Texas Movies? We Got ‘em (Part 1) (August 25, 2025)
by Scott Sosebee
This week begins a two-part series on the Best Texas Movies
A few nights ago, the wife and I were surfing our channel options looking for something—anything—to watch, a task that incongruously, has become more difficult with the myriad of options we now have for television viewing. As we were scrolling through, I noticed one channel was showing “Giant,” the movie starring Rock Hudson, James Dean, and Elizabeth Taylor adapted from the Edna Ferber novel of the same name. We did not stop and watch “Giant,” primarily because I think it is an awful film that does nothing but perpetuate mythology and stereotype because it depicts Texans as “cardboard cutout” characters that are not much more than caricature (I think you can discern that I have strong feelings about “Giant” and it will not appear on my upcoming list). That got me to thinking—always a dangerous path—of what are, as I see it, the ten best films in Hollywood history that either take place in Texas or have a Texas theme. So, while this column usually deals solely with real past events or figures, for the next couple of weeks it will focus on something a bit different—what I think are the ten best movies with a “Texas connection.” We’ll do it in a “countdown” format, with this week’s entries counting down from number ten to number six, and next week finishing with the top five. So, let’s do this thing!
Honorable Mentions: There have been so many films that qualify for such a list that there have to be some really good ones that have to be left out. So, here are some that just missed my cut: “Terms of Endearment” (1983): If my compendium was the best books about Texas, Larry McMurtry would no doubt appear multiple times—he has written, in my mind, the quintessential Texas novel, “Lonesome Dove”—but the film adapted from his book of the same name that chronicled the long and difficult relationship between a mother and daughter just missed the list. “Hell or High Water” (2016): I so wanted to include this because this recent classic by ‘Yellowstone’s” Taylor Sheridan about two brothers trying to save the family homestead through bank robbery is one of my favorites. But, it just missed. “Dazed and Confused” (1993): Richard Linklater’s story about the last day of school in an East Texas town (Huntsville is the inspiration) introduced the world not only to Linklater, but also Matthew McConaughey. “Bubba Ho-Tep” (2003): Like “Hell or High Water” I really wanted to include the adaptation of Nacogdoches native Joe Lansdale’s comedy/horror novel of the same name on my list. If it was the top fifteen Texas movies it would be safely in.
Number 10: “Red River” (1948): You can’t have a list of Texas movies without John Wayne, an Iowa native who set a healthy number of his movies in Texas. Unlike many of Wayne’s films that followed a formulaic path (that doesn’t mean they were not good), “Red River” with him and Montgomery Clift is an epic that does a decent job of depicting a cattle drive of the period. The true genius of Howard Hawk’s paean to the Old West is the way it traces the complex relationship between a father and son, between “old and new,” and tradition versus a move toward modernity. Wayne was thirty-nine when he made the film, but played an older character. In many ways, it was when Wayne became an actor instead of just a stock character.
Number Nine: “Dallas Buyer’s Club” (2013): Uber-Texan Matthew McConaughey’s lone entry on my list is a role that won the native East Texan an Academy Award for Best Actor. It’s a sobering tale based on the real-life struggle of Ron Woodroof’s struggle to find some relief or cure from the AID’s virus. While it’s definitely not an uplifting tale, it is one of the best depictions of the diversity and complexity of modern Texas.
Number Eight: “Blood Simple” (1984): This Cohen Brothers film (they will appear prominently later in my list) is perhaps more obscure than many that I have chosen, but it was perhaps the first time the world got a glimpse of the renowned filmmakers’ genius. The noir film features Frances McDormand as a double-crossing femme-fatale whose best laid plans of murder takes more twists and turns than the Brazos River. If you have never seen this film do yourself a favor and find an outlet to watch it. It will make your list as well.
Number Seven: “Places in the Heart” (1984): Another Academy Award winner (Sally Field for Best Actress), Texan Robert Benton’s classic tale of a 1930s widow trying to sustain a farm and a family during the Great Depression is notable because of its great depiction of a rough-scrabble Texas farm, the capricious Texas weather, and the complication of racism in the Texas of the era. It’s a film whose story seems simple and endearing, but instead is a glimpse of the difficulty poor, rural Texans faced during most of their history.
Number Six: “The Last Picture Show” (1971): Based on another Larry McMurtry novel, Peter Bogdanovich’s masterpiece stars Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybil Shepherd, Ben Johnson, and Cloris Leachman (Johnson and Leachman both won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor and Actress), and is a stark and evocative “coming-of-age” tale in the tiny Texas town of Anarene in the early 1950s. McMurtry’s novel was largely autobiographical as Anarene stood in for his West Texas hometown of Archer City, and the movie, like his book, is a bleak story of rural Texas and its inhabitants leaving the mythology-filled era of a lingering 19th Century lifestyle and staring modernity in the face. While there is certainly nothing “uplifting” about “The Last Picture Show,” because it portrays an austere, but accurate, foreboding of the complexity of leaving a more innocent life and lifestyle behind, it is—in my mind—one of the most accurate representations of a period in Texas’ history. Actually, the fact that I have ranked it only number six demonstrates the quality of movies about Texas because it is a classic.
Next week: We’ll jump into nos. five through one. What will be the number one ranked movie about Texas? What does your list look like?
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.