Lone Star: Grade B

B
Lone Star (1996)

Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, Kris Kristofferson, Matthew McConaughey, Ron Canada; Writer-Director John Sayles.

It’s not a western, although it is set in a small Texas border town and the major players wear cowboy hats and guns strapped to their hip. Deeds (Cooper) is the town’s sheriff, the third in a line of bigger-than-life figures to hold that office. His father was a legendary sheriff in the 1950's who succeeded the evil Charlie Wade (Kristofferson), a corrupt racist who stole thousands from the town pension fund and absconded without a trace. But when a skeleton with a sheriff’s star is dug up in the desert, Deeds wonders who it was. As he unravels the mystery, he learns more about who his father was, and who he is. There are several compelling subplots that run parallel to that main theme. I saw the surprise ending coming, but even so, it was interesting and reasonable.

About the only thing wrong with this movie is its 2:15 length, which is due to a slow pace and perhaps too many subplots. Sayles’ writing and directing make the characters rounded and believable, except Kristofferson’s. That character, who shoots Mexicans and blacks on sight if they do not pay extortion, is over the top. He stands as an unrealistic personification of evil that the other characters can work against. However, sets and cinematography are perfect. Costumes are excellent. But the characterizations are the best part.

Cooper’s performance in particular creates a genuine character, with spot on accent and speech timing, but he was a bit too taciturn, too remote to be fully engaging. I like a little more personality in my brooding sheriffs. Tommy Lee Jones captured the character in Electric Mist (2009), which may have been an attempt at a remake, although it was a terrible movie. It’s not so easy to imitate John Sayles. His artistry makes this film a completely engrossing experience.

Apaloosa: Grade C

C
Apaloosa (2008)
Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger, Jeremy Irons. Co-writer and Director Ed Harris (also co-produced).

In the 1880's, two cowboys (Harris and Mortensen) arrive in the small New Mexico town of Apaloosa, which is being terrorized by a gang of brutal lowlifes working for Jeremy Irons. The cowboys agree to save the town if the townspeople make them autocratic sheriff and deputy with absolute power. I can’t remember which Leone/Eastwood film this story is taken from, but it is a well-used cliche. The clinker in this tale is that Harris falls for Zellweger, who arrives without explanation or purpose from St. Louis, dressed in city finery. After a non-believable, instantaneous courtship, they are building a house (with 20th century dimensional lumber and balloon framing) on the edge of town. This development adds complexity to Harris’ tough cowboy character, but that complexity is never explored. It just exists as a contradiction. You know as soon as Zellweger steps off the stagecoach that there will be a hostage situation. Finally the bad guys are shot up and all is well, the end. There is no real character development.

Harris and Mortensen give exceptional performances despite the weak script. Zellweger is a lead weight. I don’t know what has happened to her. She used to be a good actor. Here she just tries to be cute and it is painful to watch. She seriously spoils the movie. Scenery is good, but costumes and sets are precious. Music is nondescript. There are numerous anachronisms in sets, speech, and behavior. Overall, the movie has the archetypal dusty western scenes you expect to see, but it is emotionally and intellectually flat. It might be worth seeing just to get a look at Harris’ and Mortensen’s performances.

Red: Grade B

B
Red (2008)
Brian Cox, Tom Sizemore. Co-directors Trygve Allister Diesen
Lucky McKee.

It is a pleasure to see Brian Cox in a leading role like this. He was a standout actor (about the only one) in The Bourne Supremacy. Here he plays a taciturn gentleman retired to his country home in western Oregon, living more or less in seclusion. He wears a bulky, plaid cloth jacket and a wide-brim cowboy hat, moves slowly and drives a beat up, 20 year old pickup. While fishing at the river one day, with his old dog, Red, he is robbed by three hoodlum youths. He has no money, so in frustration, the nutty kid shoots his dog dead. The boys get away, and from there, a tale of revenge develops.

The old man wants the boys to apologize because the way he construes the world, that's how things should work. He tracks down the ringleader and speaks to his rich, arrogant father (Sizemore), who dismisses the old man’s entreaty. Slowly and methodically, the old man finds each of the boys and talks to him, with little result except to increase tension. The tension grows palpably with each additional encounter until there is a completely out-of-character, unmotivated, and not-believable bloody gunfight ending that spoils the whole story.

Obviously, the producers were not comfortable with the slow pace of inner development, so grabbed for an easy “fix”. But the best payback is not death. It is the opponent’s own self-destruction or self-torture. Or alternately, the old man could have come to the conclusion that some people are immune to moral argument, and realized that his social construction of reality was wrong. Or, there are numerous occasions where he could have used the law to pursue the opponents, with assault charges, for example. Despite the ruinous turn of the plot however, acting by Cox and Sizemore are worth seeing and the characterizations are above average in the first half of the film.