Texas Movies? We Got ‘em (Part 2) (September 6, 2025)

by Scott Sosebee

This week we look at the Texas movie countdown with nos. 3-5; we will finish with nos. 1 and 2 the next week

This week we begin to arrive at the cremé de la cremé of Texas movies, my top five of all-time. Reducing the best all-time Texas movies to just ten was a difficult task, and when it comes to the top five let’s just say that there is a minuscule amount of difference between number five and number one. Without further commotion, let’s reveal my numbers 3, 4 and 5 best movies about Texas or with a Texas theme:

Number Five: “The Searchers” (1956): This John Wayne-led epic takes number one on many people’s list, not only about Texas but when they list the best “Westerns” of all time. Wayne’s character Ethan Edwards is just home in 1868 from fighting in the Civil War as well as also fighting in the colonial war between French forces and Mexican rebels in Mexico, something that has already transformed him into a somewhat bitter man, when he is thrust into a years’ long quest to repatriate his nieces, Lucy and Debbie (Debbie is played by a young Natalie Wood), after their father—Ethan’s brother—mother, and brother are killed during a Comanche raid. Ethan, accompanied by the two girls’ adopted brother Martin Pawley (played by Jeffrey Hunter) find Lucy murdered by the Comanche, so their five-year quest becomes an obsession—especially on Ethan’s part—to find Debbie. They first find her in New Mexico and discover that she is living as one of the Comanche leader’s wives and she has, as Ethan says, “turned Comanche.” Ethan would rather see her dead than to accept her as living as one of his sworn enemies, but Martin stops him from killing her. Ethan is then wounded and Debbie escapes with the Comanche band. Ethan is furious, and when he is healed, he once again pursues Debbie, ostensibly to kill her. But, when he does locate her instead of taking his vengeance, he sweeps her up and takes her home.

“The Searchers” contains a lot of jolts to modern sensibilities as it trades in stereotypical racism as well as broad-brush portrayals of Native-White relations. And while it is about Texas, director John Ford filmed the movie in Arizona and Utah, and any Texan worth their salt can tell that what they are seeing is not West Texas. The film is loosely based on the actual kidnapping of Cynthia Anne Parker, an event in Texas history that is also full of much myth itself. But, despite such shortcomings, “The Searchers” is a classic piece of movie-making. John Wayne, in my mind, gives the best performance of his career as Ethan Edwards and he should have won an Academy Award (he was not even nominated), and the cinematography and direction is at a pinnacle of excellence. Yes, it is full of myth and legend, the stuff that makes the true depiction of Texas history problematic. But, as a movie, it has few flaws.

Number Four: “Urban Cowboy” (1980): Ok, I have heard the collective groans when this number was revealed as “Urban Cowboy” is often derided as “fluff” and almost “kitsch filmmaking” by many. However, I implore you to hear me out. Yes, the story of oil refinery worker Bud and his equally working-class wife Cissy’s on-and-off again marriage is a bit hokey, and some of the acting and writing in the film borders on the comical. But if you look beyond those shortcomings, you will find a story that, at its heart, is an accurate portrayal of a changing Texas that is caught between adhering to its rural-inspired roots and 19th century mythology of the “Old West,” and its movement into a state that is urban, industrial, and much more complex. It is that story that gives “Urban Cowboy” its heft.

The film opens with Bud Davis moving from the tiny town of Spur on the South Plains just east of Lubbock to Houston, where he first moves in with his uncle and aunt. He also gets a job at the refinery where his uncle works. But his real joy is going almost every night to “Gilley’s, a huge country music nightclub in Pasadena where he meets Cissy, who works with her father at a tow-truck/mechanic operation. Bud and Cissy eventually get married, then get divorced, generally over a mechanical bull ride, then get back together when Bud thwarts a robbery committed by Cissy’s boyfriend, an ex-con named Wes. Bud and Cissy get back together and live happily ever after, presumably continuing to frequent “Gilley’s” every night.

Ok, the storyline is a bit contrived and it deals in some stereotypes and many of its characters were two-dimensional. But where “Urban Cowboy” shines is that it is an accurate portrayal of 1970s Houston, a place that as hard as it tries to move beyond its roots in the “cowboy” era and also the wildcatting era of the oil industry, parts of that remain. The heart of Houston, in the 1970s, despite its high-rise buildings, the presence of NASA, and the wealthy oil elite, was its blue-collar core that worked on pipelines, at refineries, and in the city’s gritty industries, shops, and retail stores. If Dallas tried to obscure its blue-collar underside in that decade, Houston embraced theirs, and was able to forge a late-twentieth century urban area that still reflected some of its frontier roots. Bud—and Cissy—were emblematic of that. Despite the hoariness of the story, Bud, Cissy, and their friends were authentic characters.

Number Three: “Tender Mercies” (1983): This is another fairly obscure movie, one that not a whole lot of people saw when it first came out. It did open to a lot of critical acclaim, and star Robert Duvall, who plays the main character Mac Sledge, won an Academy Award for Best Actor. Texan Horton Foote, also won the award for Best Original Screenplay. Director Bruce Beresford, although he is Australian, crafted an authentic Texas story with his direction. Shot mostly in and around Waxahachie, “Tender Mercies” tells the story of Mac Sledge, a man who has had some success as a country music singer-songwriter, but most of his success has evaporated in a haze of alcohol and heartache, including the breakup of his marriage with Dixie Scott, who has gone on to become a country superstar, primarily singing many of Mac’s songs. Mac hits bottom when he ends up drunk and broke at a roadside hotel owned by Rosa Lee (played by Tess Harper in his first big role), a young widow (her husband was killed in Vietnam) and mother to a ten-year-old boy. Mac agrees to work off his hotel bill, and Rosa makes him swear to stop drinking. Eventually, the much older Mac and Rosa fall in love and marry, which increases Mac’s resolve to stop drinking. Mac’s journey becomes more complicated when his eighteen-year-old daughter Sue Anne (played by a young Ellen Barkin) is killed in a car crash. But, Mac perseveres, and his marriage to Rosa stays strong. Mac even starts recording again.

The movie is almost a Biblical allegory of redemption and forgiveness, and Duvall delivers a powerhouse performance. The beauty of the film lies in its simplicity, and how Texas, even in its harshest circumstances, offers hope, even “mercies” to its inhabitants.

Next week: Numbers 1 and 2 are revealed. What are your guesses? Did any of these make your list?

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.   

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Texas Movies? We Got ‘em (Part 3) (September 12, 2025)

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Texas Movies? We Got ‘em (Part 1) (August 25, 2025)