FilmSkool — a free film school
Lone Star
When the skeleton of his murdered predecessor is found, Sheriff Sam Deeds unearths many other long-buried secrets in his Texas border town.
1996 · Directed by John Sayles · 135 min · Drama · Mystery · Western · Screenplay in the scene database · 19 frames
Tagline
John Sayles invites you to return to the scene of the crime.
Plot
Two off-duty sergeants discover a human skeleton on an old U.S. Army rifle shooting range along with a Masonic ring, a Rio County sheriff's badge, and, later, an expended .45 pistol bullet. Sam Deeds, sheriff of Rio County, Frontera, Texas, begins an investigation. Forensics backs up the identity of the skeleton as Charlie Wade, the infamously corrupt sheriff who preceded Sam's recently deceased father, Buddy. Wade mysteriously disappeared in 1957, along with US$10,000 in county funds. Buddy's esteemed reputation for justice and subsequent election as Sheriff after Wade's disappearance led to the widespread belief that Buddy confronted Wade and ran him out of town.
Frontera, on the banks of the Rio Grande, is a border town with racial strife among the Tejano, African American, Native American, and European American populations. There, the White population is no longer the majority. As a teenager, Sam hated his tyrannical father and left town as soon as he was old enough. He only returned to the town two years prior.
The town is enlarging and renaming their courthouse in Buddy's honor and proposing the building of an unneeded new prison. As a teenager, Sam had been in love with Tejano girl Pilar Cruz. However, their relationship was strongly opposed by both Buddy and Pilar's mother Mercedes, who took steps to separate them.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: John Sayles
- Cinematography: Stuart Dryburgh
- Edited by: John Sayles
- Music: Mason Daring
- Production design: Dan Bishop
- Produced by: Maggie Renzi, R. Paul Miller
Cast
- Chris Cooper as Sam Deeds
- Elizabeth Peña as Pilar Cruz
- Kris Kristofferson as Charlie Wade
- Clifton James as Hollis Pogue
- Miriam Colon as Mercedes Cruz
- Ron Canada as Otis Payne
- Joe Morton as Delmore "Del" Payne
- Matthew McConaughey as Buddy Deeds
- Jeff Monahan as Young Hollis
- Gabriel Casseus as Young Otis
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: Castle Rock Entertainment, Rio Dulce
- Budget: $5,000,000
- Box office: $13,269,963
- Themes: sheriff, texas, family secrets, neo-western, dark secret
Own the film
FilmSkool earns a small commission from qualifying Amazon purchases, at no cost to you.
More by John Sayles
On this film
This is the plain index, shown because JavaScript is off. Every lesson here is a free video published by the channel credited on it and plays through that channel's own embed — FilmSkool hosts nothing.