Volu m e II - Purdue University Calumet

that night. At this, Otis finally confessed to Sam that he had been there and that he was running illegal
gambling at Big O’s on the side. Otis reflects back on the night and started revealing the events. At this
point, the film flashes back to a scene where young Otis and other young men are in the stock room at
Roderick’s place playing poker in an empty, dimly lit club. Charley Wade came into the club unannounced
and appeared in the doorway of the stockroom when Otis was passing out the cards for a new game. All the
other men at the table saw Charley and left quickly and Charley went over to where Otis was sitting down
close to the floor. He spoke a few words to him with a grim smile on his face and kicked young Otis to the
floor and started stomping on his face repeatedly. Then, he threw Otis into the main parlor. By gunpoint,
he forced young Otis to give him money and when Otis had his back turned, Charley looked at Hollis,
winked, and raised his gun to Otis’ back. Hollis was watching in horror and just before Charley could
shoot, Buddy Deeds stormed through the door and screamed, “Charley Wade!” (Screenplay) and a gun
went off with Charley falling to the floor dead. Director John Sayles uses this scene to show Sam’s false
belief that his father was the murderer. The scene makes the viewer believe that it was Buddy who shot
Charley, but the next frame shows Hollis holding the gun. The film then returns to present day and Hollis
and Otis continued to tell what happened to Charley. When Sam asked about the missing ten thousand
dollars, Hollis explained that it was “widow’s benefits” and that Buddy gave it to that Mexican girl who was
desperate for money after her husband’s murder. It is clear at this point in film that Sam had just acquired
an entirely different view of his father. At the beginning of John Sayles’ film, Sam thought lowly of his
father Buddy. However, as more information was collected about his father, Sam’s negative view changed
and began to view his father in a different way.
John Sayles states that “There is a preoccupation with history in the film...it’s Sam Deeds wanting
to find out the personal history of his father” (West). Throughout the film Lone Star, Sam travels through his
father’s past that uncovers the mystery of Charley Wade’s disappearance by analyzing different perspectives
of history. Through investigating and considering different perspectives, Sam develops a new
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