Dancer, Texas

This movie was a like a trip back home for me. I grew up in West Texas, and I always knew in that process that I would one day leave it. By no plan or design, somehow it happened, in many stages. Ultimately, where did I find myself? In California, of course.

Now looking back with the help of this movie, I see the simple good of the life I lived back then, when life was slow, plodding even, but placid and enjoyable.

Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 provides a window back in time to the life we used to be able to live. I especially enjoyed the halting conversation between the two ranchers, a conversation of one and two word sentences. These two were so tuned into one-another that they needed very few words to express their ideas, thoughts, and concerns. People should be more like that today.

I spent a pleasant evening last night viewing this superb portrait of americana. I only wish that I had grown up in such a small town. These kids, teenagers, had it all, most of all solid friendships. I never was able to determine for certain how many if any would leave that fateful Monday morning on the journey to Los Angeles, leaving the small town and its people behind. That some left was inevitable. That some stayed was natural. I would have stayed. As the song at the end said, Dancer may not be on the map, Mr. McNally but it ought to be. I agree. My next visit to West Texas will include it. What a delight I have waiting for me. I feel SO good!!!

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.

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.

OK, for all you people who came from "smalltown, America" who are complaining about this, you should really think about it. This was a really great movie, that shows that you have it all if you just take a look at what you think you are missing. I grew up in Southern Ca, and i moved to a small town when i was 21, but even growing up in a town just shy of a million people, i got an appreciation for it when i left that i would have never had, had i stayed there. This was a great movie, one i would recommend to anyone looking for a good way to spend an evening. not only does it show that a movie can be good without being raunchy and filled with sex, its worth the time that you spend watching it. I would watch it again.