What's a Good Texas Movie?

Academics and film buffs seem to agree – Texas legislators shouldn't act as arbiters of good cinematic taste.

Saturday night at the Alamo Drafthouse Downtown, as part of the farewell to the original site at Fourth and Colorado, Joe Bob Briggs (the man that loved drive-in schlock before Quentin Tarantino made it cool) and UT lecturer/Texas film historian Don Graham talked about the history of Texas films and Texas in film.

The conversation turned to Senate Bill 782, the Texas Film Incentive Program's tax-breaks-for-movie-makers bill. Legislators are talking seriously about not funding scripts that make Texas look bad, and when Joe Bob heard about this, he had some words about trying to define good and bad for Texas.

"The first movie under the Texas Film Commission was Lovin' Molly, which made Texas look bad by being bad. The second movie under the commission was The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which made Texas look bad by being so good."

Graham had noted earlier that, historically, a lot of Texas movies were about the victory of good, white, protestant folks over, well, everyone. So will the tax breaks mean more Walker, Texas Ranger and less The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada?