Lone Star (1996)

John Sayles' murder-mystery explores interpersonal and interracial tensions in Rio County, Texas. Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper) is the local sheriff who is called to investigate a 40-year-old skeleton found in the desert...As Sam delves deeper into the town's dark secrets, he begins to learn more about his father, the legendary former sheriff Buddy Deeds (Mathew McConaughey-hey-hey), who replaced the corrupt Charlie Wade (Kris Kristofferson) as hilarity ensued. While Sam puzzles out the long-past events surrounding the mystery corpse, he also longs to rekindle a romance with his old high-school flame (Elizabeth Pena). Sayles' complex characters are brought together as the tightly woven plot finally draws to its dramatic close.

Trivia: The hands seen laying out the bones in this movie belong to David Glassman, a forensic anthropologist at Southwest Texas State University.

Well, this was a good movie, but it really suffers from truth in advertisements. What I mean to say is that this was marketed as a murder mystery, both in the trailer and in the poster seen above. Then you get into the movie and maybe 20 minutes of the 2 hour and 15 minutes run time is about the murder and trying to solve it (McConaughey and Kristofferson were probably on for less then 5 minutes total). Mostly it is about Sam Deeds trying to get out of the shadow of his father and rekindle a relationship with a woman from his past. Oh yeah, there is a second story arc about a colonel returning to the army base in Rio County and his strained relationship with his father who owns the only "black" bar in the county. This story only serves to flesh out the character of the father who has a minor role in the events that happened 40 years ago. I think it would have been so much better if it had focused on the murder and political intrigue or if it had focused only on Sam and his efforts to rekindle his relationship. It just seems to fall short of accomplishing either. Chris Cooper is excellent as always but I think he seems to fit more into the Jimmy Stewart form of acting. His roles always seem to be the same. A man to is contemplative and introspective. Matthew McConaughey-hey-hey wasn't on the screen enough to tell if he was any good and the same with Kris Kristofferson.