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Lone Star (1996)
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All reviews for Lone Star
Lone Star (1996)
by
civex
in
civex Blog
liked it.
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"This is a quietly excellent movie about mystery, racism, and love. Chris Cooper plays present-day Sheriff Sam Deeds, filling the boots of his late father, Sheriff Buddy Deeds. Much of the movie is told in flashback by director John Sayles, with the camera panning from a present day scene to the location of some event in the Fifties where we see it replayed, then panning back to the present characters, lost in recollection of those days gone by. It works very well, without having to have title cards telling us when we've moved in time. The story takes place in a sleepy hick town in Texas on the Mexican border, near a US Army base. In this town, everyone has a past. Even the sheriffs. Sam has gone through a divorce, and we get to see him with his ex-wife, Bunny (Frances McDormand). It's a heart-tugging scene, as it becomes clear Bunny will never be the son her father wanted. Sam moves back home to see his high school flame, Pilar (Elizabeth Pena). However, his father's friends press ... "
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AFI's 10 Top 10: Western
by
ShaunHuston
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ShaunHuston filmblog
hasn't rated it.
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"The Western Top 10 is the toughest for me. As some of you may know, while I'm hardly Richard Slotkin or Jane Tompkins, I write, teach, and think about this genre on a regular basis, and, as a result, my views are not only fairly strong, but well-informed. And, where certain well regarded classics are concerned, they are also iconoclastic. This is probably nowhere more obvious than with The Searchers (1956), the film that tops the AFI list. This film does not resonate with me on any level. I have never found the ending credible. John Wayne does not portray Ethan Edwards with any of the complexity needed for his embrace of Debbie (Natalie Wood) to ring true after his 118 (or so) minutes of hard, racist ranting about Native Americans and his intent to kill her. I also find the photography and production design to be garish without purpose, and for all of its superficial sophistication about Native peoples, the talk of ritual, the use of indigenous language, it only serves to perpetuat ... "
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Lone Star
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JimBell
in
JimBell Blog
liked it.
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"Lone Star is a sprawling movie full of action and suspense, and replete with good acting. Writer and director John Sayles builds a complex portrait of a Texas border town where everyone seems related to everyone else in some way, shape, or form. The ending—which I will not give away here—is particularly challenging and interesting. After the main mystery of who killed the powerful old sheriff is finally solved, the new sheriff decides to let sleeping dogs lie. But this is followed immediately by a shocking discovery about the new sheriff’s romance, and, again, he decides to let sleeping dogs lie. If you, the viewer, agreed with his first decision, you are challenged to agree with his second—not such an easy thing to do—so you will be thinking about it for awhile. "
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The Great Movies: Lone Star
by
erico_77375
in
erico_77375 Blog
loved it.
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"Two men pace around an abandoned military firing range discussing the ignorance of people's perceptions as they salvage for old bullets to make into art. The scene gets interesting when one of the men finds a skull. Where in an average film, this would be the start of a murder mystery. In the world of Writer/Director John Sayles, this is beginning of a catalyst of personal choices and connections of a handful of people who are connected to an event almost forty years prior.To talk about Lone Star isn't to talk about the murder, but to talk about those who are affected by the outcome, most of which even after the mystery is solved will never know exactly how they're affected. The dead man's identity is quickly revealed as Charlie Wade (Kris Kristopherson), a sheriff of Rio County and from the stories you hear, the worst man you'll ever meet. His successor, Buddy Deeds (Matthew McConaughey) is considered a legend in present times, about to have his name plastered ... "
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The Brother From Another Planet
by
HairyLime
in
HairyLime Blog
loved it.
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"Early John Sayles film that I saw once years and years ago, and then revisited again recently. It still holds up pretty well. Joe Morton gives an outstanding understated performance without uttering a sound, and the endless parade of oddball characters he comes into contact with throughout the movie are wonderful little set pieces, expecially the regulars at the bar where a lot of the action takes place. As usual with Sayles, he can say much more on a limited buget than movies three times the size. The drug message is a little heavy handed, and the ending is a bit confusing and abrupt (is he saying something here about the Black experience of being displaced, about the ideas of where you are FROM versus where you ARE?) - Like I've said before, ambiguous endings keep me coming back.It says a lot for Sayles that he can manage to keep bringing back the same stable of talented actors to work with him again and again, and you will notice a lot of familiar faces from his other films ... "
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