A Texas Funeral (1999)

Director:

W. Blake Herron

Writer (WGA):

W. Blake Herron (written by)

Release Date:

5 May 2000 (Italy)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Fantasy | Romance | War

Plot:

In Texas in the late '60s, the Whit family meets for the funeral of grandfather Sparta. This, however...

Plot Keywords:

Funeral | Camel | Texas | Ghost | Smoking During Sex

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Quinton Jones	...	Little Sparta
Robert Patrick	...	Zach
Jane Adams	...	Mary Joan
Martin Sheen	...	Grandpa Sparta
Chris Noth	...	Clinton
Olivia d'Abo	...	Charlotte
Grace Zabriskie	...	Murtis
Joanne Whalley	...	Miranda
Mona Lee Fultz	...	Nurse (as Mona Lee)
Isaiah Washington	...	Walter
Harold Suggs	...	Lucas
Michael Crabtree	...	Achilles
Steve Shearer	...	Jefferson
Mark Walters	...	Young Lucas
Todd Lowe	...	Skinny Private

MPAA:

Rated R for sexual content and some violence.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Iceland:12 | Germany:12 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Bastrop, Texas, USA

Company:

Dragon Pictures

Quotes:

Zach Whit: A man spends the first half of his life trying to figure women out, and the second half trying to forget what he's learned.

A pleasant surprise

Given how long this film took to get from filming to any sort of release (and I'm still not sure how widely it was ever released in theaters) I had feared that it would be a stinker. I followed it because one of my vintage cars was used in filming, and I'd just about given up on ever actually seeing the finished product. My car never made it on screen, having been barely out of frame in a scene set at a hospital, but the movie turned out to be quite, quite good. I wonder how well it might play outside of Texas, and seriously doubt it would have much international attraction, but for me it was a breath of fresh air. Characters full of enough eccentricities to be actual Texans like me, but not the typical overblown 'Hollywierd' caricatures of Texans that make me sick. Somewhere in the production crew, there was obviously someone with at least a fair understanding of Texas folklore and culture. Not quite the skill and depth of Tim McCanlies' Texas-based movies ('Seconhand Lions' and 'Dancer Texas' which for me set the standard by which all Texas-based films should be judged) but still with a similar feel.