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Paris, Texas


Paris, Texas
The late Harry Dean Stanton spent decades in Hollywood providing solid work in supporting roles, but in 1984, he was finally given a chance to step center stage and crushed it with his performance in Paris, Texas, an enigmatic and moody character study of family, redemption, and forgiveness that is alternately riveting and cringe-worthy from opening to closing credits.

Stanton plays Travis Henderson, an aimless drifter whose family haven't seen him for four years. Travis is found wandering a Texas desert and passes out in a diner, where he is taken to a local clinic, where his ID leads the doctor to contact Travis' brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), who flies across the country to retrieve his brother so that he can possibly rebuild a relationship with his son, who Walt and his wife have been raising for the past four years.

The pedigree of this film is kind of odd. Even though it was filmed in the United States with American actors, the film is a French and West German production and directed by three time Oscar nominated directed Wim Wenders, who is probably best known for directing Wings of Desire, but there seems to be a Ingmar Bergman influence here in the extremely delicate establishing of the canvas and taking its time to tell this story and providing us with precious little backstory or exposition, though we do get backstory later.

Wenders immediately establishes audience discomfort by putting Travis in the middle of a desert appearing to be lost and provides further cringe when Walt finds his brother and Travis refuses to speak. Like a similar scene in Best Picture winner Rain Man, Travis refuses to get on a plane with his brother, forcing them into a road trip where Walt has to wait a long time for his brother to speak. We suspect that Travis has lost his memory or that he might be autistic, but a little before the halfway mark, Travis does inform us that he bought some land in Texas and wants Walt to see it. Travis attempting to bond with the son he is reunited with burns with tension and we're a little taken aback when Travis reveals a single-minded mission that initiates another road trip.

This Travis Henderson character is so mesmerizing in its mystery. By the time credits roll, we understand Travis a lot better than we did in the opening scenes, but it's never really made clear why he initially refuses to speak to Walt and we understand more as we watch Travis watch home movies of him and his family, which seems to trigger his mission to reunite his family, which leads to another squirm worthy place where hope is provided, but there's no fairytale ending here.

Wim Wender's direction provides a film that is a visual feast (robbed of a cinematography Oscar) in constant conflict with an often ugly and uncomfortable story. Harry Dean Stanton was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his understated and agonized Travis and Stockwell also offers one of his best performances as Walt. Hunter Carson, who plays Travis' son, is the real life son of co-screenwriter LM Kit Carson and the late Karen Black. A must for Stanton and Wenders fans...this one really haunted me.