THE CURBSIDE CRITERION: PARIS, TEXAS

“Of course, one might argue that Paris, Texas is in love with a certain idea of America,” film critic Nick Roddick writes in the essay found in the booklet included with this new 4K Ultra HD edition of the movie from Criterion.

Alas, no one can discuss said essay with Nick, since he died in 2019; it was written for a 2010 Criterion release of the film.

Nor, of course, can anyone discuss with Roger Ebert his view of the movie when it hit theaters in 1984: “It has more links with films like Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy than with the slick arcade games that are the box-office winners of the 1980s. It is true, deep, and brilliant.”

Now, I have a special place in my heart for those “slick arcade games” that dominated the box office charts during the 1980s, and continue to do so today, but as I near the completion of my 54th spin around the sun, I can also reflect on a movie like Paris, Texas and what it means to me.

The film opens on Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton), found wandering the desert in west Texas. After he collapses, the doctor who treats him finds in his pocket a card with the phone number of his brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), and calls him.

Walt leaves the billboard business he runs with his wife, Anne (Aurore Clément), to pick up Travis and bring him back to Los Angeles, where he has been caring for Travis’s son Hunter (Hunter Carson) ever since Travis and his wife Jane (Nastassja Kinski) divorced and dropped out of the boy’s life.

Paris, Texas has been described as a road movie, but it’s more like two road movies sandwiched around a drama. After Walt and Travis return to LA, Travis begins the slow, unsteady process of reconnecting with a son who isn’t sure what to make of him.

In one painful sequence, Travis waits for his son after school to walk him home, but Hunter gets in a car with a friend of his. They slowly grow close, however, while Walt and Anne struggle with balancing their desire to continue to care for Hunter’s well-being against their respect for Travis’s wishes as the boy’s father.

Eventually, the subject of Jane’s whereabouts comes up, and Travis impulsively takes Hunter on a trip to find her, much to the frustration of Walt and Anne. That second road trip comprises the back half of the film, as Travis tries to reconcile his feelings for Jane with his desire for her to be part of Hunter’s life again.

As a guy who’s a dad to a couple kids and whose own relationship with his mother was messy because of her mental illness, Paris, Texas gives me plenty to chew on in my mind. That works for me, because some movies are fun arcade game experiences and others give me a chance to reflect on my own life and the circumstances that brought me to where I am right now, writing this review.

Have I sold you on watching this movie, if you haven’t already? I hope so. And, yes, it looks beautiful, thanks to this new restoration overseen and approved by director Wim Wenders, whose movies always give their viewers plenty to chew on afterward.

No new bonus features were commissioned for this new Criterion edition, which includes the movie on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs.  The only extra on the former platter is a commentary by Wim Wenders that does a great job of capturing the “film school on a disc” ethos found in so many releases from the company. Here are the rest of the extras:

• The Road to Paris, Texas (43 minutes): Wenders and much of his cast and crew, along with others who weren’t in the movie, such as Peter Falk and Dennis Hopper, look back on the making of the film in this 1989 piece created by Paul Joyce.

– Brad Cook (@BradCWriter)

Criterion 4k Blu ray; Wim Wenders; Paris, Texas movie review