Paris Trout *** (1991, Dennis Hopper, Barbara Hershey, Ed Harris) – Classic Movie Review 3739

Based on Pete Dexter’s novel, director Stephen Gyllenhaal’s opulently filmed 1991 Deep South thriller, set in a small Georgia town in the 1950s, is a savage and uncomfortable experience.

It concedes centre stage to Dennis Hopper’s boiling-over portrait of the bigoted white storekeeper Paris Trout, who sets off on a shooting rampage when he is annoyed by a black family. Hopper is chilling as a disturbed racist lording over petrified townsfolk, who goes into violent overdrive after a black customer fails to pay him for a second-hand car and he kills a young black girl.

The classy acting from Barbara Hershey as his abused wife Hanna Trout and Ed Harris as his defence lawyer Harry Seagraves, Robert Elswit’s atmospheric cinematography and David Shire’s score balance an initially powerful but disappointingly slight tale, which starts to ebb away at around the half time mark.

It is a very tough and disturbing movie, though there are no four-letter swear words.

Also in the cast are Ray McKinnon, Tina Lifford, Darnita Henry, Eric Ware, RonReaco Lee and Gary Bullock.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3739

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