Dancer, Texas Pop. 81

Coming from a small town in West Virginia I was able to understand the plight of the 4 boys. My friends and I also made a similar pact, although ours started with going to college together and then moving to some big city and living a glamorous life. That's why this movie really struck me.

This movie is for anyone who has ever felt like there has to be more out there. It captures both the charms and pitfalls of small town life. In "Dancer" Squirrel and John both find a situation that suits them, giving them a glimmer of hope for the future, while Keller and Terrell Lee both realize that they will never be able to find the happiness they wish for in Dancer, Texas. At one point, though, both almost hit a point of acceptance that this is what their lives are to be and resolve to themselves that they must stay and make the best of it.

The theme through for this movie is that each of us must find what makes us happy, assessing what we have, what we need, what we want and how we're going to balance these. We can't always have everything we want, and sometimes to get something we have to give up something. And furthermore, we have to remember that what is right for one person may not be right for someone else, no matter how much you might wish it is.

Before getting the movie, I was puzzled at the sharp disparity in the comments here. Now I think I understand them!

A character in the movie says something like this: "Some people aren't meant to live in a small town. Some can't live anywhere else." There's truth to that, and I think it's reflected in the differing responses to the movie here.

If you have experienced small-town life, and either love it or at least are wryly comfortable with it, you'll like this movie a lot. You'll feel you've met these people, you've been to their church, you've been at their picnics. You'll enjoy the scenery, the decent neighborliness, the conversations, the characters.

If you're more of a big-city type, you'll be very impatient. Nothing "happens"! No heads explode, no alien invasions, abductions, or even flyovers. No sex, virtually no profanity, no fist-fights. Everyone keeps most of his clothes on. Kids love and respect their parents and families, even when they're a little daft. People fight, but basically care about each other. It's boring - to some!

I offer no judgment, just this filter to help you decide whether the movie's for you. If you like movies that make you ache for small-town life, you'll like this. If you need action and adrenalin, you may very well not. I like both, and I liked this movie.

Some reviewers have referred to "Dancer, Tex Pop. 81" as a "Last Picture Show"-lite. How wrong. "Last Picture Show" was dark and depressing; focusing on death, decay and lost hope. "Dancer, Tex Pop. 81", although also set in an extremely small Texas town, is about choices, all of them good. It balances the joys and benefits of small-town life against the youthful yearning to experience the unknown. The movie follows the town's high-school graduating class of all of five students; four young men and a lady. Years ago the men had pledged a sacred oath to leave town together for Las Angeles immediately after graduation. Now three of the four are not so sure. To stay or to go? That's it in a nutshell, as a weekend's events unfold before the fateful bus journey. This is a feel-good movie in the tradition of "American Graffiti". Not nearly as good, but certainly good enough for a night's rental.

In 1998, Tim McCanlies had a crazy idea. He made a movie about a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, in which no one gets killed, nothing gets blown up, no one has sex, and there aren't any aliens from outer space. Thank goodness he saw his crazy idea through; the result is a fabulous movie that I saw in the theater in 1998, and I am not sure I have seen a better movie since then.

The setting of the movie is the fictitious town of Dancer, located in Southwest Texas, where the counties are bigger than the states in the northeast and the people are outnumbered by rattlesnakes. The movie begins on Friday, when four boys are graduating from high school. We learn that, while they were in junior high school, they made a "solemn vow" that as soon as they graduated, they were going to get on the next bus to California to make their mark on the world. Easy to say when you're in junior high, and graduation is years away. But now it's here, and the bus is pulling out on Monday morning. The question is whether any of the boys will follow through.

That's pretty much the plot. What's so special? Simple: the relationships between the boys, between each of them and their family members, and between the folks in the town. This movie, like all great movies, is about the characters' reactions to the circumstances they are in. The characters are real, fleshed out not in bold strokes but in nuances, and their actions, not always predictable, are always believable. Most of us have faced the decision whether to leave the town that we grew up in. It is fascinating to watch these teenagers begin to grow into men -- at an accelerated pace, because of their childhood pledge.

Someday, when you are at the video store and you don't know what to get, you will see this on the shelf. Get it. You will be very, very happy.

this may not have been the best movie i've ever seen, but it ranks high on my faves. even though the story takes place in a town that does not exist witch is ok by me. It's only a movie right. Actually the real name of the tow it was filmed in is Ft. Davis texas witch is 26 miles from me and if you hear the name of a school called sul ross in this movie i'm here to tell you that school is as real and it's name how do i know this. Because i live in Alpine and did attend sul ross at one point. Anyways i can pretty much relate to keller and all of his buds for wanting to get out of a small town. I mean 81 people?! Now thats to small even for me. But the story does make a lot of scence. And the directior seemed to know what he was doing, even though some scenes dragged out a bit. Anyways i defently feel that this movies relates to thousands of people who live in small towns all across the country and i think that at least 90% will enjoy the movie. This is one movie I highly recommend