Uncovering crime and passion in a Texas border town (10/10)

Watching reviews and hearing promotions of this movie more than 10 years ago, now, I had no concept of its dimensions, the universals it deals with so effortlessly: race, legal oppression, cross-cultural taboo-challenging love, the drug laws, the environment… and Texas itself.  Lone Star is solidly on my top 10 list.

The story is of Sam Deeds (Cooper) the son of a former popular sheriff Buddy Deeds (McConaughey) of a small border town (loosely patterned after Del Rio, Texas) who returns to take the same job his father had.  A skeleton has been discovered on an old military target range, which appears to be that of the murderous racist sheriff Charlie Wade (Kristofferson) who preceded Sam’s father.

As Sam proceeds to figure out what happened, he reignites a passion he once had for Pilar (Peña), who is working as a teacher.  The movie flashes back to the late 1950s into the early 1970s to show the stage from which the main characters have been propelled, and the influences that make the town of “Frontera, Texas,” the menudo (soup) it is today. Continue reading →