Jayne Mansfield's Car

This is one weird movie. Robert Duvall, Kevin Bacon and my favorite, Billy Bob Thornton, always an under rated actor. A weird movie with weird characters. A good story or maybe best to say, "a study on the effects of war." Character studies. Every southern stereotype but what the hay, Southerners are easy to make fun of. It is good for us I think.  All true. Midway through the movie, my wife said, "Are there famiIies like this?" Absolutely. 

Billy Bob's character is permanently scarred by war, both physically and emotionally. The other brother equally scarred but in a different way: smokes dope and plays hippy. Then one who never left stateside but always felt guilty of not being in combat. A deep sense of patriotism, even in light of the "draft." The whole family still supports the government and the war. Not unlike the  "Red States" today, "don't confuse me with facts, I have my mind made up." 

The event that the movie is based on is a mother who escaped the South to flee to England where she met someone, married, and created a different life and another family. Her pull to the South, however, is that the insidious cancer has taken her, she be buried in the South. Her other family brings her home. The other family, the Brits, have their own issues (weirdness)

A couple of funny scenes with some, maybe I should say, idiosyncrasies, only to, in the end, turn out better than anyone would have suspected. 

A last thing, how did they come up with the title, Jayne Mansfield's Car ( the one she supposedly died in)? Possibly because Duval, who will always be Gus, from Lonesome Dove, was obsessed with automotive wrecks. But, then again with such a weird movie, what the hell difference does it make what the title is. .