We live in times when many people think they can have their cake and eat it as well. And this is nowhere more true, it seems to me, than when there are children involved.
Travis and Jane had a bad marriage. It was mostly his fault, but in truth they both showed signs of instability. When the big blow-up came, the shrapnel scattered far and wide. One such piece was in the form of their 4-year-old son, Hunter.
Now, Hunter was lucky. Unlike his parents, who disappeared into obscurity, he ended up as the "foster-child" of Travis's brother and his wife. They were stable, happily married, and gave him a loving home. He was as content as a boy could be under the circumstances.
Uh-oh, don't count your chickens, Hunter. Four years later, out of the festering sands of the Mojave desert and looking like some sort of moulting lizard, emerges Travis. He is heading for some obscure destination possibly his dusty plot at Paris, Texas, where he might have been considering spending the rest of his life growing tree tomatoes, or anything else far removed from the responsibilities of parenthood. Instead, he encounters civilisation, which contacts his brother. Somewhat against his will, Travis is reunited with the son whom he abandoned.
Now, to give him his credit, Travis is a man who realises that he has made some serious mistakes. Had the rest of the movie been about how he confronted those mistakes and actually did something about them and then won back his son's love bit by bit I'd have given it 10 out of 10. The final shot could have been that touching scene when Hunter stops and Travis crosses the road and they go up the hill together. Fade out.
But, no. Instead of doing that, he decides to atone for his mistakes by taking his now 7-year-old son away from his happy and stable new home, on a journey down to Houston to find his mother. Hunter is to be sacrificed for the sake of Travis's conscience.
In spite of discovering that Jane is unmarried and working as a nightclub hostess (you could say, a prostitute), he leaves the boy with her and runs off. No doubt he is heading for that arid patch at Paris, Texas once again. Except this time he probably thinks he has at long last done something good in his life.
I can't agree. One of the worst exhibitions of parental irresponsibility I have ever seen in a movie is when Travis gets his son to phone his foster parents to tell them he has left home. This, of course, is after putting them to a lot of needless worry wondering where he was.
Poor Hunter. How long before she quits on him again? Or hits the bottle? Or, before he gets abused by one of her clients? Oh, but the music's great. And the acting. And Texas.
Travis and Jane had a bad marriage. It was mostly his fault, but in truth they both showed signs of instability. When the big blow-up came, the shrapnel scattered far and wide. One such piece was in the form of their 4-year-old son, Hunter.
Now, Hunter was lucky. Unlike his parents, who disappeared into obscurity, he ended up as the "foster-child" of Travis's brother and his wife. They were stable, happily married, and gave him a loving home. He was as content as a boy could be under the circumstances.
Uh-oh, don't count your chickens, Hunter. Four years later, out of the festering sands of the Mojave desert and looking like some sort of moulting lizard, emerges Travis. He is heading for some obscure destination possibly his dusty plot at Paris, Texas, where he might have been considering spending the rest of his life growing tree tomatoes, or anything else far removed from the responsibilities of parenthood. Instead, he encounters civilisation, which contacts his brother. Somewhat against his will, Travis is reunited with the son whom he abandoned.
Now, to give him his credit, Travis is a man who realises that he has made some serious mistakes. Had the rest of the movie been about how he confronted those mistakes and actually did something about them and then won back his son's love bit by bit I'd have given it 10 out of 10. The final shot could have been that touching scene when Hunter stops and Travis crosses the road and they go up the hill together. Fade out.
But, no. Instead of doing that, he decides to atone for his mistakes by taking his now 7-year-old son away from his happy and stable new home, on a journey down to Houston to find his mother. Hunter is to be sacrificed for the sake of Travis's conscience.
In spite of discovering that Jane is unmarried and working as a nightclub hostess (you could say, a prostitute), he leaves the boy with her and runs off. No doubt he is heading for that arid patch at Paris, Texas once again. Except this time he probably thinks he has at long last done something good in his life.
I can't agree. One of the worst exhibitions of parental irresponsibility I have ever seen in a movie is when Travis gets his son to phone his foster parents to tell them he has left home. This, of course, is after putting them to a lot of needless worry wondering where he was.
Poor Hunter. How long before she quits on him again? Or hits the bottle? Or, before he gets abused by one of her clients? Oh, but the music's great. And the acting. And Texas.