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Lone Star

In John SaylesÆ Lone Star we are treated to a murder mystery, as the skeletal remains of the townÆs long-ago and hated Sheriff, Charley Wade, are discovered by the current Sheriff, Sam Deeds, who believes his father, Buddy, the former Sheriff, may be responsible for the murder. Frontera is a Texas border town whose population consists of ninety-percent Mexicans and African Americans but is controlled and run by Whites. While partly a film about race relations and partly a murder mystery, the film also illustrates a number of love relationships, many of which represent taboos. This analysis of Lone Star will explore these sexual taboos.

Prejudice, racism, and rigidly divided lines between ethnic groups demarcate the town of Frontera. Teen sex, interracial marriages, adultery, and homosexuality are involved in the interactions of the townsfolk, despite these rigid boundaries constructed of prejudice. Sergeant Cliff and Pricilla Worth are an interracial couple who intend to marry. One of CliffÆs friends, Sergeant Mikey, asks him if PriscillaÆs family will accept their daughterÆs wishes to marry a ôwhite guy,ö (Sayles, 1996). Sergeant Cliff replies that unmarried woman over 30 in the military are often considered lesbians, so, according to Cliff, PricillaÆs family will ôbe happyö that heÆs a ôman,ö (Sayles, 1996). In this relationship we see that prejudice runs deep in Frontera, fueled by years of ongoing struggles among its white, black, and Hispanic population. When Cliff explains PricillaÆs family would rather see her marry a white man than be a lesbian, Sergeant Mikey tells him, ôAlways heartwarming to see a prejudice defeated by a deeper prejudice. But marriage, man--I did two tours in Southeast Asia and I was married for five years--I couldnÆt tell you which experience was worse,ö (Sayles, 1996). Mikey is referring to his own, failed, interracial marriage to an Asian woman whose family never accdpted ...

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Lone Star. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 07:59, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1710655.html