Econ/ES 250 Class, Race, and Gender in the U.S. Economy
Spring 2008


ASSIGNMENT 1
Lone Star 1996 A film written, directed, and cut by John Sayles
Major Characters:

Sheriff Charlie Wade: the skeleton in everyone's closet that no one wants to talk about; the legacy of Jim Crow and white supremacy.

Mayor Hollis Pogue: ex- Deputy under Charlie Wade and Buddy Deeds

Sheriff Buddy Deeds: legendary sheriff with a shady past, who kicks out corrupt Charlie Wade, cleans-up the town.

Sheriff Sam Deeds: son of Sheriff Buddy Deeds; high school sweetheart and re-kindled love of Pilar Cruz; struggling to uncover his dad's secret past.

Mercedes Cruz: Restaurant owner; mother of Pilar Cruz; wife of Eladio Cruz.

Pilar Cruz: History Teacher; daughter of Mercedes Cruz; high school sweetheart and re-kindled love of Sam Deeds; struggling with the oppressive, self-directed racism of her mother; as well as the meaning of her hidden history.

Otis Payne: Barkeeper, later owner of Big O's Club; father of Col. Delmore Payne; grandfather of Chet Payne.

Col. Delmore Payne: Straight-as-an-arrow son of Otis. Everything he believes his father is not; out to prove he is better than his "Negro" father.

Chet Payne: High school son of Col. Payne; in search of family history and his own identity.

Wesley Birdsong: Native American, story-teller, who keeps Sam on the trail of the truth.

Eladio Cruz: Husband of Mercedes Cruz.

Bunny Deeds: Ex-wife of Sam Deeds, who has no firm self-identity, overshadowed by her father.


Lone Star is one of those films that you will have to see multiple times to fully see the intricacies and complexity of the metaphors that Sayles has woven into this parable. I have been showing this film for the last 7 years and I still gain new insight each time I view it. The dialogue has virtually no throw-away lines. Each character is fully developed, genuine and is engaged in at least one allegorical commentary of America’s ethnic history. Each scene, every lyric of every song in the soundtrack (Spanish as well as English) is a subtly choreographed strand of a metaphor. Lonestar is an exquisitely crafted piece of film-literature.

    At first glance, Lone Star, appears to be a conventional “who-done-itâ€�, with romance and murder at the center of the plot. However, the film is really a very complex commentary on history, race relations, personal boundaries, and power.

Lone Star is a commentary on how we, as individuals, communities, societies, and particularly Americans, make sense of our own lives, our heritage, and our histories. It presents our common history as a collection of wildly diverse, often contradictory, individual stories, experiences, and perspectives. All of which are fundamental to our self-identity as individuals; as well as, to our identity as Americans constantly struggling with our legacy of racism amidst an inherently multiracial and multicultural national history. In short, it is a metaphor for U.S. ethnic history.

The following are provided as aids to begin to interpret the movie. They are examples of some of the themes and metaphors that are woven throughout the film.

Theme I: The Struggle Over Our Common History:
Who tells the story, What is remembered, What is Forgotten 

    In one of the first scenes, there is a heated argument over the history of the Alamo, and the role of public education in teaching history, Pilar Cruz argues that it is important to remember the full, balanced, detailed, complexity of history.
Pilar:    I've only been trying to get across the complexity of our situation down here... cultures coming together in both negative and positive ways.

White Parent:    If you're talking about food or music and all, I have no problem with it, but when you start changing who did what to who...

Pilar:        We're not changing anything. We're just trying to present a more complete picture.

White Parent:        And that has got to stop!

Pilar:        People, people! I think it would be best if we didn't view this thing in terms of winners and loser.

White Teacher:
But with the way she's teaching it, she's got everything switched around! I was on the textbook committee and her version is not historical.

Pilar:     We think the textbook is a guide, not as an absolute.

At the end of the film Pilar has the last line, which reverses the famous slogan, "Remember the Alamo!"

Pilar:    We'll start from scratch ...All that other stuff, ...all that history ...the hell
 with it, right? ...Forget the Alamo.


Theme II: The Burden of History

    There are many references to myths, secrets, lies, and deceptions as the basis of a comfortable, self-deluding version of our common history. The search for and the discovery of the truth create a crisis of facing who we really are. Some examples:
Hollis:    Ya go stick a shovel in the sand anywhere in Rio County, you never know who your gonna dig up.

Wesley Birdsong: After telling Sam about the time a big rattlesnake sprang out of cooler at him:

You go pokin' your nose into every dark nook and cranny you never what's gonna jump out at you.

Sam Deeds: In one of the last scenes of the movie, when Sam decides to go along with the "official" story of Charlie Wade's departure, and the implication of his fathes's involvement:

        Buddy's a god-damned legend - he can take it.


Theme III: The Struggle For Our Personal Heritage and Identity

The story is set in both the 1950s and 1990s, in Frontera, a Texas border town. The present is firmly planted in the past, a past in which actual events, myths, self-delusions, secrets, and out-and-out lies all simultaneously nourish and constrain our self-understanding. Children cannot escape the lives and decisions of their parents. The future is what we choose, in the present, to make of the past. The film challenges the stories we tell ourselves, and our children, about history, race, and the choices we have.
All of the following characters are searching for the truth about the past in order to understand there own identity in hopes of having a freer future: Sam Deeds, Pilar Cruz, Delmore Payne, Chet Payne.

All of the following characters intentionally obscure the past which  unintentionally confounds their children's or the next generations's self-identities and constrains the next generation's future options: Buddy Deeds, Mercedes Cruz, Otis Payne, Delmore Payne, Hollis Pogue.


Theme IV: The  Artificality of Borders & Boundaries

A very central theme, perhaps the most central, is the artificiality of borders demarcating and identifying people, jurisdiction, nations, races, ethnicities, law versus justice, good versus evil, truth versus fabrication, legend versus history, myth versus fact. Some examples:


"Step across this line. You'e not the sheriff of nothing anymore. Just some Tejano with a lot of questions I don’t have to answer. The bird flying south, you think he sees this line? … You think halfway across that line they start thinking different? Why should a man?"
"It's not like there's a borderline between the good people and the bad people," Otis says. "You'e not on either one side or the other."
"Blood only means what you let it."

In a very interesting musical emphasis of crossing-over borders, the 1950s R&B song “Since I Met You Babyâ€� is played several times in the movie. It is first played in Big O's nightclub, performed by Ivory Joe Hunter. It is played again in Spanish on the jukebox in Mercedes' Mexican cafe, sung by Mexican-American country singer Freddy Fender ("Wasted Days and Wasted Nights". In fact, Freddy Fender had a crossover hit with this song recording three versions in English, Spanish, and a bilingual version. In the movie, the Spanish version becomes something of a love theme-song for Sam and Pilar.  Note the pun Sayles uses from the song's English lyrics, to emphasis our hidden history and the central secret of the movie.
"Since I Met You Baby" - lyrics by IVORY JOE HUNTER -
Since I met you baby
My whole life has changed
Since I met you baby
My whole life has changed
And everybody tells me
That I am not the same

Take notes during the movie. Pay attention to the following elements in the film.

Family relationships:
Father-son
Mother-daughter
Father and Mother figures

Intra-ethnic relationships:
white-white
latina-latina
black-black

Relationships between races/ethnicities:

The Role/Importance of History
the Battle of the Alamo
Jim Crow
the dominant history vs. the subordinate history
a one-sided view of history  vs. a multi-sided view of history
the celebrated, official history  vs. the secret, hidden history
personal histories

Crossing Borders & Boundaries


Questions
DUE: Thursday, May 22, 2008
70 Points

After carefully watchng hte movie, answer the following questions in up to 2 pages for each question, on separate sheets of paper.

PLAGIARISM - All answers must be your own words reflecting your own understanding and knowledge of the material. All re-printed statements must be fully cited giving full acknowledgement to the original author. Students may not copy statements, data, or any other information from any source, including internet websites, and course textbooks.

1a.  What is the theme shared by all of the following relationships? Explain your answer. (20 points)
the conflict between Pilar  and her mother, Mercedes.

the conflict between Sheriff Sam Deeds and his father, Sheriff Buddy Deeds.

the conflict between the Col. Paine and his father, Otis, and

the conflict between the Col. Paine and his son, Chet.

2.  In an early scene in the film Pilar argues passionately that it is important to understand all of the diverse aspects of our history. Yet the last words of the movie are from Pilar saying, 

"All that other stuff, ...all that history...the hell with it, right? ...Forget the Alamoâ"

What point is the film making about history with these seemingly contradictory scenes? What role does the references to the Alamo play? (30 points)

3.  What is the historic relationship of the Sheriff Sam Deeds and Pilar, and why is it central to the movie? By ending the film with in this manner what is the film saying about history, racism, and American identity? (30 points)