A Lone Star State of Mind: Films About Texas
Pajiba's Guide to What's Good For You / Daniel Carlson
As I’ve mentioned on more than one occasion, I grew up in Texas, and despite the unbearable summers that stretched through September and the fact that way, way too many of my friends and contemporaries liked to hunt, I loved living there. Since relocating to the West Coast, I’ve found myself ever more willing to sing the praises of the Lone Star State. There are a number of reasons for this, not least among them the whole “Nobody picks on my kid brother but me” mentality. But that’s superseded by a desire to explain to people who’ve never been there just what the state is like. When I was a boy, the state sponsored an ad campaign with the slogan “Texas: It’s like a whole other country.” I knew back then they weren’t going far enough, because Texas is a whole other country, a weird, sprawling land of extremists and moderates, where Minutemen patrol the border and U.T. students get blazed next to Dobie Mall, where rural farms and metropolitan cities dwell in unlikely proximity, and where tiny glimpses of the best and worst sides of humanity become writ large under an impossibly domineering Polaroid-blue sky.
It’s that indefinable sense of purpose, of a life as frighteningly wide open as the endless plains of West Texas (and believe me, they are endless), that finds its way into even the most innocuous films set in the state. So many films function independently of their location, which is why most of them seem to be set in New York or Los Angeles, America’s twin cities for living out a created identity in a sea of fellow happy pretenders. Yes, some filmmakers have the ability to tell a story that rises above the generic — I’m thinking mainly of Woody Allen, whose love for New York is its own character in his movies — and there are more than a few films that take place in Texas for no real reason. But there are some films set in Texas that fully embrace the state’s mythos and become fused with a unique balance of slow movement and quick thinking, films that take place in a variety of times or cities or situations but that never stray far from car wheels on a gravel road. And it’s those films that I’d like to pay tribute to here.
Dazed and Confused
Writer-director Richard Linklater’s debut, Slacker (1991), explored a day in the life of disparate Austinites, but it was his follow-up, Dazed and Confused (1993), that cemented his status as an important filmmaker of the 1990s independent movement. More importantly, the film perfectly captured the aimless wandering that would later haunt so many of Linklater’s characters, from the love-stuck couple in Before Sunrise/Before Sunset to the pontificators of Waking Life to the eternally juvenile Dewey Finn in The School of Rock. (OK, the last one’s a bit of a stretch, but deal.) Set in a small town not unlike Huntsville, near Linklater’s native Houston, Dazed and Confused followed a group of high school juniors and a few upcoming freshmen on the last day of school in 1976. The film is full of loving flourishes that recall a youth full of the odd rituals of coming of age, and the cast of then-unknowns — including Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, and Parker Posey — lent the film an additional layer of reality. It’s one of the best teen films of all time.
Office Space
Despite never actually naming its setting, Mike Judge’s cult satire of cubicle life benefits hugely from its location shooting in Dallas and Austin, where the filmmaker is based. The urban sprawl that dominates Los Angeles and New York, specifically the filmic representations of those cities, is all wrong for Office Space (1999), where the threat is not just an unfulfilling job but a homogenous, boring lifestyle. When Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) postulates in horror that he could be working at his company when he’s 50, Samir’s (Ajay Naidu) reply that it “would be nice to have that kind of job security” is only a half-joke. There’s nothing better than the expansive acres of strip malls, manicured lawns, and passive white people of north Dallas to convey the true terror of never graduating out of that temp job.
Primer
An enjoyably genre-busting sci-fi film from 2004, Primer is a truly independent film about four weekend hobbyists in Coppell who, after weeks of futzing around with electronics in their garage, construct a working time machine. Written and directed by Shane Carruth, who also starred, the film makes full use of its setting without invoking it outright: From the older Chevy Silverado one of the characters drives, to the scene where two characters meet one morning at a Sonic Drive-In, the film moves at the state’s leisurely pace. It’s a stark contrast from the increasingly convoluted story line, which involves so many twists I won’t begin to untangle them here. It’s a fantastic, overlooked, underrated film.
Tender Mercies
You knew it was inevitable; somewhere on this list, country music would rear its boozy, pomade-slicked head. If it had to happen, though, you couldn’t pick a better film than Tender Mercies (1983), a quiet, earnest film about Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a washed-up singer who winds up living and working at a gas station/motel in the middle of nowhere. He marries the proprietor of the place, Rosa Lee (Tess Harper), and sets about living his life and kicking the bottle, and it’s the towering achievement of Horton Foote’s script and Bruce Beresford’s direction that there is no simple solution to Mac’s problems, no easily identifiable conflict that externalizes his pain for him to vanquish. He’s been dropped from his label, but doesn’t sign a new contract, and only performs on stage once, with a local band at a honky-tonk. The film is an honest, unbiased look at a legitimate way of life and culture, right down to Rosa Lee singing in her church choir and Mac’s eventual baptism, a shockingly personal moment that could never make it today. Sonny’s ex is a pop country singer, riding to stardom on the hits he penned, and the film’s glimpses of her strident performances manage to act as an indictment of the entire commercialization of country music and the pursuit of financial gain at the cost of personal integrity. When the action shifts back to the open plains surrounding the motel, the film finally gets a chance to breathe and revel in its simplicity. It culminates with Mac’s diatribe against life’s injustices and his doubts about theodicy, followed by a genuine closing scene that eschews easy answers but also clings stubbornly to a sense of hope.
The Last Picture Show
Long before Peter Bogdanovich was just some guy in a scarf hosting movies on TCM or popping up in cameos, he was a promising member of the film-school generation whose members ranged from Spielberg to Coppola. His third feature, The Last Picture Show (1971), would wind up being his best, evoking the fading, fleeting glory of the ’60s and projecting it onto the backdrop of the fictional Texas town of Anarene in the 1950s. Based on the novel by Larry McMurtry, the film was shot in McMurtry’s hometown of Archer, and followed the reluctant coming of age of Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) over the course of a year, as well as the closing of the town’s movie theater. The film featured the screen debut of Cybill Shepherd, who would later go on to ruin Bogdanovich’s personal life, but here she’s all innocence and danger as the girl with the power to ruin a young man’s life. The desolate plains of northern Texas are eerily perfect reflectors of the dying way of life Bogdanovich is mourning. Two years before George Lucas would offer up his superficially dutiful but spiritually cold American Graffiti, it was Bogdanovich’s Picture Show that showed what it truly meant to grow up.
Blood Simple
The Coen brothers’ debut film comes roaring onto the screen like a semi barreling down the Texas highway, a swampy mix of sex, murder, and sweaty neo-noir that announced the presence of a gifted writing and directing team. (Not to mention the career boost it gave to then-cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld.) Borrowing their title from Dashiell Hammett, Blood Simple (1984) laid out a tale of betrayal and revenge that takes place in the Texas desert, existing on the psychic outlands between civilization and wilderness. Frances McDormand made her first screen appearance as Abby, who’s married to bar owner Marty (Dan Hedaya) and sleeping with his employee, Ray (John Getz). Marty hires a private eye (M. Emmet Walsh) to spy on the illicit couple, and Walsh steals every scene he’s in. He oozes through the frame, his face furrowed under a constant film of perspiration and wincing from the flies that never seem to stop buzzing around him. The film is packed with suspenseful sequences, but the winner is one character’s struggle to bury another one in the middle of nowhere, only to realize the body has a little life left in it after all. The film falls squarely in the “Texas is its own country” mindset, as Walsh greasily intones the opening lines that set the tone for the whole affair: “What I know is Texas, and down here, you’re on your own.”
Varsity Blues
I suppose I should do my best to qualify the inclusion of Varsity Blues (1999), a testosterone-addled guilty pleasure that does nothing but revel in cheap stereotypes for two hours while the Foo Fighters blast in the background. For starters, the mid- to late-’90s were a heyday of modern teen films to rival the Hughes-era 1980s, and just as before, it seemed that the same half-a-dozen kids were in every movie. Granted, having James Van Der Beek play a football hero was a bit of a stretch, but his anointing on “Dawson’s Creek” made him a natural fit for a film about an angsty teen. (Van Der Beek had already played a bullying jock in 1995’s Angus, so at least he was familiar with the territory.) It instantly launched into the teen stratosphere by playing up horribly broad stereotypes and offering up moments of such inanity they were destined to become iconic. Who could forget Ali Larter’s whipped cream bikini? The high school sex-education teacher who moonlighted as a stripper? Jon Voight’s off-the-charts nutjob of a coach chewed scenery like there was no tomorrow, but it was Van Der Beek’s impassioned plea to his father that was seared into the hearts and minds of a generation: “I. Don’t want. Your life” became an automatic catchphrase. Overall, it’s a cheesy, clunky, almost insultingly dumb look at Texans and their pigskin culture. So why does it make the list? Well, because people in Texas love their high school football. Legions of kids claimed the film was based on their towns, a not unreasonable claim because, deep within the film’s wild fictions, there’s a streak of fanaticism for the Friday night lights that was dead-on. After the film’s release, people aspired to live up to the fervor of Varsity Blues. That’s something.
Paris, Texas
Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas (1984) could be misinterpreted by the impatient viewer as being boring, when it’s really anything but. It is slow, though, the kind of luxuriously paced film that demands your attention. At 147 minutes, Paris, Texas is long enough in its running time and obstinate enough in its unfolding to create an authentic, textured world that wraps around the viewer like the heat baking off the hardtop. A man wanders out of the desert as if God put him there: It’s Travis (Harry Dean Stanton), an amnesiac. He moves in with his brother (Dean Stockwell) and begins to put his life back together, which means reconnecting with his son and tracking down his wife (Nastassja Kinski). Wenders and cinematographer Robby Müller (Down By Law, Dead Man) exult in the simmering expanses of Texas wasteland, and the formal framing and lengthy takes underscore Travis’ spiritual isolation. After half an hour, what once felt slow feels perfectly natural, as if the film had been waiting for you to calm down and slip into its own gentle but constant rhythm, waxing and waning with the Texas sun, building to a heartbreaking reunion. Ry Cooder’s score is fantastic, his slide guitar evoking the mournful strains of Blind Willie Johnson, one of the greatest Texas bluesmen who ever lived. It’s a calmly dazzling film.
Bottle Rocket/Rushmore
Wes Anderson’s first two films are also his best, and it’s no accident that they were both filmed in the director’s native state. Born in Houston and schooled at the University of Texas, where he met future collaborator Owen Wilson, Anderson brings a decidedly unique perspective to the wide open spaces and endless possibilities that only seem to crop up in Texas. Rushmore (1998) owes a great debt to Anderson’s youth at St. John’s School in Houston, where the Rushmore scenes were filmed. The low-hanging trees, the wet streets, the palpable humidity, the overbearing greenness are all wonderfully familiar hallmarks of the coastal plain. However, it’s Bottle Rocket (1996) that best encapsulates the wild Texan urges Anderson would repress in his later works. The film ambles through suburban Dallas but doesn’t start to really find its legs until it explodes onto the road and winds up in Hillsboro, where Anthony (Luke Wilson) and Dignan (Owen Wilson) hole up for a while. Anderson takes full advantage of the vast countryside as a mirror for his heroes’ endless ambition; it only makes sense that the film was produced by Polly Platt, who also worked on The Last Picture Show. The film is a heady mix of foolhardy arrested development and a sense that somehow things will be okay again. Anderson summed up the story thusly: “It’s about a group of guys who have lots of energy and the urge to do something. They are always planning and trying things, moving around. They have a lot of ambition and grand aspirations; it’s just that their direction in life happens to be a little unconventional. They are sincerely trying to accomplish something, they just don’t know what.”
I guess that’s about all I have to say. I’ve been racking my brain for some brilliant little way to sign off at the end of this little tangential field trip through a flawed and dangerous and beautiful state, but I can’t come up with a thing. I could end with all manner of written wisdom from men and women much smarter than I am, or I could just shut up and mosey like the Stranger. I’ll settle for something in between: There’s a lot more to Texas than many of you might think, and it’s my modest hope that one of the movies on this list changes your mind or gets you to think just a little more positively about the state. Unless, of course, that film is Varsity Blues. Then, like the man said, you’re on your own.
Daniel Carlson is the managing editor of Pajiba and a low-level employee at a Hollywood industry magazine. You can visit his blog, Slowly Going Bald.
Damn, It Feels Good to be a Gangsta | | Pajiba Love 10/19/06
Comments
Where's the best little whore house in Texas on that list? Huh? Huh!?!
I kid, I kid. I think Tender Mercies and Paris, Texas are great films though, and I am glad you included the both of them. Slow, yes, but beautifully subtle films.
Posted by: Fozzy da bear at October 11, 2006 5:14 AM
LONE STAR!
Posted by: jaf at October 11, 2006 6:51 AM
Jaf: OH SHIT, LONE STAR! That is CORRECT.
Posted by: Anonoguy at October 11, 2006 6:55 AM
Don't forget about the kids at Lamar High School in Houston, who played the kids at the non-prep school in Rushmore.
Great list!
Posted by: jen at October 11, 2006 8:44 AM
this is an excellent list, but i have to agree with some of the other comments in that i can't imagine talking about movies about Texas without mentioning "Lone Star". it's fantastic.
Posted by: courtney at October 11, 2006 9:59 AM
I have to dissent. Lone Star doesn't belong on the list. I have to put my vote in for Terms of Endearment. Nicholson's astronaut and McClaine's strong, complicated "southern belle" were both pitch perfect Texans.
Posted by: anontexguy at October 11, 2006 10:46 AM
I love this article. As a fellow Texan, who moved to our nation's capital only to find her way back, I agree with every point you made, especially regarding Dazed and Confused. Nothing sums up the last day of small town, yet large high school, better. I've lived all over Texas, and each one of the films you listed captured the geography of this freaking huge state better than most other films. I drive by St. John's on my way to work every day and it is lush, steamy, and needlessly staid. My favorite movies though are the ones set in West Texas. The plains defy description, and the Last Picture Show captured them perfectly: varying shades of the same tan, the dusty and cold winters of the plains are best captured in black and white. Nothing else could adequately illustrate what it's like to arrive in Amarillo in December (as I did when I moved there several years ago) and wonder whether you will ever see the colors of Spring again. Kudos Mr. Carlson. Kudos.
PS - I really must protest that The Legend Of Billie Jean was not on the list. Although one of the worst teen movies ever made, no other film has ever really explored "The Redneck Riviera" of the Texas coastline quite like that one. The blazing hot sun, eternal sweatiness of all of the characters, and supremacy of local radio disc jockeys was a pretty accurate portrayal of small towns that have little TV reception (this was before cable) and where the only things to do are fry on the beach and call in requests to the local radio station. Plus, the accents are dead on.
Posted by: Kitty X at October 11, 2006 10:51 AM
What about Fandango?
Posted by: a texan at October 11, 2006 11:08 AM
How about Happy Texas??
Posted by: former texan at October 11, 2006 11:19 AM
Primer is a GREAT movie. Thanks for mentioning it!
Posted by: David at October 11, 2006 11:21 AM
Good list, but I'd agree that "Lone Star" should be on it. Another fine Texas film, set in Waxahachie, is "Places in the Heart." Everyone probably remembers it for Sally Field's embarrassing "you really like me" speech at the Oscar's, but I watched it again recently and it really holds up well and is not as sappy as you might think. Danny Glover, John Malchovic, Ed Harris, Amy Madigan, Lyndsay Krause all are very good. I think it really captures the feeling of small-town Texas in the 1930's. Another good one is Robert Altman's "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean" with Cher, Karen Black, Sandy Dennis, and Kathy Bates. It's not available on DVD, though. As a native Texan, one of my pet peeves is how most Hollywood actors are utterly unable to nail a good Texan accent. It IS tricky, especially since it differs from East to West, but surely they have voice coaches? Somehow, most "Texans" in movies end up sounding like they are from Atlanta. Grrrr....
Posted by: Vivian Girl at October 11, 2006 11:42 AM
What, Vivian Girl, we don't all sound alike?
I used to meet up with several Usenet newsgroup friends for gatherings in the Washington DC area. The first time some of them met me, they commented on my accent, which was funny to me, because if you put me next to other Texans (my dad, for example), I don't have one. But to someone from Pennsylvania, I guess I do.
I, too, am annoyed by the general ignorance of things Texan displayed in movies. The "Dallas" scenes in the "X-Files" movie which places Dallas as standing alone, no suburbs, in the middle of the frelling DESERT comes to mind. All that money, and they couldn't do a little research?
Ah, well. As Stu Redman says in "The Stand," "Texan don't mean dumb." But you might not know it to watch a few movies. It really is its own culture, and that even varies from region to region. I grew up in small-town North Texas, and I doubt my experience is identical to an Austinite (one COOL city, I might add) or someone from the Panhandle. One Californian friend, about to visit HOUSTON, even asked me if it might be possible for him to "drop by" to visit me (I live about a half hour north of Dallas, which is apparently meaningless if you don't know how genuinely huge the state is).
Thank you for this collection of movies that do justice to Texas, not just poke fun at it and its people.
Posted by: Noelegy at October 11, 2006 12:13 PM
I moved to Texas from Long Island when I was 14, and though I've been back in New York for a few years now, I look back on my dozen years down there with fondness. It's the "little brother" theory you stated -- perfect. When I was there, I beat the hell out of it, but now I defend it.
Anyway, you're dead right about Anderson's first two movies; his best, by far.
Posted by: JMW at October 11, 2006 12:15 PM
Interesting list, especially since I live in Houston (jog past Olivia Williams' house in Rushmore all the time). I would say that Varsity Blues is the more iconic movie, but Friday Night Lights (which it clearly ripped off) is probably a less juvenile treatment of the subject, if just as susceptible to cliches. But then the book is great and it WROTE a lot of those cliches.
One other quibble--although this is never outright declared as far as I know, Dazed and Confused is set and filmed in Austin, not Huntsville, which is a different beast from Houston, though probably less so in 1976. The moon towers are unique to Austin.
BTW, for a great look at the city of Houston, and particularly the Rice Village, see The Chase (hilariously featuring a Hardy Road toll plaza as the Mexican border). And would anybody have guessed that Reality Bites was filmed in Houston? I wouldn't have if I hadn't seen its poster on the wall of Frank's Pizza downtown.
Posted by: Eep at October 11, 2006 12:42 PM
Flesh and Bone
Posted by: JT at October 11, 2006 12:42 PM
Finally! Proof that I'm not the only Texan lurking around the site! Thanks for the list Daniel, and for letting the wider world know that Texas is more than J.R. Ewing and dumbshits in big hats. Not that we don't have a few of those too...
Posted by: Mustang Sally at October 11, 2006 2:12 PM
I have only spent one month vacationing in Texas, and it was beautiful, however, as a Canuck, I have a slight bone to pick...
"frighteningly wide open as the endless plains of West Texas (and believe me, they are endless)"
Have you ever been to Saskatchewan? (or Manitoba, or Alberta, before the Rockies)
Posted by: KDM at October 11, 2006 2:14 PM
Lonesome Dove
Posted by: B.Lanc at October 11, 2006 2:59 PM
Lanc, Lonesome Dove is a perfectly gorgeous story, and perhaps the best thing ever created for television, and everyone in the world should see it; however, I don't believe the story spends enough time in (or on the subject of) Texas for it to qualify for this list.
I'm a transplant who has lived eleven years in Texas. I'm currently trying like hell to get back to my home back East, but I have certainly learned to love and respect many things about Texas--mostly the people, who are cool as hell and who deserve better treatment from Hollywood.
Oh, and Tex-Mex. But y'all can keep your shitty "barbecue."
Posted by: Jerce at October 11, 2006 3:11 PM
Wow. I'm surprised at the exclusion of Lone Star as well. It's one of my all time favorites; such a subtle piece of warm brilliance, that film. I agree with Vivian Girl's additions, as well, especially Places in the Heart. It was such a surprise how gritty and realistic that film was considering that the premise was kind of cheesy.
Posted by: MaiGirl at October 11, 2006 3:15 PM
After months of lurking, this one has finally pulled me out! As a Texas ex-pat as well (and not just out of state - out of country!) this is great. I have a list of movies to watch when I'm homesick for Texas. Two other suggestions - Dancer, Texas - pop. 81 is another indie quirky coming of age story, and, since I'm more of a baseball gal than football, The Rookie, although incredibly cheesy, just feels like Texas to me.
Posted by: lindy at October 11, 2006 3:18 PM
Lindy, I am so glad you mentioned Dancer, Texas....it is by far one of my favorite movies. I thought Ethan Embry was brilliant as Squirrel.
Posted by: Lauren at October 11, 2006 3:50 PM
I was going to mention Dancer, Texas also. What a great little movie! Surprised it wasn't mentioned in the article. Lauren is right...Ethan Embry was very good as was Peter Faccinelli (spelling??)
Posted by: shannon at October 11, 2006 4:42 PM
Thanks for this. I am yet another Texan drawn out of lurking by this post. I am currently living in Hawaii, which is lovely and all, but I miss Texas. The people, the land, the food (especially Tex-Mex, there is NO decent Tex-Mex in Hawaii).
My vote for a movie that makes me think of home is Urban Cowboy. Not a great film or anything, but I grew up on the edge of Pasadena and it just says home.
Also, Reality Bites.
Posted by: Erin at October 11, 2006 5:32 PM
Daniel AND Dustin, y'all are showin' a little too much love for Varsity Blues - twice in three weeks?
Posted by: Nope at October 11, 2006 5:58 PM
Giant! That is definitely a movie that benefits from its Texas setting.
Posted by: Lucie at October 11, 2006 6:07 PM
I'd say that Friday Night Lights was a pretty glaring omission from this list. It took everything Varsity BLues tried to do, and made it better.
Posted by: Vincent at October 11, 2006 9:13 PM
Eep--I'm not sure about the movie, but I know Dazed and Confused was based on a book which happened to be set in Conroe (b/w Hunstville and Houston for the non-natives.) I'm going to have to rent Reality Bites again to see if I can find that poster. I moved to the Houston area almost a year ago and just recently tried the little pizza place I walk by every day. Franks Pizza is the BEST!
Daniel--great list. But lets not forget the classic Footloose, based on the book "No Dancin' in Anson" set in a small west Texas town north of the metropolous of Abilene (I can call it a metropolous now because it has TWO Super Wal-Marts).
Posted by: Bdub at October 11, 2006 11:21 PM
Bdub: My research shows that "No Dancin' in Anson" was published in the mid-90s, more than a decade after the release of Footloose. Still, it's nice to know that Anson is being preserved in such literature. Now if only someone would write a book about Anson Lights, we'd be all set. -- Daniel
Posted by: Daniel at October 11, 2006 11:33 PM
As a native and a movie fan, my only recommendations have already been said upstream by others:
You've gotta have Lone Star. Yeah, the story is awesome (and if you've ever spent time in Webb County, totally believable), but the dual tour de force by Chris Cooper and Kris Kristofferson is what makes it special. Celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year;
If you're going to put Varsity Blues on your list, you really do have to include the movie made from the book that brought Mojo Magic out of Odessa and into the national spotlight: Friday Night Lights. My gradparents both died thinking Buzz Bissinger cheated the good folks of Odessa; seeing plenty of that time in visiting them, I think he simply told one hell of a story by writing about the reality of Permian football in Odessa;
Not that it's a great movie like Lone Star or a compelling one like Friday Night Lights, but Fandango is one of the best road trip movies of all time. And that's not just because I'm from Texas, y'all!
Posted by: Patrick at October 12, 2006 1:03 AM
How about texas chainsaw massacre? I know it is not the best or deepest piece of filmmaking out there, but it is certainly influencial and it is still certainly a uniquely good horror film in a world full of crappy horror films.
Posted by: Fozzy da bear at October 12, 2006 2:40 AM
Bdub-
I didn't realize that about the book for Dazed and Confused. Where did you find the info? I tried to corroborate it on the internet, and as far as I can tell Linklater wrote the movie directly for the screen. And a search for "Conroe," and "Dazed and Confused" didn't turn up much.
Oh, also when I talked about the poster in Frank's, I mean that Frank's has a Reality Bites poster because they have posters of all or most of the movies shot in Houston.
Posted by: Eep at October 12, 2006 10:08 AM
In addition to TCM, Lonestar and Friday Night Lights, there is also:
The Sugarland Express
Roadie
Dr. T and the Women
North Dallas Forty
Tin Cup
Posted by: Sarcastro at October 12, 2006 10:22 AM
I always thought Footloose was based upon Beaumont, a city East of Houston, which is known for its conservatism. Then, I heard later it was based upon a city in some other state.
Urban Cowboy, thought schlocky now, brought on a wave of honky tonks in many states, but none of them will ever be anywhere close to Gilley's which burned to the ground a while back. I must admit that any time my friends and I gather together for a picture, one of us says, "Mama, my legs are sweatin'". Also, the prison rodeo in Huntsville used to be a real thing.
Posted by: Kitty X at October 12, 2006 10:23 AM
Am I the only one that remembers Cloak & Dagger?!?! Henry Thomas and Dabney Coleman! It was a great kid movie of the 80's filmed in San Antonio!!
Posted by: Lauren at October 12, 2006 10:53 AM
No Love for "A Texas Funeral?"
-Jon.
Posted by: Jon F. at October 12, 2006 11:54 AM
Another tidbit about "Bottle Rocket" - the scene at the all-girls school that Luke Wilson's younger sister attended was actually shot at St. Mark's in Dallas - an all-boys school that Owen Wilson got kicked out of, and Luke Wilson couldn't officially graduate from because he couldn't pass geometry (Luke, I sympathize - I barely got a D in that course the one year I went to St. Mark's).
Otherwise, great list. Office Space was certainly Dallas - it's faceless office buildings and huge, sprawling apartment complexes (and a great name for it in the movie - "Morningwood") are a DFW trademark.
Posted by: Greg at October 12, 2006 1:14 PM
I'm from Southwest Missouri, and up until about 20 years ago, there was a small "town" near me (if you know it you'll know why I put quotation marks around it) called Purdy where dancing was against the law, and it was a big deal when they finally allowed it. Up until then, there was no prom or homecoming dance or anything, just like in Footloose. I was always told that's the town and scenario the movie was based on. If so, they did a very good job of capturing that Midwestern small-town vibe. If you're from the "Bible Belt," that movie is less an outlandish storyline than a very possible reality.
Posted by: tlb at October 12, 2006 1:36 PM
I second the inclusion of Urban Cowboy.
Posted by: Amber at October 12, 2006 1:37 PM
Oh! and what about A Perfect World?
Posted by: Amber at October 12, 2006 1:42 PM
Lauren - I loved Cloak & Dagger, featuring the San Antonio Riverwalk, when I was a kid. I rented it not long ago and found it was still very enjoyable. That old lady with the missing fingers - eek!
Posted by: Erin at October 12, 2006 2:30 PM
A few years ago a friend of mine had an introduction to Texas culture night in his NYC apartment and showed a documentary movie that became one of my favorites - "Hands On a Hardbody" (a "hardbody" being a pickup truck). It is a documentary about a radio contest giving a very cheap (but new) truck to the person who can keep one hand on it the longest. Native urbanites had a hard time relating to and even understanding the movie but I think it is a brilliant glimpse at small town Texas life and priorities.
And I don't know where Footloose is supposed to take place but much of it was filmed in Lehi and Springville, Utah - not Texas. (And to avoid any misunderstandings, dancing was never outlawed there).
Posted by: non-Texan at October 12, 2006 2:38 PM
And how have we forgotten TERMS OF ENDEARMENT and the follow-up, EVENING STAR? Aurora lived in River Oaks, did she not? A true Texas Belle if ever there were one . . .
Posted by: Kitty X at October 12, 2006 4:39 PM
Nice article. I feel compelled to mention that summer in some parts of Texas lasts about 6 months. I lived in Austin for a decade (wonderful city) and it was still 90 degrees in October.
Posted by: Lily at October 12, 2006 5:04 PM
Roadie is shockingly pleasing fare and takes place in good old Austin again. The chase scene down Congress is pretty classic with Shiner Bock trucks and everything...(or was that Lonestar??? Now I have to go back and watch it again!)
Posted by: dirty_snowflake at October 12, 2006 6:42 PM
ROADHOUSE , YEA OR NAY ?
Posted by: pasadenamike at October 12, 2006 8:39 PM
No Children of the Corn 4? What gives?
Just kidding. But that shit was so local I was -in- it.
Posted by: Sarah at October 12, 2006 10:07 PM
"Legions of kids claimed the film was based on their towns" for Varsity Blues. FYI I know for a fact that at least part of it was filmed at Round Rock High School, a suburb of Austin. One of my college buddies was an extra in it.
Posted by: Ian at October 12, 2006 10:32 PM
So when are you going to do "Films about Rhode Island"? Oh wait, that would just consist of every Farrelly Brothers film. And "The Prince of Providence," which every Rhode Islander (but no one else) seems to be looking forward to.
Posted by: Matt at October 13, 2006 12:43 PM
Oh God how I miss Texas! I grew up there, then left after I graduated High School. I swore I'd never go back, but the older I get the more I miss the wide open spaces,and all night drives into the middle of nowhere. I also miss (oddly enough) the commute to work...that scene in Office Space is Dallas commuter traffic to a T. Exiting the Dallas North Tollway used to take at least 20 minutes. And DAMN! I miss Grandy's cinnamon rolls!
Terms of Endearment should be there. And I'm sure I'll get slammed for this, but i like Hope Floats. There, secret out, and I feel better.
And Lonesome Dove is a Texas movie in that the spirit that moves those two guys to drive a bunch of cattle across the country is pure Texan grit. I need to plan a trip...
Posted by: redkitten at October 13, 2006 12:57 PM
How could you omit True Stories?
Posted by: SRS at October 13, 2006 2:36 PM
The Trip to Bountiful with Geraldine Page.
Posted by: swimgrrl at October 13, 2006 4:14 PM
Office Space was filmed in Austin. The scene where Peter is explaining the plan to plant the virus in the company's computer to Joanna in the car, they are driving down Metric Blvd in North Austin. I used to work right off of Metric and many streets were blocked off that day due to the shoot. Also a manager of mine at my new job was an extra on the set at the restaurant where Joanna worked. She said the restaurant shut down for a week. She lost a week's pay but has a great story.
Posted by: JoAnn at October 13, 2006 4:14 PM
I hate to say this, but I think Pee-Wee's Big Adventure should be in there, just for that one scene where he calls home, and whoever he's talking to doesn't believe he's in Texas, and Pee-Wee proves it to him by singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas" and all the Texas stereotypes walking around immediately respond with clap-clap-clap. Maybe it's dumb and cliché and has nothing to do with Txas, but it kills me every time. And every time I think of Texas, I think of it through the eyes of Pee-Wee...
Posted by: gabrielle at October 13, 2006 5:05 PM
Redkitten, I love Hope Floats. Right on.
Posted by: Amber at October 13, 2006 5:07 PM
It's okay, redkitten. I really enjoyed Hope Floats as well. It's no masterpiece, but it is an underrated gem. I am not ashamed!
Posted by: MaiGirl at October 13, 2006 6:52 PM
Hahahaha, gabrielle, that scene is so true. Not because everybody dresses like the stereotypes, but EVERYBODY knows what to do when they hear "The stars at night are big and bright..."
One thing though; it's clap-clap-clap-clap, not clap-clap-clap.
Also, everybody here knows why Hank dranks. Texans know what I'm talking about.
One of these days I'm going to have to see The Evening Star, because it was shot on location at Rice while I was there. I remember seeing the huge cranes shining lights into the Physics amphitheater. Unfortunately I had a wicked test the day after the night they needed extras...
Posted by: Eep at October 14, 2006 6:34 PM
I second PeeWee's Big Adventure (I always loved the tour guide at the Alamo) and True Stories (with its Celebration of Special-ness).
Posted by: miz_geek at October 14, 2006 10:03 PM
Swimgirl - Trip to Bountiful is great! My mom's cousin, Dennis Bishop actually produced it for HBO way back when. I'll have to tell him what you thought... he'll be so proud.
And I agree Erin, I loved Cloak and Dagger and it actually doesn't suck as a grown up... maybe because I remember those walkie-talkies!!
Posted by: Lauren at October 16, 2006 8:39 PM
Just wanted to add my two cents in here... I was born and raised just east of Houston in Baytown and I was always told that Dazed and Confused was based on Baytown.. they are going to Houston for Aerosmith tickets and they went to Lee High School, were the Rebels (which was their mascot before the Ganders) and their colors are blue and white (Sterling High)... oh and I agree with Hope Floats.. Smithville is an awesome little town and the dancehall where Jack Ingram was playing and they were dancing is classic smalltown texas...
and if you havent see "Lone Star State of Mind" with Joshua Jackson and John Mellencamp and a bunch of other people, you gotta check it out... it is totally halirous.. and the little bar where kevin fowler is playing is Club 21 in Uhland, just outside of San Marcos... the whole movie was filmed in San Marcos and Austin.. i miss san marcos...
Posted by: Khristina at October 17, 2006 5:34 PM
Definitely True Stories! It came out back when I was going to college in Dallas and I loved watching it to spot places I knew. Now I live in Houston, and I occasionally drive by a house that reminds me of the voodoo priest's house in that movie with all the stuff in the yard.
I'll have to leave my beloved Houston in a couple of months to move to the east coast, and I'm already having withdrawal. I'll have to get a few of these movies into my Neflix queue.
And I just have to second the poster who pointed out that the fake Texas accents in movies so often come out sounding like Atlanta! Terrible.
Posted by: Ang. at October 19, 2006 2:49 PM
No inclusion of Dancer, Texas?!? GREAT movie...
Posted by: Dusty at October 19, 2006 4:09 PM
It seems you included a lot of movies that could have taken place anywhere and are not particularly reminiscent of Texas...or maybe that's just my interpretation, but Rushmore felt more New England, Office Space could have been in LA, or anywhere else where the homogenous urban/suburban sprawl is taking place...you left out Pee-wee's Big Adventure, he goes to the Alamo as someone mentioned before, and the huge red dinosaur in the movie makes me think of Texas. I've only been once, to Austin, but I always wondered where that huge dinosaur where you could watch the sunrise from was at...oh and to steal another movie from the comments section, Reality Bites! But that could have been almost anywhere too. It's odd how so many movies aren't really reminiscent of place, the best one I can think of is Fried Green Tomatoes (which took place in Georgia or somewhere like that), the local color in that movie is pretty strong.
Posted by: Gina at October 20, 2006 3:12 AM
Okay, two from the Gmoff....
1) the original "The Getaway" with Steve McQueen....shame on you Pajiba, a Peckinpah masterpiece.
2) *with ample shame* "Robocop 2", which was filmed in Houston...I lost the speaking part of "Refrigerator Dick" to a kid in my YMCA Daycare...
Posted by: Gmoff Tarkin at October 20, 2006 4:20 PM
...although, thinking about it- I don't know if it says much about the city of Houston if the producers of the film "Robocop 2" can believably subtitute it for post-apocolyptic Detroit. Because, really...what kind of fresh hell is post-apocolyptic Detroit? I mean, really.
Posted by: Gmoff Tarkin at October 20, 2006 4:26 PM
Selena. (I'm from Corpus.)
Posted by: Halbey at October 20, 2006 6:44 PM
Giant
Posted by: Lynsey at October 20, 2006 11:26 PM
Yay for Wes Anderson! a director who is close to my heart for two reasons:
A. My boyfriend was a speaking day player in Rushmore while a student at St. Johns in Houston. Please, rent the movie again so he'll get another $23 royalty check.
B. Anderson used to frequent the Cosmic Cup in Dallas around the time I hit high school and discovered coffee (the place was owned at the time by Kumar Pallana, AKA Mr. Kumar to us, AKA Mr. Littlejeans to Max Fischer.)
As for Dazed and Confused, I thought it was based on Huntsville, Texas... Anyway, man do I miss my home state. Indiana just isn't the same.
Posted by: Adrienne at October 21, 2006 1:50 AM
I see several references to Lone Star, but what about "Lone Star State of Mind". The story line can be a bit corny at times, but it is a very funny flick.
Also, what about "Logan's Run"? My parent's told me it was filmed at the Fort Worth Water Gardens.
Posted by: Jason at October 21, 2006 5:54 PM
I absolutely love True Stories! And what about Days of Heaven? I think a movie that stunning deserves some recognition.
Posted by: Claire at October 21, 2006 7:50 PM
Ok first of all, the warm weather now stretches into November, easily (not including the freaky cold front we are currently experiencing). Thanks, Global Warming!!!
Secondly, I had no idea Rushmore was filmed here. Weird--I always assumed it was set somewhere around Chicago.
I agree--Terms of Endearment definitely should have been included. And Urban Cowboy.
Also, I've always wondered about The Rocky Horror Picture Show and how the beginning of the movie is set in or near a town called Denton. That's in north Texas, home to UNT. But I thought the writers of RHPS were British, so they probably didn't mean THAT Denton.
(Also, the skies aren't as blue anymore. At least not if you live anywhere near Dallas/Ft. Worth. Coff, coff.)
Posted by: Kathy at October 23, 2006 1:13 AM
I hate to go off-topic like this, but off-handed comments from people we know and trust are how these things get insinuated into common knowledge and I feel obligated to do my part to fight it. Despite whatever truth is at its core, the whole global warming thing is a perfect example of the power of suggestion. Tell people it's warmer than it has been, especially if you cleverly do it during the warmest months, and people will look at each other and say, "You know, it has been awfully warm this year." Here are what the average monthly temps have looked like in Dallas for the last 108 years:
http://www.srh.weather.gov/fwd/CLIMO/dfw/annual/dmotemp.html
Is there really a trend in October/November temperatures in the last decade or two that a human being could accurately sense unaided by a thermometer and some fastidious note-taking?
Posted by: Eep at October 23, 2006 12:42 PM
Thank you Swimgrrl for mentioning 'A Trip To Bountiful'. I love that movie. It was filmed partially in Waxahatchie. It's a lovely movie. Also 'Terms of Endearment' is a great Texas movie. I know Norman Bennett, who had a small role in the film as one of Shirley McClaine's beaus. He still has a program on KXII channel 12 in Sherman, Texas, that's on in the early morning hours. He's a really neat person.
Being from Texas, I was drawn out of the shadows by this as well. Texas is like a whole other country.
Posted by: Tish at November 2, 2006 6:36 PM
Friday Night Lights!
Posted by: bebe at November 12, 2006 10:45 PM
Don't forget Second Hand Lions!
Posted by: Bee at November 13, 2006 1:00 PM
We're forgetting a movie that scared the hell out of me as a teenage. "The Town That Dreaded Sundown", about the so-called "Phantom Murders" (that were never officially solved)in post WW2 Texarkana. It starred Dawn Wells (yes, as in Mary Ann from Gilligans Island) and Oscar winner, Ben Johnson. That movie scared me...the consummate cautionary tale. My boyfriend and I stopped parking in rural areas after that....I thought "screw that", so I just sneaked him up to my bedroom. We got caught by my mom and I was severely grounded but my bed sure beat the tiny, cramped backseat of his tan '72 Impala....Geez, how awkward!! It took me seven years to completely remove the indentation of a seat belt from my left ass cheek.
Also...don't forget the other San Antonio movie...."Via Max".
Posted by: Laurie Kendrick at January 7, 2007 3:37 PM
I know it's late for a comment, but as a Texan, I have to concur that there ain't nothin' like it. I've lived in other states, but have been back in Texas for 25 years and love it (even though there's much to despise as well, such as Texas politics). I'm in Lubbock, where the plains stretch on forever (Lubbock Has More Sky!), trees are few and far between, and sports reign supreme (ever heard of Bobby Knight?) ;0). Despite all that, I still wouldn't live anywhere but Texas. The Last Picture Show definitely captures the look and feel of this area. And I'm so glad The Trip to Bountiful was finally mentioned--great movie!
P.S. I totally agree about Hollywood's fake Texas accents. Listen to Sissy Spacek or Tommy Lee Jones if you want to hear how we really sound.
Posted by: Grace at January 15, 2007 7:21 PM
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Posted by: Victor at January 17, 2007 2:02 PM
Texas accents...Watch the extras On Secondhand lions, Micheal caine does this fantastic little exercise where he drifts into west texas...our words lean on each other. That movie actually reminds me a great deal of my grandfathers, great uncles and father...It was an adventurous place to grow up.
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Posted by: Chris at March 31, 2007 2:14 AM
Fandango, for God's sake. If you've lived in Texas, this movie will remind you more of home than any other.
And Dazed and Confused was about Austin, which is why they visit the Moon Tower.
Since I've never been there, how about I make a list of the best New York movies? It would be as pertinent
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