ASTARRING ROLE:
Texas has left itsmark on Hollywood.
Without Texas, Hollywood movies might look very different. More accurately, without the idea of Texas, they would be shrunken versions of themselves.
Take “The Searchers,” John Ford’s 1956 wide-screen epic starring John Wayne that’s often acknowledged as the greatest Western the studios ever produced. While the story is set in the plains of northwestern Texas, the movie was actually filmed in Monument Valley. Utah, amid amajestic soaring landscape that was more in line with the Texas of the world’s imagination.
And it doesn’t stop there. From“Giant” to“Hud,” “TheAlamo” to “Tender Mercies” and “No Country for Old Men” (all of which were actually filmed, at least partially, in Texas) to the TV series “Dallas,” the entertainment industry has long sold to the globe the image of the state as being a big, tough land filled with big, tough people. And even many of thosemovies that have little to do with rounding up livestock or life on the frontier — “Friday Night Lights,” “Apollo 13” — celebrate a kind of a resilience and tenacity of spirit that correspond neatly with the Texan image.
“Certainly, film has been very good to Texas because of the economic engine that it offers,” said Rick Ferguson, executive director of the Houston Film Commission. “But Texas has also been really good to the film industry because of some pretty great stories — and it goes all theway fromeverything that has to do with space to Texas and cowboys … It’s been a good marriage between the two entities.”
According to “The Texas Almanac,” filmmaking has been happening in Texas since the early 20th century when French producer Gaston Mélies moved his studio from New York to San Antonio in 1910, launching Star Film Ranch. The very first winner for Oscar’s best picture honor, “Wings” in 1927, was largely shot in Texas.
Beginning in the ’70s, the image has been fleshed out with a new generation of independent film makers whose work sought to get beyond the cowboy clichés. Terrence Malick (“Days of Heaven,” “The Tree of Life”), Richard Linklater (“Dazed and Confused,” “Boyhood”), Robert Rodriguez (“ElMariachi,” “Desperado”), David Lowery (“The Old Man & the Gun,” “A Ghost Story”), Wes Anderson (“Rushmore,” “Bottle Rocket”) and Mike Judge (“Office Space,” “King of the Hill”) have taken their sensibilities worldwide. More recently, they’ve been joined by the likes of suchwomen as Annie Silverstein (“Bull”) and Channing Godfrey Peoples (“Miss Juneteenth”), who are challenging the stereotype ofwhat a Texas director looks like.
“When you’re overseas and you say ‘Texas,’ everybody knows what Texas is — or at least they have a preconceived notion of what Texas is like,” Ferguson said. “I think a lot of that is attributable to the image that has been projected via film and television. Most of it has been very good, some of it not great. But it has defined Texas in multiple ways so I think that’s only beneficial.”
That’s not even mentioning the number of actors with Texas roots who take Texas with them wherever they go: Matthew M cC on ag hey; Renée Zellweger; Jennifer Garner; Jamie Foxx; Robin Wright; Ethan Hawke; Forest Whitaker; Eva Longoria; Dennis Quaid; Woody Harrelson; Patrick Swayze; Tommy Lee Jones and Phylicia Rashad are just some of the stars fromthe Lone Star State.
Still, for Ferguson — whowould like to see the state increase its incentives to lure film, television, commercial and videogame production to Texas — Hollywood has gotten many things wrong about Texas, too. “It is the cowboy image,” he said. De rigueur boots and cowboy hats were certainly perpetuated by the TV series, “Dallas.” “Obviously, Texas is much more diverse than that, and certainly from my perspective, Houston is much more than that.
“I’ve picked up producers and directors and production designers at the airport and driven into town, and it’s like ‘Where’s the cattle? Where are all the oil derricks? Where are the tumbleweeds? Well, you know, that’s not who we are.”