Mr-Fusion It's implied on the box for "Lone Star" that Kris Kristofferson takes center stage as an monstrously corrupt sheriff (which I took to mean something like Denzel in "Training Day"). And though he is wicked, he's much more a fringe player. That was a surprise, but it turned out to be far from unpleasant. This movie is much more complicated than that; its Texas border town steeped in fictionalized history, where prejudices are ingrained and everything - right down to the characters - is more complex than at first glance. It's a procedural, but slow-burning and character-driven, and I found myself caring deeply for these people (Cooper and Peña, especially). It's very well cast (Frances McDormand's a trip in this movie) and the flashbacks are handled seamlessly with a subtle camera move. And the final fifteen minutes makes for some of the finest cinema pay-off ever, where everything finally gets laid out and you're treated to a series of narrative punches to the face.Very well done.8/10

julian-bedale The sad news of Elizabeth Pena's death earlier this week (on 14.10.14) aged only 55 prompted me to watch the DVD of this superb movie again.The action takes place over 6 days commencing on a Tuesday morning with the discovery of a skeleton in an abandoned rifle range outside the border town of Frontera, Texas. This brings the mystery of the sudden, unexplained disappearance 40 years earlier of the town's bullying, psychopath Sheriff, Charlie Wade (played with great menace by Kris Kristofferson - there was a collective intake of breath amongst the cinema audience every time he came on screen when I first saw the film here in London in 1996!), back to the fore amongst the older residents of Frontera.Chiefly concerned is the current Sheriff, Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) whose father (& long-term predecessor as Sheriff) Buddy had long been suspected of murdering Wade. The twists and turns of the plot as Sam talks to people who had known his two predecessors in the town & across the border in Mexico are gradually skilfully tied together. During these few days, Sam also re-kindles his romance with his high school sweetheart Pilar (played with understated elegance by Elizabeth Pena), which Buddy had forcibly ended 23 years earlier.Mr Sayles also uses a "tracking" technique several times in the film to great effect by switching from events happening now to those taking place in the past, using exactly the same locations.A couple of slight carps - the character of young Hollis (Buddy Deeds' co Deputy Sheriff to Charlie Wade 40 years earlier) is very under-developed, so he unfortunately comes across as a complete nonentity, & the two characters of Wesley Birdsong (Gordon Tootoosis) & Bunny, Sam's "tightly wound" ex-wife (an electrifying 5 minute performance by Frances McDormand) each appear out of the blue 3/4 of the way through the film with very little connection to the action up to that point - but, between them, manage to provide the final clues to enable Sam to solve the murder mystery!These are very minor criticisms in what is a beautifully shot & acted, enthralling murder mystery, which also shows how people of different cultures manage to co-exist astride the US - Mexico border. This was the first John Sayles movies I ever saw, & remains his finest, although all his other 17 films are very well worth seeing as well.

paul2001sw-1 In this Texas detective story, a sheriff finds himself investigating the past of his own father, a man who was also his predecessor as sheriff, and a local hero everywhere except in his own household. The characters may be slow-moving and tight-lipped out of habit, but the ambiguity of their feelings is plain, and a strength of this drama, as is the way the plot weaves in many aspects of life in a border town. Perhaps some aspects of the way that town life is portrayed are a little too stylised, a little anachronistic, the reality of Mexican-American relations shown through the lens of the traditional western: but but film stays consistently within the world it has created. In terms of overall mood, there are elements that resemble the later 'No Country For Old Men', but without that movie's fall-back psychopath-driven plot, it offers a more interesting and ultimately humane vision of south Texas life.

Spikeopath Lone Star is written and directed by John Sayles. It stars Chris Cooper, Joe Morton, Stephen J. Lang, Stephen Mendillo, Elizabeth Peña and Kris Kristofferson. Music is scored by Mason Daring and cinematography by Stuart Dryburgh.The small Texas town of Rio County is rocked when a human skeleton is found in the sand and a Rio County Sheriff's badge found near by. The evidence points to it being the body of one time Sheriff Charlie Wade, a vile man who bullied the town for gratification and who one day just disappeared. Current Sheriff Sam Deeds begins investigating, knowing full well that there's a good chance the murderer could have be his own father, Buddy, who was known to have stood up to Wade with some hostile conviction.A hugely enjoyable pulpy mystery that's given a cunning make over by the talented Sayles. The who done it question at the film's core is merely one ingredient in this particular stew, this deals in themes such as violence, racism and family strife, the impact of lawmen on one small town, spread out across two generations. All the characters are interesting and well delineated, the dialogue as part of a non-linear narrative is precise and telling, while Sayles proves to be a stylistic craftsman by presenting two scenes 40 years apart within the same shot. A morality tale of some substance, with cast performances to match, it's a film sure to reward more with each viewing. 8/10