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starring: Quinton Jones, Robert Patrick, Jane Adams, Martin Sheen, Chris Nothdirected by: W. Blake Herron
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9781589710078
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 158971007X
Label: Studio / Sterling
Manufacturer: Studio / Sterling
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Studio / Sterling
Release Date: May 15, 2001
Running Time: 98 minutes
Sales Rank: 77916
Studio: Studio / Sterling
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
The Southern-gothic psychodrama of old secrets, longtime rivalries, and ancient wounds reopened at a family funeral gets a warm reworking in W. Blake Heron's A Texas Funeral, a gentle variation on the melodramatic standby directed at the easy pace of a Texas drawl. Martin Sheen is at his paternal, gentle best as the deceased patriarch Sparta Whit, who returns in the visions of his grandson and namesake Little Sparta to introduce the boy to the proud and sometimes bizarre history of the Whit family. Robert Patrick and Joanne Whalley costar as Sparta's struggling he-man son and crazy oversexed daughter, respectively, and Chris Noth is the rich cousin quietly shouldering a financial crisis. Heron has a gentle touch with his characters, and his whimsical obsession with camels (the braying 'noble steed of the desert warrior') and 'the awesome power of the male Whit ear' (which drives members of the opposite sex mad with uncontrollable passion) lightens the family melodrama. It ultimately plays like a too-tidy stage play, where simmering conflicts are swept away with the dawn, but Heron refreshingly discards the traditional screaming confrontations and dish-throwing tantrums for a quietly intimate celebration of family heritage, blood ties, and forgiveness. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Unfolds beautifully . . . leaves you with a smile
Ok, I admit it. While most kids grew up sucking their thumbs, I was more interested in the ear. It had a soothing quality that would put me to sleep. Needless to say, when I read that this family had an ear fetish, I just had to see what this was all about. No, this movie is not just about sucking an earlobe that belongs to your husband's corpse, though I was laughing so hard during this scene, nor is it just another film trying to come across as artsy with an overdose of weirdness that just ... Read More
Rating: - a breath of fresh air
A wonderful film, by a talented (new?) writer/director. A well crafted, intimate portrait of an old Texas family, it's history, and the ghosts (literally & metaphorically) in the family closet.
Fine performances all around. M. Sheem & Robert Patrick are SOLID.
Refreshing change from the slick, impersonable films from hollywood these days.
I look forward to future films by B. Herron.
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