m Mason Daring art Dan Bishop cos Shay Cunliffe
Chris Cooper (Sam Deeds), Elizabeth Peña (Pilar Cruz), Joe Morton (Col.Delmore Payne), Miriam Colon (Mercedes Cruz), Ron Canada (Otis Payne), Clifton James (Hollis Pogue), Kris Kristofferson (Charlie Wade), Frances McDormand (Bunny), Matthew McConaughey (Buddy Deeds), Eddie Robinson (Chet Payne), Stephen Mendillo (Cliff), Stephen J.Lang (Mickey), Joe Stevens (Deputy Travis), Richard Coca (Enrique), Jeff Monahan (young Hollis), Latanya Richardson (Priscilla Worth),
Welcome to the world of John Sayles, the modern master of cinema’s small town community autopsies. To be more accurate, welcome to Mexican border town Frontera, in Rio County, Texas, a veritable melange of culture clashes, bitter resentment and racial tension (or, as Chris Cooper’s sheriff sarcastically calls it, “gateway to inexpensive pussy”). Though Sayles has made other superb studies of small town communities in crisis (Matewan, the brilliant City of Hope and Sunshine State in particular), Lone Star is his finest work, a film that shows how the shadow of the past can linger and darken a community years on.
Two off-duty army sergeants out hunting rifle bullets in an abandoned military firing range come across something altogether more sinister; a skull, a Rio County sheriff’s badge and a Masonic ring. The consensus of opinion is that it marks the burial of previous Frontera sheriff Charlie Wade, who went missing to everyone’s relief in 1957. The current sheriff (whose late father was Wade’s deputy and sheriff himself for thirty years), is called in to investigate, but comes to believe that his father may not have been the hero the townsfolk always supposed. Furthermore, he becomes entangled with his high school sweetheart, who is now a teacher with a troubled kid of her own.
Sayles’ masterpiece is so much more than just his best film, but a stately moving tapestry of the lives over thirty years of various colours and creeds in a small town. The atmosphere of silence and petty corruption is well evoked and the flashbacks and forwards in the narrative are magnificently accomplished, often panning in the same shot from one period to another. What’s more, as is the case in all Sayles’ films, the characters are fully rounded and clearly defined and the script is multi-layered. Sam Deeds has only returned to his home town to take over from the previous sheriff and as a puppet for local politicians who see the Deeds name as worthy of numerous votes. He’s a divorcee, does not enjoy his job (“I’m just a jailer – I run a sixty room hotel with bars on the windows”) and he’s always lived in his father’s shadow. “You’re just sheriff junior” a local woman tells him. “That’s the story of my life” he muses. But his story is only one of many. For example, we also have the story of a local barman Otis, whose son is now a military colonel in charge of a soon to be closed army division, whose son in turn is estranged from him.
Credit must go to the entire ensemble; Cooper (a Sayles regular) is magnificent as Sam, Peña touching as his sweetheart grown up, James a memorably larger-than-life mayor and with McDormand (as Sam’s hyper-nervous football loving ex-wife in a one scene role that nearly steals the thing) and McConaughey offering telling vignettes. Best of all, however, is Kris Kristofferson, as one of nineties cinema’s most bullying SOBs, a “bribes ‘n bullets” sheriff from hell. (How he never got a Supporting Actor nod is a crime in itself.) Not forgetting Stuart Dryburgh’s wonderful sun-kissed location photography, enough to parch the hardiest throats. But Sayles is the real magician here, and right down to the community meetings it’s a prototype Sayles work. A community Frontera may be, but together they are not (or, as Sam says when finding Charlie’s badge, “no telling yet there’s been a crime, but this country’s seen a good number of disagreements over the years”). The sort of film that goes by unappreciated in modern times, but one which, I’m sure, future generations will hail as a masterpiece, in spite of that killer of an ending at the abandoned drive-in.
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I know I’m in the minority here as every critic and his mother LOVED this film, but I just never cottened to it. Fine performances for sure, but I never really felt for these people (even in a hating way) and I thought the whole thing went on forever. To me, I think Sayles films are an aquired taste and you either love his work or you hate it. On a whole, I think I’m neither a lover or hater. I’m really just someone who found some of his stuff interesting (CITY OF HOPE is the only film I LOVED), but don’t get all excited every time he puts out a picture. Politefully put, if I never saw this film a second time I would have no problems sleeping. He’s just not my brand of tea. I really thought FARGO covered this kind of ground better and in the same year.
I am THRILLED to see this make your list. I’m a huge fan of it as well and chose it as my top film of 1996 in my annual countdown. You touch on all the right notes, Allan… Cooper is solid as ever and Kristofferson plays the good ol’ boy sheriff perfectly. I’d also like to second your point about the flashbacks being integrated seamlessly, with nothing but a simple pan of the camera taking the audience decades into the past. This is probably what sticks with me most.
Matewan may come close, but I agree 100% that Lone Star is Sayles’ best film. I’m surprised to see it place this high on your list, but I’m glad that it did because it’s a movie that deserves the recognition.
Thanks, Dave. You’re right, it’s shameflessly overlooked. Got critical high ratings from most people, but few who thought it was as great as it obviously was.
It’s these types of films why I remarked that ‘Shindler’s List’ and ‘Goodfellas’ (relative–by most standards) low placing excited me. Here is a film that does indeed deserve new looks or first looks. I myself have not seen it since the late 90’s and need to revisit it.
Great review as usual.
Since Dennis pointed it out, it is interesting to think that FARGO and LONE STAR came out in the same year, as I guess you could say they had a similar hook to them — crime being solved in a small-town. I can’t quite remember back to 1996, but was LONE STAR perhaps overshadowed for that reason? Regardless, the two films are really not that similar when you look at the themes and style presented.
I realize I’m parroting some of what Allan said above, but it bears repeating because it’s so apparent — this is such an understated and multi-layered film with fully believable and well-rounded characters. The way Sayles unravels everything leading up to that last shocking moment is a master class in story-telling. (The only thing keeping this from being a perfect film from me was the storyline with Joe Morton’s character, which felt superfluous, even if it did tie in with the overall father/mother/son/daughter theme.)
If Dennis is right and most people either love or hate Sayles’ films, call me a lover. I like his politics, his ideology, and how he makes them clear to us without hitting us over the head with them like a brick. (Or, if they ARE sometimes like a brick, as in heartbreaking Matewan, it’s a brick that’s GOOD for us.) I like the intricate planning of his movies, many characters’ lives intertwining like a vigorous dance or fight, each with its rhythm and validity, as in CITY OF HOPE. His skill with actors is extraordinary. I’d agree with the excellent review, that Kris Kristofferson’s Charlie Wade is a SOB so vicious and hateful that you can smell his evil spoor almost before you see him. What a performance! I’ve seen this movie a few times, and every time I want to somehow jump into the screen and strangle Wade myself. Yet Chris Cooper’s inarticulate lawman, and Elizabeth Pena’s school teacher, feel their way back toward each other almost silently, without flamboyance; we gradually understand that they have a painful history, and that Cooper/Deeds is dropdead in love with Pena, and always has been. We know it not because he, or she, endlessly blabs about it, but because they are people of depth, and their gazes and spare words, what they have remembered, mean a lot.
And yes, I totally agree that the ending will knock any first-time viewer off his chair!
An interesting film to my mind.. calling it a masterpiece is incomprehensible to me..