Texcentric Cinema
A portrait of our state, in film.
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Since celebrated director Terrence Malick’s entire career consists of only three Hollywood films, we’re lucky he’s a Texan and that the West serves as the subject in two of his works. Days of Heaven, the story of an immigrant family from Chicago who come to Texas as migrant workers is a beautifully shot, poetic movie filled with yellow light and fields of sensually swaying wheat. Richard Gere is the young man on the road with his sister (Manz) and his lover (Adams), disguised as his other sister, who have come South seeking better living conditions. After one West Texas harvest, the lone (and lonely) farmer (Shepard) with the mansion on the hill asks the trio to stay, mainly so he can marry the woman whom he believes is the older sister. In what has become Malick’s trademark, the film is short on dialogue in favor of narrative voice-over, delivered this time in the somewhat misplaced urban accent of the tough little girl who leads us through this artsy, ill-fated love triangle with commentary wise beyond her years.
DAZED AND CONFUSED
Directed by Richard Linklater; with Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Shawn Andrews, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, Wiley Wiggins, Parker Posey, and Matthew McConaughey. 1993
Another last day of school movie—this time it’s high school, 1976—Dazed and Confused offers an unpretentious day-in-the-life glimpse of suburban Texas teenagers during that much-revisited decade of hip huggers and bell bottoms. The film is low key and funny without wallowing too much in nostalgia. Like Linklater’s earlier film, Slacker, characterization prevails; it doesn’t have much of a narrative structure and this is one of its simple successes. Though the period fashions and the carefully-chosen soundtrack are familiar on a national level, the local flavor is far from buried. The importance of high school football and the vicious initiation rights suffered by freshmen could be a lesson in regional culture. UT film alumnus Matthew McConaughey makes only his second appearance on celluloid here as Wooderson, the twenty-year-old high school hanger-on ubiquitous to every hometown.
FANDANGO
Directed by Kevin Reynolds; with Judd Nelson, Sam Robards, Kevin Costner, Chuck Bush, Brian Cesak, Marvin J. McIntyre, and Suzy Amis. 1985
Yes, there have been better road movies, and better buddy films, yet Fandango, like the dance (and the caper) for which it is named, has a modicum of soul; it’s even downright likable. It’s summer 1971 on the University of Texas campus as Kevin Costner and his fraternity brothers are graduating, some facing draft notices and one about to get married. Filled with the energy of youth and the anxiety of impending adulthood, the five friends road trip to Marfa (there’s a scene shot in front of what’s left of the mansion from Giant) manufacturing adventure and some complicated emotions along the way. “What could anyone possibly like about this state?” asks a worrisome Judd Nelson as his fancy light-blue vintage car gets worse for wear on the dusty western highways. “I like the way it’s shaped,” is the response he gets from the back seat. There’s plenty of Texas scenery to take in between stops at the Sonic and long-neck Shiner beers.
FLESH AND BONE
Directed by Steven Kloves; with Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, James Caan, and Gwenyth Paltrow. 1993
Filmed all over Central and West Texas, Flesh and Bone is a stormy film that follows Arlis Sweeney (Quaid), a loner with a vending machine business and a terrible secret from his past, as he makes the statewide deliveries that have become his way of forgetting about the childhood spent with his evil father (Caan). But his ritual is soon interrupted when he meets love interest Kay (Ryan), and discovers their paths have crossed before. The opening scene of this film is one of the most chilling I’ve seen, and there’s nice writing all around. As a man with such a tragic past, it would have been nice to see a little more of what makes our quirky protagonist tick, but he manages the role of a Texas archetype—the cowboy riding and hiding his pain—just fine. Texas flavor is strong in bar scenes filled with domino playing, Hill Country shots of horseback riding and swimming, beautiful big-sky landscapes, and a romantic two-step in an empty honky-tonk with Willie on the vintage juke. Don’t expect a happy ending, but our hero does drive off into the sunset.
THE FRENCH LINE
Directed by Lloyd Bacon; with Jane Russell, Gilbert Rodand, Arthur Hunnicutt, Mary McCarty, Craig Stevens, and Steven Geray. 1953
Don’t know why I’m including this one on my list except it’s a personal favorite; Jane Russell is big, busty, and sassy in her role as a rich Texan who disguises her fortune and sets sail for Paris to find a man more interested in her person. (It seems RKO Pictures wanted the same for Russell’s fans, the film was originally made in 3-D.) Too bad the whole romantic mess takes place on a cruise to France, but the musical numbers are giant and flashy, the costumes are Lone Star-studded, and the parley is as kitsch as the gift shop at the Alamo. Texas is way big enough to maintain its personality on the high seas.
GIANT
Directed by George Stevens; with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, Mercedes McCambridge, Carroll Baker, Dennis Hopper, Chill Wills, Sal Mineo, and Rod Taylor. 1956
If Hud is as wild as Texas, then Giant is as long as Texas (or at least about the time it takes to drive from Austin to Houston). But just because it clocks in at a little over three hours (not including the intermission) doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go down that road. Giant takes us to that famous mansion—façade partly still standing—on the flat lands of Marfa, where cattle rancher Bick Benedict (Rock Hudson) rules the Reata estate. Bick, who travels back east to buy a horse, returns home with a fancy black stallion and a filly on his arm—new bride Elizabeth Taylor. Of course wily ranch hand Jett Rink—James Dean’s last role before his death—quickly develops a crush on her too, and the competition between rich man, poor man is turned up another notch. Even if the words “epic saga” make you fidget, this one is a must-see. Taylor gives one of her best performances ever; the entire plot hinges on her assimilation into the barren, patriarchal West Texas way of life, which she progressively makes, with spunk and smarts. Two generations are chronicled in the story (taken from Edna Ferber’s novel), and along with their growth as a family comes a documented move in the Texas economy from agriculture to oil, and for the times, a pretty advanced statement on racism. The characters don’t age very gracefully due to an overuse of talcum powder, so it’s a damn good thing the movie does.
HUD
Directed by Martin Ritt; with Paul Newman, Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Neal, and Brandon de Wilde. 1963
Serious, dusty, wild—just like Texas itself. Based on the Larry McMurtry novel Horseman Pass By, this film takes us to the stark, black-and-white landscape of a West Texas ranch whose cattle may be infected with hoof and mouth disease. Melvyn Douglas plays stodgy patriarch Homer Bannon, an ethical yet rigid old-timer entrenched in the past; while Newman is the ruggedly-handsome Hud, the old man’s no-good, tom cattin’, whiskey drinkin’ heir who makes the case for selling off the herd before the government comes in with a death sentence. Hud’s nephew Lon (de Wilde) is the philosophical fledgling between them—still possessing a childlike goodheartedness, but also nurturing a taste for Hud’s rakish ways. Patricia Neal won an Oscar for her role as Alma, the rough-handed housekeeper who is both attracted to and repulsed by Hud’s insensitivity. The film’s bleak Texas setting (cinematographer James Wong Howe also won an Academy award for his work) brilliantly offsets the rich characterization in the writing, and though the film comes off as a bit moralizing, the desperate tensions and passions of a family driven to change evoke the maverick Texas spirit, marking this one a classic.
JFK
Directed by Oliver Stone; with Kevin Costner, Gary Oldman, Sissy Spacek, Tommy Lee Jones, Laurie Metcalf, Michael Rooker, Jay O. Sanders, Sally Kirkland, Ed Asner, Jack Lemmon, Vincent D’Onofrio, Brian Doyle Murray, Joe Pesci, Walter Matthau, Tomas Milian, John Candy, Kevin Bacon, and Donald Sutherland. 1991
This hotly-debated film captures Dallas’ infamous moment in national political history and then moves from Dealy Plaza on to Louisiana where controversial New Orleans D.A. James Garrison (Costner) develops his not-so controversial theory that Oswald didn’t act alone in the assassination of President Kennedy. There’s so much information presented here that there’s hardly time to pay attention to anything but the plot. But however flawed the evidence might be, the argument Stone builds is quite persuasive. Solid acting all the way across the well-cast board, and the skillful use of archival footage and flashback sequences makes for a very coercing film that delivers the entertainment value of a riveting whodunit. An easy way to remember it’s not a documentary: the real Jim Garrison plays Earl Warren in the movie.
LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO
Directed by Eagle Pennell; with Sonny Carl Davis, Louis Perryman, Steven Matilla, Tina-Bess Hubbard, Amanda Lamar, and Peggy Pinnell. 1984
With more cussing in the first five minutes (and throughout the film) than you can shake a stick at, this one offers an authentic insight into culture of the Texas barroom. Texas Chainsaw Massacre scribe Kim Henkel again puts a darkly comedic spin on a terrifying subject—a group of drunk, potty-mouthed good ol’ boys trying to keep their favorite Houston watering hole, the Alamo, from closing down. These realistic urban cowboys are colorful to say the least, and for such a low-budget enterprise, the acting is uniform and the black-and-white camera work dramatic.
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