Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 18
clues does Byrne give us as to his intent?
True Stories, the film, was released simultaneously with a
closely related book of the same title containing the original
screenplay as well as photographs, sketches, articles, and com
ments by Byrne. Both were made up of stories Byrne collected
from newspapers, tabloids, and magazines, particularly, The Weekly
World News. Starting with these pieces and the characters which
they introduced and with an interest in the barren Texas location,
Byrne hired Beth Henley (Crimes o f the Heart ) and Stephen
Tobolowsky to put together a story line.
W hat emerged is more o f a documentary than a narrative film,
albeit a mock documentary, a loosely connected study of people
not unlike Altman’s Nashville. Byrne creates a narrator who leads
us (as viewers) on a tour of a fictitious small town during one week,
a week when the town is acknowledging its state’s Sesquicentennial with a “Celebration of Specialness.” The narrator, in a role
reminiscent of the stage manager in Thornton W ilder’s, Our Town
sometimes talks directly to the camera and other times interacts
with a few o f the characters in the film. The two main characters
with whom he interacts are the protagonist, Louis Fyne, who’s
unabashedly looking for a wife and is advertising on TV as well as
in his front yard (with a “Wife W anted” sign), and Earl Culver, the
local entrepreneur who brought industry (and jobs and money and
hope) to Virgil. The narrator takes us to a local manufacturing
plant, a shopping mall, a parade, and a local talent show in this
“tour.” He also spends a great deal o f time driving around in his
red convertible just talking to the camera and pointing out such
phenomena as metal buildings, freeways (“the cathedrals o f our
time”), and tract houses (“W ho’s to say they aren’t art?”).
The film uses a third perspective as well, one o f omni science.