King of Texas (2002)

RELEASED TO TV IN 2002 and directed by Uli Edel, "King of Texas" is a Western starring Patrick Stewart as the proud & loveless title character, John Lear, whose ranch spreads across a vast region of West Texas. His decision to divvy up his empire between his dubious daughters (Marsha Gay Harden & Lauren Holly) based on their willingness to flatter him yields disastrous results as Lear descends into madness and despair. Julie Cox plays his other daughter while David Alan Grier plays his wily man Friday, Rip.The plot's taken from The Bard's "King Lear." But is also inspired by real-life Texas cattle baron Captain Richard King and his King Ranch in South Texas, which is the largest ranch in Texas, encompassing some 1,289 square miles.The movie starts shaky with the sequence where Lear divides his holdings between his daughters, but only because you don't yet have a grip on the character of Lear and his dysfunctional relationships with his daughters. The rest of the flick, however, clears things up. One of the best parts is the chemistry that Stewart has with Grier. Their banter back-in-forth is entertaining and often humorous.What I like most about this Western beyond the great cast, magnificent Mexican locations and moving score, is its uniqueness, which is likely due to it being based on "King Lear." Moreover, there are moments of greatness, like when Lear madly chases the eagle as if longing to take flight from the cage of his proud, quirky flesh and this fallen world in general; or when he passionately cries out to God in the storm. If you think it's unbelievably melodramatic, you're wrong. It's real.THE FILM RUNS 95 minutes and was shot in Durango & Pachuca, Hidalgo, Mexico. WRITER: Stephen Harrigan based on Shakespeare's play. ADDITIONAL CAST: Colm Meaney and Patrick Bergin appear as the husbands of Lear's daughters. Roy Scheider plays a neighbor and Matt Letscher & Liam Waite his sons while Steven Bauer is on hand as a Hispanic ranch owner threatened by the two daughter's outrageous greed.GRADE: B/B+

I have down the story of 'King Lear' since I was ten years old and I think that 'King of Texas' is very much like it. Suzannah, the eldest daughter played by Marcia Gay-Harden, is very much like the character of Goneral in 'King Lear' who she is meant to be. Lauren Holly portrays the other evil daughter Rebecca somewhat differently from her original character Regan. The one good daughter Claudia (played by Julie Cox) is almost exactly like Cordelia, her original. But Instead of Kings, Earls, and Dukes, they are all landowners, who fight over land. Other than the story is very similar to the original except at the end there are a few things that happen to some of the characters (where they meet their end) that are very different. Matt Letscher, who plays Emmett one of the villains that is based on one of Shakespeare's most interesting villains named Edmund, gives an awesome performance. He also played a great villains in 'The Mask of Zorro', I don't know a whole lot about him, but I hope he becomes a big star. Patrick Stewart is so Lear, you can hardly tell the difference. This movie rates a 9/10.

"King of Texas" is a knock-off of Shakespeare's "King Lear" which sports an excellent cast, a sterling performance by Stewart, and solid art and technicals all on location in Mexico. Unfortunately the film was a bad idea as Shakespeare and Texas have just about nothing in common and the breeding of those incongruous elements results in an unwieldy and unattractive progeny. Most would agree that much of the beauty of the Bard's work is in the prose and "King of Texas" makes that point clear as it fails to achieve more than a modicum of entertainment while looking silly against its Mexican backdrop with obvious histrionics, gushing theatrics, and staginess ad nauseam. A novelty watch for the curious at best. (B-)

. . . Better than Mel Gibson doing "Hamlet." Good performances all around, especially by Stewart. It is unfortunate, however, that nothing could be done about his accent. Stewart has a fine voice. Trouble is he's, well, English. I think they would have been better off leaving things as they were. The Southwestern overlay sometimes distracted from the dialog by generating unintentional humor. If I could buy a Frenchman named "Jean Luc" with an English accent for seven years on TV, I'd probably be willing to accept an English landowner in North America. There were enough of them, after all. Accents notwithstanding, the film is well worth seeing. The plot line remains intact and the direction is solid. I hope it makes it to DVD.