TEXAS KILLING FIELDS

US, 2011, 105 minutes, Colour,
Sam Worthington, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jessica Chastain, Chloe Grace Moretz, Stephen Graham, Sheryl Lee, Anabeth Gish, Jason Clarke.
Directed by Ami Canaan Mann.

This film has good credentials, a special cast, and is based on actual events.

In trying to tell the group story, especially the focus on the detectives, their pursuit of the criminals and the turning of the tables on them and their being pursued, the film is not always easy to follow.

It is a story of police partnership, tensions between the two, one local, the other from New York City, one relentless to capture the criminal, the other serving as a partner. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Sam Worthington other two police.

There is a sordid background to the story, involving drugs and abductions. The locations, especially the swampland is all part of the general ugliness.

1. A crime story? Detective work? The Texas setting? Texas City?

2. The narrative, the killings, detection work? Audiences complaining of confusion and a lack of clarity?

3. Texas City, the police, homes, the centre of town, the streets, the outskirts, the houses, drug houses? The fields, the swamps? The musical score?

4. The opening, the atmosphere of the car, the body, the fields, the investigation? The serial killer?

5. Ann, standing in the street, the sequence of the second girl murdered, examination, forensic evidence? Part of the serial killer’s work? Or not?

6. Ann, the police picking her up, her being on parole, taking her home, their care for her, her mother and drugs, frantic, her brother? The situation and the house? Her wandering, interactions with the detectives, her character, the dangers, her being abducted, almost murdered? Found in time, revived? At the end, her future?

7. The picture of the two detectives, the work together, past friendships? Mike and the background in New York? Coming back? His marriage, separation? Attitude towards his work, tough? His ex-wife and the arguments? Collaboration and the investigation? Mike’s partner, pursuing suspects?

8. Going to the black neighborhood, the man with the tattoos, evidence, the black community and the information, the personalities, the arrest? Issues of drugs? Pimps?

9. The factory workers, the men, the sinister man with glasses, in the house, and his brother? At work, the bar, playing? Sullen, style? Dressing up? Dominating?

10. The detectives, good cop, bad cop, violence? Mike and his violence? His partner being bashed?

11. Mike’s ex-wife, her intervention, tough, clearing the crime scene, ousting people? The capacity for investigation, interrogation?

12. The build-up the facts, the nature of the leads?

13. The house, the guns, finding Ann, the brother and his gun, the shooting, the mother and her disbelief? Death?

14. The killer, serial killer, young women, violent, abductions, torture? Mike confronting him? Shot?

15. Mike and the ending, his future? His partner, at home, recovery?

16. The film based on actual events in Texas?