Movies in/about Texas (Austin, Alamo: moving, office, best)

[TexasReb]

Greetings fellow Texans!

I got to thinking (because this is the type thing people like me get to thinking about) that we have discussed songs of Texas, folklore, critters, etc....but so far as I know there as never been a thread concerning movies about Texas. Or movies made in Texas. Or TV shows either.

Anybody got any favorites, or even disliked ones? Comments or critisisms?

Since I started it, I'll lead off briefly with two that come to mind as favorites.

1. The Alamo (John Wayne, 1960 version}: I admit it was very long and there were a lot of scenes and parts in it that were almost cloyingly ridiculous, and lots of liberties were taken with historic fact. BUT...nonetheless the theme is something that stirs a true Texan. And the battle scenes were truly epic.

2. Places In the Heart (Sally Fields and Danny Glover): This one is a movie I can watch over and over. Part of its appeal lies in that the whole "tone" of the movie reminds me a lot of how my grandparents described their own life in Depression era Texas. The hardscrabble existence, the cotton culture of the poor white/black South, race relations, etc. Just a really good and very moving piece of work.

Y'all?

[love roses]

I liked Raggedy Man, plus it was filmed in Texas, even though it's not really about Texas. Urban Cowboy is another one. There's such a big list, I'm not really sure what else to add, but those two just jumped out at me.

[MSJones]

Movies filmed in Texas that I loved? I can think of three, easily: Urban Cowboy, Terms Of Endearment, and Dazed And Confused.

[pacific_trader]

From Dusk til Dawn, Lone Wolf McQuade, Last Man Standing, Extreme Prejudice, and a couple other films about how badass Texans are!

[car957]

Slackers and another one about working in an office that was filmed near Woodward and Ben White in Austin.

[TexasReb]

Going in the opposite direction, so to speak, two productions that tend to irritate me a bit (although in a sorta affectionately resigned way) are the movie Smokey and the Bandit II, and Walker, Texas Ranger.

As to the first one, it wasn't really ABOUT Texas so to speak, but it DID involve a trek thru the Deep South into Texas. Anyway, here is this forested piney woods landscape depicted from Georgia to Alabama to Mississippi to Louisiana and THEN, when the "Entering Texas" sign comes up (or however it was presented",) the landscape suddenly and instantaneously changes to desert and cactus! I laugh a bit and just chalk it up to the imprint that the old western movies about Texas have made on popular imagery! LOL

As to "Walker, Texas Ranger"? Well, far be it from ME to repeat this to Chuck Norris's face, of course, BUT...

Seriously, I honestly like the fact that a television show these days can be so clear cut and unambiguous as to the "good guys" and "bad guys" And from everything I have ever read about Chuck Norris, he is truly what he is on screen. A good man with a strong sense of traditional right and wrong. All of this is, to me, a welcome thing in the trash culture that passes for entertainment nowdays out of Hollywood.

Anyway, not to get too serious, the couple of things that do tend to annoy me about the show (not counting the same song, different verse, "fight" scenes) are the constant references to "the Rez"...meaning an Indian Reservation. And the dress that is more typical of Arizona than anything I have ever seen in Texas (string ties, turquoise jewelry, etc). In fact, there are no true Indian reservations in Texas. But I guess that, because of that ingrained Cowboy and Indian image of Texas, one has to be presented, real or not! LOL

[Poltracker]

A lot of old Disney movies like Swamp Fox, and that series with the blonde girl in them were filmed at Caddo Lake (Texas side)

[awecelot]

Giant was a movie roughly about the era of huge Texas ranches. It was made in 1956 and stars Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor, and James Dean.

Definitely worth checking out.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by Poltracker

A lot of old Disney movies like Swamp Fox, and that series with the blonde girl in them were filmed at Caddo Lake (Texas side)

Absolutely right, Poltracker. The "adventure/suspence" movie "Southern Comfort" (Keith Carradine and Powers Boothe) about a bunch of Louisiana National Guardsmen who get lost in the bayous and swamps of Louisiana and run afoul of some native Cajuns, was ACTUALLY filmed on the TEXAS side of Caddo Lake!

[atxcio]

One of the best "mockumentary" comedies, Waiting for Guffman, was shot in Lockhart... although I think it was portrayed as Mississippi or something. Spy Kids, The Grindhouse movies, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Last Picture Show...

More recent in west texas (at least partially filmed there): There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men.