Lonestarintro
Lone Star
The first time I saw this film was at the height of my film addiction. In a good week, I’d see about eight to ten films, in a bad, about three. My preference was for celluloid but, unlike some people, I never turned my nose up at tape. I’d even give up an afternoon to watch movies on television, usually two or three at the same time, most often George Stevens’ Giant (1956), Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep (1946), and whichever John Hughes film was in rotation on TNT and USA. Movies, films, flicks, I didn’t care what they were called, I devoured them all. I’ll tell you proudly that I PAID to see Gilbert Adler’s 1996 film Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood in the theater. I went so often to the matinee that I began to recognize other film addicts. One man in particular would emerge from the theater always wearing a set of clothes different than the ones he was wearing when he entered. Turns out he had a twin: they were both body builders who wore too much cologne, so I often smelled him in the theater before actually seeing him, or I should say them, but that’s another story. For a period of about four years, I could walk into a video rental store knowing that I had seen absolutely everything in the “new release” section, both foreign and domestic. I had even worked my way through most of the “classic” inventory as well. It was during this period that I discovered John Sayles’s early films, Lianna (1983), Brother From Another Planet (1984), where I was first introduced to the wonder that is Joe Morton, Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), and Matewan (1987), which marked the first pairing of Sayles and Chris Cooper. As a person who can and has watched John Cusack in anything, including Tapeheads (1988), I had seen Eight Men Out (1988) and had always thought of it as a “Cusack” film, so when I became a “serious” student of film, I was surprised to find out it was actually written and directed by John Sayles. Before the swagger
The first time I saw this film was at the height of my film addiction. In a good week, I’d see about eight to ten films, in a bad, about three. My preference was for celluloid but, unlike some people, I never turned my nose up at tape. I’d even give up an afternoon to watch movies on television, usually two or three at the same time, most often George Stevens’ Giant (1956), Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep (1946), and whichever John Hughes film was in rotation on TNT and USA. Movies, films, flicks, I didn’t care what they were called, I devoured them all. I’ll tell you proudly that I PAID to see Gilbert Adler’s 1996 film Tales from the Crypt Presents: Bordello of Blood in the theater. I went so often to the matinee that I began to recognize other film addicts. One man in particular would emerge from the theater always wearing a set of clothes different than the ones he was wearing when he entered. Turns out he had a twin: they were both body builders who wore too much cologne, so I often smelled him in the theater before actually seeing him, or I should say them, but that’s another story. For a period of about four years, I could walk into a video rental store knowing that I had seen absolutely everything in the “new release” section, both foreign and domestic. I had even worked my way through most of the “classic” inventory as well. It was during this period that I discovered John Sayles’s early films, Lianna (1983), Brother From Another Planet (1984), where I was first introduced to the wonder that is Joe Morton, Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), and Matewan (1987), which marked the first pairing of Sayles and Chris Cooper. As a person who can and has watched John Cusack in anything, including Tapeheads (1988), I had seen Eight Men Out (1988) and had always thought of it as a “Cusack” film, so when I became a “serious” student of film, I was surprised to find out it was actually written and directed by John Sayles. Before the swagger
Cited: Davis, Todd and Kenneth Womack. “Forget the Alamo: Reading the Ethics of Style in John Sayles’ Lone Star.” Style 32.3 (1998): 471-485. Fregoso, Rosa Linda. “Imagining Multiculturalism: Race and Sexuality on the Tejas Borderlands.” Review of Education/Pedagogy/Cultural Studies 21.1 (1999): 1-8. Hall, Stuart. “Cultural Identity and Cinematic Representation.” Framework 36 (1989): 71. Kauffmann, Stanley. “Conflicts and Clones.” New Republic 215.6 (1996): 26-28. Kemp, Phillip. “Lone Star.” Sight and Sound 6.10 (1996): 47-48. Limón, José. American Encounters: Greater Mexico, the United States, and the Erotics of Culture. Boston: Beacon, 1998. Perez, Domino Renee. “Lost in the Cinematic Landscape: Chicanas as Lloronas in Contemporary Film,” Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture & Chicana/o Sexualities. Ed. Alicia Gaspar de Alba. New York: Palgrave, 2003. 229-247. Pérez, Emma. The Decolonial Imaginary: Writing Chicanas Into History. Bloomington, IN: U of Indiana P, 1999. Sayles, John and Gavin Smith. Sayles on Sayles. Boston: Faber and Faber, 1998. Spines, Christine. “John Sayles.” Premiere (July 1996): 40, 49, 51. West, Dennis and Joan M. “Borders and Boundaries: An Interview with John Sayles.” Cineaste 22.3 (1996): 14-17.