This is THE classic Texas movie, or at a minimum it's the classic SOUTH Texas movie. When Ellizabeth Pena spoke her memorable closing line when I went to see it at the theater here in Austin, the audience erupted in applause.
The film is set in the fictional equivalent of Eagle Pass, on the Rio Grande, which thus contributes to the plot both Anglos and Hispanics. (Eagle Pass is a location also in Like Water for Chocolate.) Add to the mix a U.S. army base, incorporating African-Americans, and the brew isn't complete even there. A discussion among local teachers about how best to teach the state's history sets up the rich portion of the plot which revolves around issues of ethnicity, while simultaneously (cleverly) misdirecting the viewer's expectations about one of the movie's major mysteries.
It is amazing that John Sayles can come in from outside and understand this region so well. An exemplary instance is when Frances McDormand's character is raving about a high school football player from...and the script fills in (if I recall correctly)...San Antonio Churchill. It's a perfect choice, in a way that nowhere else except maybe Converse Judson or Gregory-Portland or Refugio would have achieved. Permian (Odessa Permian) would have been too obvious. Austin McCallum, or some such, would have left gridiron-fan moviegoers wrinkling their noses at the faux pas. In short, Sayles, who was writer as well as director, superbly did his homework.
Pena, McDormand, Chris Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, Kris Kristofferson, Joe Morton, and Clifton James are all great. Miriam Colon ("in INGLIS, Enrique") and Ron Canada stand out. Tony Plana, as a deputy who is contemplated by the minority community as an electoral challenger to Cooper the incumbent sheriff, delivers the movie's most comical non-McDormand line. It seems that Cooper is headed across the border as part of a criminal investigation. They chance to talk briefly just as he is leaving, and Plana establishes that there are no hard feelings about the political competition. Whereupon Cooper announces that he is going over to "the other side." Plana responds, astounded, "The REPUBLICANS??"
The film is set in the fictional equivalent of Eagle Pass, on the Rio Grande, which thus contributes to the plot both Anglos and Hispanics. (Eagle Pass is a location also in Like Water for Chocolate.) Add to the mix a U.S. army base, incorporating African-Americans, and the brew isn't complete even there. A discussion among local teachers about how best to teach the state's history sets up the rich portion of the plot which revolves around issues of ethnicity, while simultaneously (cleverly) misdirecting the viewer's expectations about one of the movie's major mysteries.
It is amazing that John Sayles can come in from outside and understand this region so well. An exemplary instance is when Frances McDormand's character is raving about a high school football player from...and the script fills in (if I recall correctly)...San Antonio Churchill. It's a perfect choice, in a way that nowhere else except maybe Converse Judson or Gregory-Portland or Refugio would have achieved. Permian (Odessa Permian) would have been too obvious. Austin McCallum, or some such, would have left gridiron-fan moviegoers wrinkling their noses at the faux pas. In short, Sayles, who was writer as well as director, superbly did his homework.
Pena, McDormand, Chris Cooper, Matthew McConaughey, Kris Kristofferson, Joe Morton, and Clifton James are all great. Miriam Colon ("in INGLIS, Enrique") and Ron Canada stand out. Tony Plana, as a deputy who is contemplated by the minority community as an electoral challenger to Cooper the incumbent sheriff, delivers the movie's most comical non-McDormand line. It seems that Cooper is headed across the border as part of a criminal investigation. They chance to talk briefly just as he is leaving, and Plana establishes that there are no hard feelings about the political competition. Whereupon Cooper announces that he is going over to "the other side." Plana responds, astounded, "The REPUBLICANS??"