Lone Star (1996) First Time Watching! Full Movie Reaction!!
Added 2025-11-21 04:37:32 +0000 UTC
Comments
I spent from the late 1970s through the early '80s taking a ton of filmmaking and film criticism classes. Worked a few films. John Sayles makes films which are delightful for a film student to analyze. This is the best example of such a film. Imagine a huge tree. Roots in the past, a solid trunk, and more branches than you can count. Every root has tendrils; every branch has tiny branches filled with leaves. One leaf is Bunny, the football obsessed head case who was Sam's ex. Another is Fenton, the rubber-faced contractor who we learn will build the new jail. One branch is Montoya, selling crud by the side of the road, who was taking a pee when Eladio was murdered. Another is Carolyn who allows the Colonel to discover Otis's shrine to his son. The details are the texture are the real world surrounding the story. The details make a huge stick into a mighty oak.
Cliff Adams
2025-11-27 03:18:17 +0000 UTCFirst off, love the reaction and this movie. Dan said everyone is racist in this movie (I don't think he meant that and he was exaggerating) - While I don't think that's true, race is obviously the front and center issue in this movie that it treats with intelligence and one that it doesn't set up with Hollywood stereotype "Bad guy racist" vs "Good guy non-racist" or simple resolutions . Everyone is on a spectrum here (as I think we all are) that is a product of their culture, the time and place they grew-up, etc, that runs from arguably the most racist ("Charlie Wade" - who maybe is a "Hollywood" racist stereotype) to Buddy and Hollis, who are products of their times (who do "good things"" but have obvious flaws), to the parents in the PTA meeting near the beginning of the movie trying to preserve what they see as their heritage, to characters like Sam and Pilar, who are probably the least racist but still live in a deeply racially divided community and grew up with the prejudices of their parents. There are other characters who are the targets of racism, or deal with racism in society (obviously Eladio, and Otis, but also Otis's son and grandson, and the private who failed the drug test (who's name escapes me). The movie doesn't dismiss any of them for the way the act or talk (except probably Charlie Wade) but recognizes that they are all trying to deal with a complex societal issue in their own personal way. Again, it's so refreshing to see a movie treat such a topic with intelligence, give its characters deep personal histories that drive their motivations and make them grow, and not try to wrap up everything in a trite Hollywood happy ending. Probably my favorite quote in the movie: " it's always heartwarming to see a prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice." Oh, and I was wondering if you guys were going to recognize the actress who played Mercedes (Miriam Colon). She played Tony Montana's mother in Scarface. Definitely recommend more John Sayles- "Limbo" (which is another textured movie about a community of characters, and has Kris Kristofferson) and "Eight Men Out" (which also has Clifton James, who played the present day Hollis).
Samolina Pilchard
2025-11-23 21:53:58 +0000 UTC
