Lone Star

      This is a recent revisit to a film that came out almost 20 years ago.  With the passage of time I have become more aware of how much reality was created in the film relative to cultural rules and attitudes and individual expressions in conjunction with or at times in conflict with these realities.  It's a film really worth enjoying in the details of the telling and in particular the use of common ordinary language which normally I associate with the more sophisticated humorous pictures.  It is a film that really satisfies ones curiosity of what makes things the way they are in the United States.  

    The film's time frame is a nearly 40 year period of special events and happenings in a fictional Texas border city which appears to be on the Rio Grande River near El Paso, Texas.   In the beginning we see a couple of soldiers looking for artifacts or stones of value out in the nearby desert when they happen to come on a human skeleton.  They notify the local law enforcement authorities which in this case turns out to be Chris Cooper as a member of a Texas Rangers organization.  The mystery has it's beginnings here.

    Cooper plays the law enforcement lead in the local police organization, Sam Deeds, the son of the former sheriff , Buddy Deeds, of the department during the early part of the film.  Mathew McGonaughey plays the father in this first really important role of his career.

    Buddy became sheriff after a period as one of the members of the sheriff department in the earlier period that was run by a many named Charlie Wade, a role handled with beady eyed cruelty and corruption by Kris Kristofferson.  Wade used the office to extort money from local people and enrich himself with ease.  Ultimately Wade disappears and as the really most effective member of the department 'Buddy takes office as the new sheriff.

    Sam has been married but is not now.  His ex-wife, in another outstanding performance in the  minor role of Bunny is played by Frances McDormand.   Bunny is a special case, suffering from major mental problem a serious bi-polar condition.  When Sam visits her he asks if she is still taking her medications.  She is either up or down depending on the situation at the moment.  She is a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys and also upset with Sam for the failure of the marriage.  He's there for information that ends up being a primary mystery solution.  She resents that but soon gets caught up in the Dallas game which is on television and overcomes her moodiness.

    The Latino contingent is centered on Pilar the daughter of a Mercedez Cruz who came into the United Stares as a wetback by wading across the Rio Grande River.  She eventually opened a restaurant specializing in Mexican food and became quite successful and ultimately living in a more expensive home on the banks of the Rio Grande.  Her success enables her to send Pilar to college where after majoring in education becomes a teacher in the local high school.  Incidentally neither of these ladies is of primarily Mexican descent.  Pilar played by Elizabeth Pena is of Cuban descent but was actually born in Elizabeth, New Jersey.  Mercedes played by Miriam Colon is actually an American born in Puerto Rico.  Sam and Pilar have an early relationship when both were in high school but this was dramatically broken up by Buddy.

    I am not going to try and explain the outcomes of the story.  The complexities of the relationships are dealt with in an analytical fashion, and viewers only gradually learn these complexities.  The third factor in the cultures is the black Americans which finds the newly assigned Military officer at the local army base is a Black Colonel.  He also has a past relationship with the area since his father operated a local bar and dance club that was often considered out of bounds by the military.  The father has a long term companion played by Carmen de Lavaliade a really beautiful women of mixed heritage.

    There are two other characters who I found particularly interesting.  One is Private Johnson a female soldier who is also black named Private Johnson.  The Colonel has her brought to him for informational purposes since she was picked up during a fight and shooting at the Dance Club.  Their discussion revolves around why she is in the army and her view on that and life in general is very heart warming.  She is played by an actress out of Houston, Texas named Chandra Wilson.  And, finally we must note an native American role of Gordon Tootoosis who operates a kind of open air junk shop near the Mexican border.  The role is handled by Wesley Birdsong who is definitely of  Native background, but was actually born in Canada and is of Cree and Stoney heritage.  He also provides Sam of an illustration of why trying to dig up facts out of the past might not be a good idea.

     These many minor roles have an important part in the films overall presentation.  The differences in cultures and the difference in attitudes to others and to those in their immediate relationships provides some what of a reality revelation of why  relations between cultures can be so different just as they appear to be today.