Rent Lone Star (1996)

Great American Mystery Drama - Lone Star review by GI

Lone Star is a gem of a film; a crime mystery drama set in modern day Texas close to the Mexican border. A skeleton is found buried in the desert and Sheriff Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) begins an investigation and soon comes to believe that it's the remains of former Sheriff Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson) who disappeared forty years ago. As he begins to delve into the circumstances of Wade's disappearance he begins to uncover dark secrets that will get to the heart of his relationship with his father and his lover. The narrative plays out over two timelines and the director, John Sayles, brilliantly uses in-shot edits to move between the present day and the events of forty years earlier. It's a marvellous ploy and gives the film a poetry and tempo which makes it really engrossing. The narrative delves deep into issues of racial tensions that span, unchecked, across the decades and highlights disputes over the interpretation of history. The very plot is a treatise on how events can be manipulated and controlled. But mixed in here are really bold family dramas that intertwine with the mystery story. A superb support cast including Clifton James, Matthew McConaughey and Frances McDormand sets this film apart. It's a mini-masterpiece and definitely one to seek out.

Superb - Lone Star review by sb

FILM & REVIEW John Sayles superb multi layered drama set along the Tex-Mex border has Cooper as Sam the sheriff in a small Texan town who has spent his entire life in the shadow of his father Buddy (McConaughy in flashbacks) a previous sheriff who is a local legend. The film opens with a discovery of a skeleton in the desert and a sheriff badge nearby and it’s discovered that it’s the remains of Charley Wade (Kristofferson) an old school lawman who shot first and asked questions later and was on take from everyone, Sam begins to suspect that Buddy may have have responsible for his death and so begins to uncover the past. Meanwhile a US Army Colonel gets posted to a local base where his estranged Father runs a bar having walked out on his family years ago. Sam also hooks up with his old school sweetheart Pilar (Pena) and her difficult relationship with her mother so the film is a murder mystery wrapped in a generational conflict where the past ( both personal and historical) is as much an influence on events as the present. Superb performances throughout with Cooper superb as the laconic less is more lead and Sayles manages to keep several plot strands all going at once both from now and then without ever losing the audience - not seen it in a while and it’s a true masterpiece - 5/5

Texan racism and past violence corrected by an old murder - Lone Star review by Gwydion

A tail told told around a murder mystery. But this 1997 film gently shows a lot about the racism and shifting balances of power in Texas, taken from Mexico and in a border county where Latinos are now a majority. Are moving into the top jobs in what is still a white power structure.

Personal feelings cut across racial conflicts, sometimes. And there are several father-son conflicts, plus a man with an odd relationship with his rather scatty ex-wife.

Several characters are not what you first think you are.

Some excellent small stories told along the way. I was impressed by one about a young black woman from a slum area, serving in the army. She sees the USA as 'their country', offering a good deal because they need her to fight Arabs etc.