Forget the Alamo: The border as place in John Sayles' Lone Star

Mexicans have been pejorative in the American conception and mythologizing of the Mexican American borderland. Part of that vision has been shaped by popular cinema. John Sayles' Lone Star is examined as a critical case study that undermines many of these myths about Mexicans and portrays the border as an authentic place. Assessing these contours helps us see how the border moves from stereotyped space to authentic place in cinema, and demonstrates how film can capture the dynamic cultural geographic quality of this region and its people.