Plot
A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his wife and son four years before...

Release Year: 1984

Rating: 8.0/10 (21,762 voted)

Director: Wim Wenders

Stars: Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell

Storyline
A man wanders out of the desert not knowing who he is. His brother finds him, and helps to pull his memory back of the life he led before he walked out on his wife and son four years before. As his memory returns, he makes contact with various people from his past.

Writers: L.M. Kit Carson, Sam Shepard

Cast:
Harry Dean Stanton - Travis Henderson
Sam Berry - Gas Station Attendant
Bernhard Wicki - Doctor Ulmer
Dean Stockwell - Walt Henderson
Aurore Clément - Anne Henderson (as Aurore Clement)
Claresie Mobley - Car Rental Clerk
Hunter Carson - Hunter Henderson
Viva - Woman on TV (as Viva Auder)
Socorro Valdez - Carmelita
Edward Fayton - Hunter's Friend
Justin Hogg - Hunter - Age 3
Nastassja Kinski - Jane Henderson
Tom Farrell - Screaming Man
John Lurie - 'Slater'
Jeni Vici - 'Stretch'

Taglines: Where lost love is found....

Release Date: 19 September 1984

Filming Locations: 10060 Olivia Terrace, Sun Valley, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office Details

Budget: £1,162,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend: $22,709 (USA) (10 November 1984) (3 Screens)

Gross: $4,504,993 (Germany)

Runtime: 147 min

Trivia:
During the scene in the Texas airport, Dean Stockwell's character is on the phone with his wife. The PA announcer can be heard saying "A message for Joy Stockwell, Joy Stockwell. Austin will arrive at any minute." Joy was Dean's wife and Austin, his son, was born during production of this film.

Goofs:
Continuity: Travis and his brother check into a small motel on their first night, where we see a dresser with an ugly lamp sitting on top. After Travis runs off, they continue down the road and stay in a larger hotel, where we see the same dresser and light.

Quotes:
Travis: He thought if she never got jealous of him that she didn't really care about him. Jealousy was a sign of her love for him, and then one night, one night she told him that she was pregnant, she was about three or four months pregnant and he didn't even know and then suddenly everything changed...

Do I envy people who don't like this movie?

Rating: 10/10

It's hard for me to select just one movie as my very favorite, but if I had to, "Paris, Texas" would probably be it.

As I recall, I first saw it while I was a student in a small theater in '84 or '85; a year or two later I recorded it from cable to Beta tape. After not having watched it for years, I've played it again a few times over the last couple of years. Many movies I recall having liked in the past are just big disappointments when I watch them years later. That's not the case with this one! Then I was single; now I'm married. That alone makes a big difference, but I also find that even some small elements now have more meaning. I previously attached no significance to the scene where Travis was determined to find the same rental car in which he and Walt had previously driven. But how often people do sentimentally and fiercely cling to, objectively, unimportant things in reaction to having had their hearts and spirits broken more than a few times over important things. I often recall this scene when observing some instance of this in myself or others.

I am struck by what opposite opinions people have of this movie. If you have few problems relating to other people, or you don't care much about relating to other humans, and little in your life disappoints you over long spells of your life, you will probably find this movie very boring. I sort of envy people in this situation, though before I would want to wish myself to be like that, I pause at how much my life would be changed and how little of my personality would be left, if I did.

I, too, eagerly await the release of this movie on high quality DVD, and hope that my still barely viewable Beta will last til then.

"Oh, Travis."

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