Lone Star Review: John Sayles’s Powerful 90s Crime Drama Masterpiece

This rerelease of John Sayles’s 1996 western crime drama, Lone Star, is a reminder of the vital yet perhaps overlooked indie movie-making tradition he offered in ’90s Hollywood. It stands apart from the brilliant ironies and shocks of Tarantino or the literary noir of the Coen brothers. Lone Star is a richly layered film that manages to tell a complex story in just over two hours. It touches on themes of the old west and new, the cultural tensions between Texas and Mexico, and the melancholy of aging white men in Stetsons. Above all, it delves into who controls the narrative and the legends we choose to believe. The film also explores the Freudian fear of the father and the embrace of taboo, culminating in a subversive ending.

The setting is the fictional town of Frontera, Texas, which appeals to certain visitors because it’s close to the border and offers an array of cheap pleasures in Mexico. Sheriff Sam Deeds, played by Chris Cooper, cynically suggests the town’s slogan should be “gateway to inexpensive pussy.” Sam’s father, Buddy, was once the town’s revered sheriff, and a courthouse is about to be named in his honor. However, Sam is troubled because a skeleton with a “lone star” badge has been unearthed nearby, presumably belonging to a notoriously racist and corrupt officer named Charlie Wade, portrayed in flashback by Kris Kristofferson.

Rumor has it that Wade was killed and buried secretly by Sam’s father, Buddy, who is depicted in flashback by Matthew McConaughey. Hollis, a sycophantic officer from that time, played by Clifton James, remains in the town. As Sam begins to investigate the skeleton and its badge, he stirs the entire community, awakening old and uneasy memories.

Sam is divorced, with Frances McDormand making a brief but memorable appearance as his unhappy and hyperactive ex-wife. However, he returns to his hometown, still yearning for his high school sweetheart, Pilar, now a history teacher played by Elizabeth Peña. Pilar’s job is complicated by the need to address Tex-Mex issues, often clashing with parents. Her mother Mercedes, portrayed by Míriam Colón, runs a restaurant that employs illegal migrants, reflecting the ongoing crisis of loyalty and providing a backdrop for the town’s complex social dynamics. African Americans, another significant ethnic group in the community, are represented through Otis Payne, a bar owner played by Ron Canada, whose son Delmore, portrayed by Joe Morton, is an ambitious army officer.

These characters form a network of stories and suppressed emotions, with Cooper’s Sam emerging as the focal point. He undergoes a midlife crisis, reflecting on how his father cruelly ended his relationship with Pilar during their youth. Sayles uses a creative memory-flashback technique where the camera moves seamlessly from the middle-aged Sam to his younger self, emphasizing that these events happened not too long ago and in the same place.

The film suggests that the bigotry and social barriers that once prevented intermarriage and dictated people’s lives are gradually fading. The tribal distinctions that once constituted ‘history’ are starting to blur. Lone Star is an absorbing, powerfully acted drama, guided by Sayles’s distinctive Zen-like wisdom.

Lone Star is showing in UK cinemas from 16 August.

Source: The Guardian