MovieChat Forums > Paris, Texas (1984) Discussion > Flawless, until... *spoilers*

Flawless, until... spoilers

posted 19 years ago by MisterBizzones
37 replies | jump to latest

...the second time Travis visits his wife in the peep show booth. Up to that point, the film had said so much with so few words; Stanton is capable of conveying a lifetime's worth of emotions with a few facial expressions. The dialogue was genuine, too, without any of the characters ever spouting 'movie talk' - not even the kid. So I was pretty disappointed when Travis got uncharacteristically stonefaced and started in on that endless MacBeth speech. Show, don't tell, Wim!

It's still a brilliant movie but it almost commits suicide at the two hour mark. Did anyone else feel this way besides me and Vincent Canby?

[–] akalamar 19 years ago

I disagree. I think the peep show booth speech did not detract from much of the vocal silence throughout the movie. (I think the speech was made more powerful by this silence, however.) While the facial expressions carry this movie and they are used to express the greatest emotions, they are unable to provide the details that the speech did. I also think the speech, occuring entirely through the wall of glass where they'd couldn't really see eachother, was very important to the plot and the backstory (it still realizes those four years of mystery) but explains the relationship more in a very vivid, colorful way. I don't there is way that you could show all the specific emotions that are captured in that speech.
Perhaps the entire what eight minutes of speech wasn't neccessary but there did need to exist some dialogue to clarity a part of the past and set the groundwork for the future.

[–] MisterBizzones 19 years ago

I agree that some dialogue was necessary for clarity, and the silence prior to the speech certainly rendered it more striking, at least at first, but I thought that the actual dialogue was far too expository and lacking in humanity. Travis' demeanor seems inconsistent with what we've learned of him. (The first scene in which he sees Jane at the peelers' is handled beautifully.)

I heard that Wenders deviated from Shepard's script at this point and the two of them improvised most of the dialogue in this scene. I wouldn't be terribly surprised.

[–] TopFrog 19 years ago

... in the commentary on the Region 1 DVD Wim Wenders says that for the speech scene Kinski and Stanton insisted on following exactly, word for word, what Shepard had written. Wenders says that because they wanted to avoid any deviation from the script, he ended up shooting more film for that scene than in any other scene that he has shot.

In the commentary on the DVD Wenders also explains that the original script only went up to where Travis comes to L.A. The plan was to shoot that, and, having seen how it went up to that point, for Wenders and Shepard to then figure out the rest of the story. Unfortunately Shepard couldn't be present for the shooting of the first half of the movie, and so Wenders went forward, faxing ideas back and forth with Shepard. Thus the second half of the movie was partially scripted by Shepard, with Wenders collaborating with him and taking the story in some directions on his own.

-- TopFrog

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] sexy_dancer 19 years ago

Nah. I loved that scene. It's the movie's equlivalent of when Poirot (or whoever) explains the mystery to the other characters & the audience, and Paris, Texas is a mystery in some ways.

Wim Wenders isn't exactly Tarkovsky.

[–] 19 years ago

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[–] jealous_monk 19 years ago

I completely disagree, Travis' monologue is perfect. After all the silence, after a film of little moments he finally opens up and lets it all out, he reveals to us what has made him the way he is.

The entire film is flawless, it is the most perfect film ever made.

[–] pcqgod 19 years ago

Upon watching it again, recently, I found that the monologue does kind of detract from the mystery of the movie, as Travis reveals all the unpleasant secrets of the past. Still, it provides a necessary emotional climax to the movie.

"If you've got any sense of humor or no standards at all you'll love 'em."

[–] svefn_englar 18 years ago

that was what made the movie for me, the fact that travis and jane don't come face to face(the mirror is blocking them) in the movie, and the word selections.

[–] megatosspot 18 years ago

It's the heart of the film.

[–] felix_sidewinder 18 years ago

Nah, I disagree. There's only so much beauty and mystery that you can take. At this monologue the emotion only increases and you apreciate the film more because you've spent an hour and a half having no idea what is going on. Even with that long monologue, it still feels sparse and free.

[–] 18 years ago

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