Happy, Texas (film)
| Happy, Texas | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Mark Illsley |
| Produced by | Mark Illsley Rick Montgomery Ed Stone |
| Written by |
Ed Stone Mark Illsley Phil Reeves |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Peter Harris |
| Cinematography | Bruce Douglas Johnson |
| Edited by | Norman Buckley |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
|
Release date
|
October 1, 1999 |
|
Running time
|
98 min. |
| Country |
 United States
|
| Budget | $1.75 million |
| Box office | $3.92 million |
| Happy, Texas: Music from the Miramax Motion Picture | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by various artists | |
| Released | September 14, 1999 |
| Genre |
Country Tejano Exotica |
| Length | 49:08 |
| Label | Arista |
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
  link
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Happy, Texas is a comedy film released in 1999 directed by Mark Illsley, and starring Steve Zahn, Jeremy Northam and William H. Macy.
It was a positively reviewed film, and was a box office hit, grossing $3.7 million against a $1.4 million budget, and is now considered a cult classic.
Three prisoners escape from a chain gang, and two of them, Wayne and Harry (Zahn and Northam) run away to Happy, Texas, where they pose as the gay organizers of a beauty pageant. They put on a show with the small girls of the town while hiding from the law and waiting for the opportunity to rob the local bank.
Their scheme is complicated by the fact that the local sheriff (Macy) is gay, and he's attracted to the prisoner Harry. Straight Harry on the other hand is attracted to lady banker, Josephine (Walker). Meanwhile, "gay" David gets it on with the local pageant coodinator, Doreen (Douglas).
With the exception of a few scenes, the film was shot entirely on location in Piru, California. One scene was filmed at Oil Can Harry's in Studio City, Los Angeles.
The movie received a rating of 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 83 critics, stating, "it's nothing epic or grand, but it's a simple, funny film that kicked off Steve Zahn's career." It also holds a rating of 7.2/10 on imdb, and Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun, gave it 3/4. Steve Zahn won three awards for his performance in the film.
Zahn's performance was hugely praised by critics, and although he had appeared in several hit Hollywood movies, this was cited as his breakout film.
The soundtrack album for Happy, Texas features a mix of mostly country music by such artists as Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Lee Roy Parnell, Pam Tillis, Brad Paisley and BR5-49. There are also bits of Tejano (Flaco Jimenez) and exotica (Yma Sumac).
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Wikipedia