Movie Review - Paris, Texas (1984)

SUMMARY: A man who walks out on his family shows up 4 years later walking the Texas badlands in a daze. He slowly regains his hold on reality and memories and reclaims his past by taking his estranged 7 year old son back to his wife. But tracking down his missing wife in Houston also leads to the surprise of a lifetime.

PARIS, TEXAS (1984) is a German-French-American co-production directed by German director Win Wenders. The screenplay by the great character actor Sam Shepard (Black Hawk Down, Steel Magnolias, The Notebook) treats a sensitive subject with a lot of dignity without, however, any overt exposition.

This is a story about losing things that are most precious to us in life. It's about losing and then somehow reclaiming them after going through the purgatory.

The most interesting character in this gorgeous-looking movie is of course Travis, a mysterious man with amnesia walking the badlands of Texas all alone, played by Harry Dean Stanton. The casting is perfect. Stanton does not even look like he is acting.

Travis, found wondering like a ghost on the burning bone-dry plains of Texas with many months' worth of beard on his face and a tattered business suit on his back, is driven home to L.A. by his brother Walt (Dean Stockwell).

Walt is a billboard manufacturer who lives with his wife Anne (Aurore Clement) and 7 year old son Hunter (Hunter Carson). Hunter actually turns out to be the son that Travis has abandoned when he mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth 4 years ago.

Now Travis's reappearance creates a problem for everybody in Walt's household. Hunter is reluctant to accept Travis as his father since he is already calling Walt