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Product Description: One of the most acclaimed movies of the 90's! The more a lawman probes into a long-ago murder the more he uncovers layers of family and racial strife that divide this Texas border town.Year: 1996 Director: John Sayles Starring: Chris Cooper Kris Kristofferson Matthew McConaughey Elizabeth PenaRunning Time: 135 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 053939251524 Amazon.com essential video: This complex and rich film by John Sayles stars Chris Cooper as the contemporary sheriff of a Texas border town still under the sway of his late, legendary lawman father (Matthew McConaughey, seen in flashbacks). The discovery of a skeleton and crusted-over badge--buried some 40 years--initiates an investigation into an old crime no one wants to talk about but which will determine for Cooper's character, once and for all, various truths about his father's life. Sayles ingeniously sets this mystery against the backdrop of a developing, multicultural community losing its economic base while haggling over a history of racism. The overall effect is of a complicated American tragedy mitigated by the possibility of personal redemption. A terrific experience. --Tom Keogh Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-05-12
A lot of power
Excellently subtle tapestry of race matters, family secrets & romantic irony in a sleepy Texas border town. A film to watch more than once. Excellent casting. Rating:
Date: 2007-07-13
Lone Star
Reuniting Sayles with his "Matewan" star Cooper, this border-town mystery exemplifies Sayles's talent for telling compelling human stories that deal with important social issues- in this case, illegal immigration, family legacies, and the scourge of racism. Cooper, Pena, and then-unknown McConaughey are superb in their roles, and Kristofferson stands out as the mean, rough-edged, intimidating Wade. Sayles's low-key approach works in favor of the film's almost novelistic feel, which nicely balances elements of suspense with heartache as it alternates between past and present. "Lone Star" is a complex, thought-provoking look at love, race, and border culture in the American Southwest. Rating:
Date: 2007-05-16
American Masterpiece
There have been six Masterpieces produced in American Cinema that go to the heart of being an american (if this doesn't start a war I don't know what will!). They are in order:
Citizen Kane - 1941
Casablanca - 1942
The Last Picture Show - 1971
American Graffitti - 1973
Parenthood - 1989
Lonestar - 1996
They vary as much as they remain cohesive. They were made by visionary Directors, with the exception of Casablanca which represents the best of American film making by committee, and they all share one American attribute that will garner them immortality - they have Heart.
Few films can compare, none can surpass.
While The Last Picture Show is the best of the lot in that it captures the changing of our country from rural to urban from the fifties onward and the beginning of the ache for that lost Americana, Lonestar does the same thing with the results of those changes we are all experiencing now - proving that that ache still resonates in our souls.
The other four movies deal with different aspects of the American experience, but do so equally well in their own arena.
I cannot recommend Lonestar highly enough. You will be moved in ways that cinema moves it's audience best - in your heart of hearts.
Rating: 
Date: 2007-04-23
You are your family, like it or not
"Lone Star" is another amazing John Sayles film. It takes place in a small Texas town on the Rio Grande. The town is shaped by the constant influx of Mexicans hoping for a better life. It begins with the discovery in the desert of a skull, a Masonic ring, and a sheriff's badge. The present sheriff is the son of a past, deceased sheriff who is revered by the residents. By investigating the death in the desert, he starts uncovering secrets from before he was born. As a son, he never knew his father the same way everyone else knew him. Part of his investigation is curiosity about who his father really was.
Meanwhile, an Army colonel who left town never expecting to return again finds himself in command of the Army base there, where his father is "the mayor of Darktown", i.e. the informal leader of the African-American community. The colonel is both a son of this man, and a father to his own son, who is also curious about his heritage.
The third family to be explored is that of the sheriff's high school sweetheart who is now a teacher in that same school. Her mother, a Mexican, is a pillar of the community and owns a successful restaurant. Again, the teacher is both a daughter of a stern, disapproving mother and a mother to her own children, who are teenagers with teenager problems.
The histories of these three families are interwoven with creative use of flashbacks and the dogged investigation by the sheriff of the death of the murdered sheriff. As the sheriff explores the classic principles of motive and opportunity for a murder that happened before he was born, he learns more than he wanted to know about the history of his town and his family. Rating:
Date: 2007-04-08
A Murder in a Small Town
"Lone Star" is director John Sayles's brilliantly subtle, deliberately paced and multi-layered dissection of a murder investigation in a small Texas border town. The corpse of a long-missing former sheriff is discovered, triggering an investigation by the current sheriff (played by Chris Cooper). As the investigation proceeds, the sheriff begins to suspect the involvement of his own father (played by Matthew McConaughey), a now deceased town hero, who was also his predecessor as sheriff. The son has lived long in the shadow of a father with whom he had many issues, and will seek the truth about his father in pushing the investigation to its bitter end.
Sayles tells the story in a nicely parallel fashion in the past and present, as we learn that the murdered sheriff (played with venemous malice by Kris Kristofferson) was a corrupt murderer and racist who ran the town like a personal fiefdom. The character played by McConaughey was one of his deputies, who may or may not have stood up to the corrupt sheriff.
Elizabeth Pena plays the childhood love interest of the present day sheriff. The two of them attempt to revive their relationship but discover to their dismay that their fate together is also tied to the resolution of the murder mystery. This last plot twist provides an additional and surprising kick at the end of the movie.
Sayles does a good job providing context for a small Texas town where the long-dominant Anglos are slowly being pushed out of the majority by a mushrooming Mexican-American population. A small black population is caught in between the two larger groups. The resulting frictions show up in politics, schools, and personal relationships.
This movie is very highly recommended both as a superbly-filmed murder mystery and as a dissection of a slice of American life over two generations in one Texas town. |
