King of Texas

An amazing and very emotional film, impressively done for a TV movie with great performances especially from sir Patrick Stewart and Roy Scheider. Definitely worth a watch.

Although the concept is original, King of Texas is incredibly disappointing. It does remain fairly faithful to King Lear, however.

I watched this movie on TV last night, I went in blind, all I knew was it was a re-imagining of Shakespeare's King Lear and it starred Patrick Stewart and Roy Scheider. That was enough for me, so I gave it a chance and was pleased I did.

A lean version of King Lear set in the wild west frontier. Local landowner John Lear gives his land to two of his daughters and banishes the third and quickly descends into madness and realises the folly of his decision.

I watched a DVD of this movie last night. There are no special features on the DVD except for a few bits on info on Patrick Stewart, as well as the director and the screenwriter.

Excellent performance by all actors, most especially Patrick Stewart. The emotional range is wide.

This short treatment does well in general by the story and by the characters. The characters have a certain frontier eloquence and it isn't till John Lear goes mad-- a bit too suddenly-- that you really miss Shakespeare's poetry.

The film does a fair job showing the effect of madness on Lear, but a more gradual descent would've been better. The film's best work is done in showing that the madness takes hold as his role as a father is peeled away, and shows in him this lack of a connective identity, which Shakespeare seemed to suggest could lead to madness in any person.

King Leer plays Mr. Dunson (from Red River).