LONE STAR
Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Pina, Joe Morton, Kris Kristofferson. Dir. John Sayles, Warner Bros., 1996One of the great pleasures of being a movie fan is muttering under my breath, not 10 minutes in, "Oh this movie's GREAT." Another great pleasure is finding it's still great the next time I see it. On those occasions when I discover it's BETTER than I remembered, and I already called it "one of the best of the '90s," that's when I've got something special on my hands. Writer-director John Sayles's LONESTAR was an absolute revelation to me when I first saw it over the summer. Today confirms the earlier response. Indeed, like chili left to steep overnight, LONESTAR was richer in character, meatier in story, and spicier in how relevant & true that story remains today in a world of border crises, critical race theory, and whitewashing entire curricula.
Which isn't to say that LONESTAR is a particularly political film, but the larger political tensions of a Texas border town, its ongoing issues with and eruptions of race & class, inform the interpersonal politics of a small town with its share of unpleasant history. Early scenes of schoolboard disputes between brown & white-skinned parents and teachers over how to teach Texas history, shot verite style with handheld cameras, could be CNN b-roll from any of a few dozen stories aired in just the last few months. Though Sayles's work always includes the political, because his stories take a holistic approach, presenting characters with history &motivation rather than simple types, and Sayles knows we live in a culture in which the personal & political will always be inextricable, LONESTAR's political backdrop has the accidental good fortune of helping all of its dramas, in all of its interconnecting storylines, still feel compelling after 20 years.
Sam Deeds (Cooper) is the sherrif of Rio County, Texas, the son of legendary Sherrif Buddy Deeds, in whose rather long shadow Sam looks a little pale to the political powers of Frontera, Texas, and the county, who elected him to displace a popular Latinx sherrif. Pilar teaches Texas history at the local high school, her mother owns a popular restaurant and sits on the town council, and has always opposed Pilar & Chris's attraction to each other, as has Buddy, for what Pilar & Sam assume to be racial reasons. Buddy became sherrif by driving out his corrupt predecessor, Charlie Wade, a brutal racist who shook down every business in town, especially those run by either black or brown citizens, and took kickbacks from all the criminals. Wade disappeared without a trace and most Fronterans assume Deputy Deeds did them all a favor by murdering Wade and burying his body in the desert. Sam Deeds assumes it, and when a skeleton with a Rio County sherrif's badge turns up in a shallow grave on the local army base's former rifle range, he has to investigate his father's past, which will mean investigating his own past, and that of everyone he knows or cares for, including his prevented great love, Pilar.
That's the central plot, but not nearly the story, which includes an army colnel, played by Sayles regular Joe Morton, a Frontera native returned to oversee closure of the local army base, learning to deal with his absentee father, Otis, owner of the only black nightclub in the county while struggling not to alienate his teenage son, who isn't interested in a military career, and Pilar's mother, Mercedez, and why she & the mayor, one of Buddy's former deputies, are gungho to name a new jail for him. All of this history and these motives and secrets feed back into the central mystery of Charlie Wade & Buddy, and how what happened between them informed the town's future, as well as Sam & Pilar's past & present.
Christ that was boring. But necessary to rough in a fuller picture, and for mentioning Joe Morton. John Sayles's projects always attracted first-rate casts, and LONESTAR's doesn't deviate from the pattern, but let's go ahead and gush over Morton for a moment. Most audiences probably know Morton today as Keanu Reeve's lieutenant in SPEED or as Miles Dyson in TERMINATOR 2, both of which are solid pieces of work, but John Sayles cast Morton as the titular BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET and here as Col. Delmore Payne, allowing him to show himself as a terrific leading man, an actor with real sensitivity and range, who inspires sympathy, if not empathy, in audiences with his naturalistic acting. In a film filled with outstanding roles and performances their equal, Morton's Delmore, & his journey toward reconciliation with Otis (an equally terrific Ron Canada), still manage to standout, as does Morton's fumbling relationship with his teenage son, Chet (Eddie Robinson.) His entire storyline could be argued as less than 100% essential to Sayles's story, but only if we assume solving the mystery's the point here. It IS solved, and definitively - it's not LOST - but the riddle's answer is no more the point in LONESTAR than there even is a point in JJ Abram's old show.
No, the mystery here serves as window dressing, or cover, for me, and for you, the viewer. So that we don't have to try to explain why a multi-cultural OUR TOWN about interpersonal and larger-world politics, which concludes with the idea - I think - that people choose what works for them regardless of others' opinions, or have a better shot at happiness if they'd try, Sayles thoughtfully includes a 30+ year-old cold case for Cooper to solve, so we just can tell our friends we saw a sweet little mystery movie set in Texas.
Which they - and you - should see. I knew of LONESTAR's existence, and reputation, when it was new in 1996. For all its critical love it didn't make much of a dent at the box office or show up on Oscar night, where it might have made a spoiler if Oscars were awarded on strength & quality of the work rather than just about everything else. It was hard enough watching FARGO lose out to THE ENGLISH PATIENT. Watching LONESTAR go down, too, might have broken me. I try to avoid going to a place of "Dude, you NEED to see this movie," but LONESTAR's a place to make an exception. In the '80s & '90s, John Sayles just about WAS indie film, and each project, from MATEWAN & EIGHT MEN OUT to BROTHER FROM ANOTHER PLANET and LONESTAR attracted best-of-the-best casts, with actors eager to work for him. Over time, though he has continued working, Sayles's stock has declined where contemporaries like Jim Jarmusch & David Lych have only solidified their legendary status. That's just not right. Sayles's intensely humanistic, holistic films attracted great casts because they were great then, and they're at least as great, now. Because LONESTAR is a Discovery of 2022 for me, I can't say it's better today than in '96, but I can say its subject matter & story remain relevant 26 years later, and it was better today than just a few months ago. Whether it shook anyone at the Academy up or not, whether Sayles retains his critical cachet - these things don't matter, at least not from a spirit of pure viewership, of loving movies for knocking us over with stories we never imagined we would like. Sometimes, movie lovers take "discovery" very seriously, and my great discovery cannot be your great discovery, because you didn't get there first. No movie, in my opinion, ought to inspire that kind of blindness - movies are meant to be seen! - but I particularly hope readers unfamiliar with LONESTAR won't let that obscure their vision.
LONESTAR is flat-out as good a movie as I've seen in 2022. Given that my first-watches this year included SCARECROW, THUNDERBOLT&LIGHTFOOT, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, THE CONVERSATION, & the original CAPE FEAR, among others, that's an achievement of some distinction. I am pleased to call LONESTAR my #1 Discovery this year, and endorse it as fullthroatedly as possible.
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