Director Jeff Nichols pays visually eloquent tribute to the cinematic heritage of the Lone Star State in a short produced for Tecovas starring Ryan Bingham.
There’s a visual quote from Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas here, a flash of George Stevens’ Giant there, and a generous allusion to Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men during Love Letter to Texas, a visually eloquent and deeply heartfelt homage to the cinematic heritage of the Lone Star State.
Written and directed by Jeff Nichols (Mud, Loving), and filmed on location in Marfa, Texas, the 14-minute short premiered last month at the SXSW Film Festival and is currently available on YouTube. Appropriately enough, the film caps off with a recreation of key scenes from Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies, the perfect choice to conclude a narrative about a damaged man who “walked until he forgot where he started,” as narrator Sissy Spacek tells us, but finds redemption with the love of a good woman.
Oscar-winning singer-songwriter Ryan Bingham (Crazy Heart), who made his breakthrough as an actor as the ranch hand known as Walker on Yellowstone, stars as the lost soul at the heart of the story. He fills in for James Dean (Giant), Josh Brolin (No Country for Old Men), Robert Duvall (Tender Mercies), Harry Dean Stanton (Paris, Texas), and other iconic figures in the course of Love Letter to Texas.
The cast also includes Michael Shannon (Man of Steel, The Shape of Water), who earned an Emmy Award nomination for playing George Jones in the Showtime miniseries George & Tammy, and Hassie Harrison (The Iron Orchard, Yellowstone), who married Bingham in 2023.
Love Letter to Texas was produced by the Austin-based western wear brand Tecovas. But it is not, Tecovas creative director Scott Ballew insists, a traditional commercial. Rather, it’s exactly what its title indicates, born of a night when Ballew and Nicholas found themselves in the right place at the right time.
“This idea started when we found ourselves in Marathon, Texas, in Room No. 3 of the Marathon Motel,” Ballew says. “The old carpets and wood paneling walls and neon sign became eerily familiar upon entry, and it soon dawned on us that we were standing in the exact same spot where Wim Wenders and Harry Dean Stanton had stood 40 years ago while filming the cult classic (and personal favorite) Paris, Texas.
“The overwhelming feeling from filming on hallowed ground was inspiration to go further, and dive deeper into our favorite locations and characters. The result was Love Letter to Texas — a short film born out of pure homage, but that took on a life of its own. Like good art or good folk music, it's hard to push the boundaries of the future without studying the beauty of the past.”
“The intention behind this from the beginning,” Nichols says, “was to pay tribute to Texas films and filmmakers. However, regardless of the association with Texas, these films like Tender Mercies, Paris, Texas, Hud, and Badlands … are films that shaped me as a filmmaker, as a storyteller. And it means an incredible amount to me to be able to pay tribute to those films and filmmakers.
“This truly is my love letter to cinema. And it is a love letter to Texas. I hope you enjoy it.”
Here is Love Letter to Texas.
