Paris, Texas (1984) on Netflix
Travis Henderson walks out of the West Texas desert after four years, unable to say where he has been. His brother Walt brings him to Los Angeles, where Travis's son Hunter lives.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb8.1/10144,845 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Four years after he disappeared, Travis Henderson turns up in the West Texas desert with an empty water jug and collapses inside a convenience store. A doctor treats him, concludes he cannot speak, and dials the number he finds in Travis's wallet. It reaches Walt Henderson, who has heard nothing from his brother since and believes him dead. Walt leaves Los Angeles, where he and his wife Anne have been raising Travis's son, Hunter. He finds Travis walking along the road and drives him home. On the way Travis finally speaks and shows Walt a photograph of a vacant lot he bought in Paris, Texas. In Los Angeles, Hunter barely remembers his father and is timid around him at first.
Cast
- Sam Berryas Gas Station Attendant
- Claresie Mobleyas Car Rental Clerk
- Socorro Valdezas Carmelita
- Edward Faytonas Hunter's Friend
- Justin Hoggas Hunter - Age 3
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Paris, Texas (1984)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Ry Cooder, who wrote the slide-guitar score, revealed in 2018 that Wenders captured the ambience of the desert by letting the microphones pick up its tones, which Cooder discovered was in the key of E-flat, the sound of the wind, so he tuned everything to match.
- A conflict between Wenders's Road Movies company and the distributor Filmverlag over how many copies should be released in West Germany after Cannes initially denied the film a theatrical release there, so bus tours were launched to take German viewers to Zürich for showings.
- When Shepard moved on to another project he sent Wenders notes on how the screenplay should end, and at Wenders's request he wrote Travis's climactic monologue to Jane and dictated it over the phone to a secretary working on the film.
- The rock band U2 cited Paris, Texas as an inspiration for its album The Joshua Tree, and the bands Travis and Texas both took their names from the film.
- According to Wes Anderson, the photographs of the dead wife in The Royal Tenenbaums were inspired by Wenders's home movie scene in this film.
- The film marked the first time Wenders avoided storyboarding completely, going straight to rehearsals on location with the actors before shooting began.
