The 1996 film Lone Star, written and directed by John Sayles, is a neo-western suspense thriller set in Rio County, TX on the Mexican/American border. Chris Cooper plays a county sheriff, Sam Deeds, who returns home after his father, sheriff Buddy Deeds, played by Matthew McConaughey, has passed away. After returning home, Sam begins an investigation into the death of Charlie Wade, the long-missing and former sheriff of Rio County played by Kris Kristofferson. During his investigation, Sam learns much about the history of Rio County and how events of its past helped to shape its present. Lone Star is a story told through a variation of the Classical Hollywood Narrative (CHN) with a focus on the complexity of human interaction and its impact across generations.
The style of the opening scene functions to establish referential meaning for the viewer. As the camera pans across the rocky expanse of the desert, made green by pear cactus and sage, the image is accompanied by the sound …show more content…
As with the CHN, the story has one primary protagonist, the character Sam Deeds. However, in a multifaceted variation of the CHN, the symptomatic theme of the tale is the central focus of the film rather than any one character. The development of the film reflects the complexity of the ideology it presents as those living in the present tell the story of the county’s past. It is only in seeing the direct and indirect impact of human interaction through the generations that the film’s unity is understood. Nevertheless, while the symptomatic focus is the main point of the film, its mysteries are revealed. Following the standard form of the CHN, the character Sam discovers the truth about Charlie’s death and, for the viewer, there is a sense of
The style of the opening scene functions to establish referential meaning for the viewer. As the camera pans across the rocky expanse of the desert, made green by pear cactus and sage, the image is accompanied by the sound …show more content…
As with the CHN, the story has one primary protagonist, the character Sam Deeds. However, in a multifaceted variation of the CHN, the symptomatic theme of the tale is the central focus of the film rather than any one character. The development of the film reflects the complexity of the ideology it presents as those living in the present tell the story of the county’s past. It is only in seeing the direct and indirect impact of human interaction through the generations that the film’s unity is understood. Nevertheless, while the symptomatic focus is the main point of the film, its mysteries are revealed. Following the standard form of the CHN, the character Sam discovers the truth about Charlie’s death and, for the viewer, there is a sense of