Waltz Across Texas

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining to say the least
Review: After years of searching, I'd about lost hope that this movie would ever again become available on video. It's not only highly entertaining with some great actors but will hold viewers attention from start to finish in this engrossing story of survival in the search for oil. Using crude technology and wits, even those not involved in the oil industry will enjoy this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Man's Man Deflates Stuffy Scientist: It Must Be Love
Review: Nicely observed portrait of West Texans at that moment when the traditional individualistic ways of the maverick wildcatters collided with the more sophisticated, play-it-safe high-tech future. Story comes wrapped up as a romance between real-life husband-and-wife Terry Jastrow and Anne Archer.
The film does a fine job of idealizing the nuts-and-bolts of small-scale oil drilling, and makes that far more interesting than you might expect. The plot is clichéd, and the characters stereotypical, but somehow, the excellent screenplay uses familiarity to anchor us quickly into place, and then spends its own leisurely time drawing in the details that bring the whole thing to quite pleasurable life.
It's familiar without being clichéd, fleshed-out without being eccentric, dignified without being pompous. Credit the writer, and the likeability of the cast, most particularly Jastrow, who is quite charming. Richard Farnsworth also stands out in a very effective early sequence.
That said, there's a fuzziness to the technicals, to the lighting and editing and such. A better director could have made "Waltz Across Texas" absolutely sparkle. As it is, though, it's still a small, slightly under-polished gem.

Rating:
Summary: Homage to the Bygone Southwest Conference
Review: The most enchanting moment in this nice little film occurs when John Taylor renders a lilting litany, realizing that Gail has never heard of the Longhorns, the Cougars, the Owls, the Red Raiders, the Horned Frogs, the Razorbacks, the Mustangs, the Bears or the Aggies -- the fine old teams of the Southwest Conference (which was wholly dominated during its entire existence by the Aggies of Texas A&M). John is rueful that Gail hasn't ever heard these names, especially the Aggies -- he is astounded that a highly educated individual such as she has never heard of the Aggies.

And, you need to see this film just to watch the old cable-tool rig operate, and hear its muffled impacts somewhere downhole as it noses for oil. If you have anything to do with the oil business, and you of course realize how thoroughly the Texas Aggies dominated the old Southwest Conference, this movie is definitely for you.

Rating:
Summary: Good Texas movie
Review: This is a good Texas movie. My dad was a Land Man (secures the leases to drill) so I grew up in this milieu. Two guys really can bring in a well if the pay is not too deep. All of the high school guys in oil country worked as roustabouts (general labor) or rig hands during the summers. When two guys get together, we discuss who missed what block or who jumped offside before we talk about women. Some of the minor characters in the movie have the names of real oil men and women. Good stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Good Texas movie
Review: This is a good Texas movie. My dad was a Land Man (secures the leases to drill) so I grew up in this milieu. Two guys really can bring in a well if the pay is not too deep. All of the high school guys in oil country worked as roustabouts (general labor) or rig hands during the summers. When two guys get together, we discuss who missed what block or who jumped offside before we talk about women. Some of the minor characters in the movie have the names of real oil men and women. Good stuff.