New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Before I go any further with individual film analysis, it must be noted that, though the stories told in Texasville and The Evening Star continue the stories told in previous films, and each come to a fairly satisfactory stopping point, both are based on books that are part of a much larger community. Author Larry McMurtry has won the Pulitzer (for Lonesome Dove) and the Oscar (for Brokeback Mountain) among his many achievements and has seen the majority of his novels turned into either theatrical or television movies.

Chapter Two could focus on him solely for a quarter, as his output includes no less than four different series containing at least four parts. The storyline begun in The Last Picture Show in 1966 continued for 43 years and four more books (of which Texasville was only the second). Terms of Endearment and The Evening Star are the fourth and sixth/final installments in a 22-year journey that began in part by focusing on a character, Patsy Carpenter, who is important in both films, but not the lead character.

A final caveat: I have read none of McMurtry’s work so any observations of mine about what the films accomplish or don’t in no way reflect an implicit approval or disappointment with how the book was adapted or even the extent to which changes were necessarily made. (I am aware, for instance, that Jack Nicholson’s character was created for the films, and enjoy him, but cannot say if I would prefer the lack of him in the book.)

Both films have as their major theme the passage of time and the effect that simply putting forth and surviving day-to day living among family and friends, in particular social and economic climates in large and small Texas towns alike in the 1980s and ‘90s, can have on one’s physical and mental well-being. In this respect, both stories are well-served by having actors reprise their roles from the first film, to be able to compare youth with middle age (the cast of Texasville) and middle age with old age (Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson in The Evening Star). The plot, occupations, and actions of the characters, in a sense, do not matter. These are character studies.

What complicates things is that both films are extremely plot-heavy, particularly in regards to the sexual congress of the characters. At times in Texasville, I thought I might need a scorecard to keep track of who was bangin’ whom or had knocked whom up. Both of the plots are in fact, glorified soap operas, with Texasville reminiscent at times of the underbelly of the glitzy 1980s nighttime soaps like Dallas or Falcon Crest and The Evening Star best understood as a slightly ribald embroidered tablecloth covering a daytime soap.

(A brief aside: to pursue this line of thinking one step further, perhaps the most insightful criticism I can offer of The Evening Star is that it is the kind of film that used to play a lot on Saturday or Sunday afternoons on your local television affiliate if no major sporting events had been scheduled. Or perhaps a last-minute replacement if said event had been cancelled. It is not to be confused with one that would garner repeated play, usually a B-grade level action flick, when those existed, and if you just waited long enough, you could catch it again. The likes of The Evening Star would come on and if it was your cup of tea, it could catch your interest for an hour or two, but you would have total amnesia upon its completion.)

Continued:       1       2       3       4       5