On my way to Texas for wedding. In Memphis airport listening for Hustle & Flow style accents. Found one!
Do you have any Xciting plans for weekend? Possibly involving Wolverine?
I've only been to Texas once. Which movie do you think captures the state best?
Friday, May 01, 2009
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26 comments:
Terms of Endearment.
It was set in Texas, righ? If it wasn't then it should have been.
Movies that capture the feel of Texas: "Slacker" is nice as a document of pre-eurotrash condo Austin, Dennis Hopper's "The Hot Spot" has a lovely weird ambiguous period feel and was mostly filmed about five miles from where I live, I've always been strangely fond of Steven Soderbergh's "The Underneath" which was ahead of the curve for filming in Austin, "True Stories" is pretty dreadful but has some nice spots of bleak north Texas shopping malls, and of course "Grindhouse"
Hud - easily.
Giant.
Michael in DC
I don't know if it captures the state best, but I thoroughly enjoy Friday Night Lights (even after Billy Bob Thornton said Canadians are like mash potatoes without the gravy).
I'm in Houston. "Paris, Texas" does a pretty good job. So does "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". You take the good with the bad here.
My favorite Texas movies by region:
For the Panhandle: Days of Heaven. I'm not sure just what part of Texas this was supposed to be set in, but Malick made Alberta look just like the plains of north Texas.
For the border: Lone Star. An overlooked gem.
For the city: Paris, Texas. Even though I made a point of leaving Houston ASAP after high school (for the Panhandle, of all things), the scenes set in Houston actually make me rather homesick.
No Country for old men captures Texas. But what do I know, I've never been to Texas. Maybe it captured my idea of Texas.
I would rather claw my own eyes out than see Wolverine.
Star Trek on the other hand...
I think it's pretty obvious that "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" most accurately depicts the state of Texas...
"The stars at night, are big and bright....."
:P
Flying to NY tomorrow morning, may watch X-Men: Origins there, but it is unlikely...I may go with a group tonight, but I need to pack etc.
And what I do know from Texas, aside what I've seen in literature, theater, film and TV?
So I'll say (just to be perverse) Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean.
I always thought "Dazed and Confused" was a great Texas-set movie. I've always been curious to go there, it can't be as non-accepting as people say.
Went to a midnight screening of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" last night and if you're a fanboy like moi you'll like it very much. Hugh Jackman is a strong leading man. :)
I'd agree with past offerings of Paris, Texas. The beginning of the movie in particular had some very beautiful images.
As for this weekend, I'll see Wolverine but only because it signifies the beginning of the Summer movie season (ignore the fact that Spring just started). I'm literally going into it with the lowest expectations I've had since the Reader.
Miss Congeniality.
Kathy Morningside: "Of course he had a gun. This is Texas! Everybody has a gun. My florist has a gun! "
Do i need to say anything more?
the Texas Chainsaw Massacre! LOL
Texas Chainsaw Massacre! How could I forget? It absolutely instills a permanent terror of being alone in the country in TX.
Paris Texas, while definitely feeling like a European's idea of what Texas is like, gets the feel pretty wonderfully in the Houston scenes.
And DEFINITELY on Pee Wee's Big Adventure, which I still feel is Burton's best film. Pedro and Inez at the Alamo! I just wish they actually had a tour like that at the Alamo- they definitely don't.
And an honorary Texas-feeling movie not set in or filmed in TX is Sex, Lies, and Videotape. Though it takes place in/ was filmed in Baton Rouge, you can practically feel the southern heat radiating off the screen and all of the characters look sweaty to a degree. Also the fact that their southern accents are not made jokey or cutesy and are just incidental.
Another one for Paris, Texas. The Last Picture Show is another for me. I can't believe no ones mentioned it yet!
TV: Friday Night Lights.. "Texas Forever."
:)
Ok, I'l guess I'll be the one to say what we're all thinking..."Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" for the win!
Love Field?
I can't believe no one has mentioned Slacker.
Or did they and I missed it? Yes, I did miss it. It's like the second comment.
Ok.
NCFOM then. Maybe Tin Cup.
Whatever, Texas sucks.
Modern, metropolitan Texas? Nothing
Rural Texas? Paris, Texas
DAZED AND CONFUSED...duh. This film is total Austin.
I grew up in Houston and Austin so I have to say anything by Oscar-winning Texas author and UT alum Larry MacMurtry (T of E--yes, set in Houston), Brokeback's screenplay, Last Picture Show, etc). Also Giant, Best Little Whorehouse (My God I remember when all that happened back in the 70's!), Dazed and Confused, and of course, Paris, Texas. And Texas so does not suck.
Definitely No Country For Old Men. The friendly strangers & washed out colors, at least.
Having grown up in Paris, Texas I can tell you that NOTHING in the movie by that name had anything at all to do with my 'hometown'. Texas in the 70's was exactly like Urban Cowboy! Dallas (the tv series) was probably close to the rich folks... but the true spirit of Texans (to me) is personified in pretty much any John Wayne character... especially in the Cowboys and True Grit!
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