Review of Paris, Texas (1984) by Ivan D — 06 Jun 2010
It started out with an opening scene with a western-type editing. We see a man walking in a no man's land and we wonder how he got there. He's not a man going into a mission, but more like coming back from a failed one.
He's Travis, a man who unofficially took a vow of silence and is heading towards uncertainty. "Paris, Texas" is a Macguiffn of a title, making us audiences believe that it is Travis' ultimate destination, only finding out that there is more to him to redeem than a piece of a dry land.
The main character was played by character actor Harry Dean Stanton in one of his rare leading roles. Producers must have found him fairly unsuitable for a lead in terms of physical appearance, but no one dared to look at his ability to evoke great amount of emotions in such small ounces of effort.
The climactic scene is the ultimate proof of this claim. Many sentimental pictures in the mainstream scene concerning reconciliatory themes have characters that are tailor-made for audiences to empathize with, and all rushing into a satisfactory ending to finish the story.
But "Paris, Texas" made it an hour longer than the usual, completing the circle of emotions with subtle ease. And though the characters were literally throwing out their repressed emotions, it never felt contrived.
The end scene of Travis' face with a faint glint of smile, has able to support the heavy pour out of emotions in the earlier scene, which only proved the film's literal, emotional power.
This review of Paris, Texas (1984) was written by Ivan D on 06 Jun 2010.
Paris, Texas has generally received very positive reviews.
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