Writer's Choice

In the film Lone Star, the town Sheriff would allow people to break the law as long as he got a cut of the profit. He bends the rules for his own bennefit. The town's people accepted this as simple non-conformity. This challenges my perception of non-conformity because I would consider that to be over the line.

In the movie, the local bar serves whiskey in a glass. It is illegal to serve hard liquor in a glass unless you are a certified club. Sheriff Wade is aware of this, yet turns his head because he takes a cut of their profit. I consider this to be over the line because the Sheriff is breaking the law for his own bennefit. By allowing this to happen he is showing the town that laws are not black/white, but grey.

Another situation when Sheriff Wade bends the rules for his bennefit, is when he finds out that Otis was running numbers and attempts to kill him for not giving him a cut. There is another scene where Sheriff Dee's Jr. is looking at a list of people who were killed by Sheriff Wade by gun shot wound. This was a common occurence in the town. Sheriff Wade would not hesitate to kill someone if they went behind his back. He bennefits from these situations by upholding the image that no one can break the law in his town unless he is in on it. To me this is over line because with the excpetion of the death penalty, no one has the right to take another human life. This causes fear in the community and makes it difficult for people to trust the person in charge of their safety.

During my class discussion, it was brought up that Sheriff Wade is considered a bully. There are several scenes in this movie that display that. One is when Sheriff Wade stops a Mexican and asks him if he is smuggling illegal aliens into Texas. The Mexican denies it and when he turns around Sheriff Wade shoots and kills him. Another example of Sheriff Wade being a bully is when he made Otis pour his beer for him. Otis gave him "attitude" about it, so Sheriff Wade threw him to the ground and then announced that he was going to charge the bar for serving liquor in a glass, even though he had previously been aware of this. Sheriff Wade then made everyone in the bar leave. These situations are over the line because the Sheriff should not act as a bully towards the people he serves, but more as a leader. The Sheriff should not make people do special favors for him just because he "can".

In todays modern soceity and even the time when this movie took place, laws were created to protect people's rights. Anytime these laws are broken, I consider that to be over the line. This is especially true in the case of Lone Star when it's a Sheriff breaking the law. This movies challenges my perception of non-conformity because the town's people consider it to be acceptable.