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The cinematography conjures beautifully evocative landscapes, but aside from that, the film is meandering and pointless.
All Critics (101) | Top Critics (34) | Fresh (43) | Rotten (58) | DVD (7)
Despite the film's false notes, its balladlike moods ring true. Oct 30, 2017 | Full Review…
Despite the film's false notes, its balladlike moods ring true.
Richard Brody
By the time we get to the point where the camera is endlessly circling Shepard sitting on a sofa in the middle of the street, it feels as if he and his director were making things up as they went along. Jun 24, 2006 | Full Review…
By the time we get to the point where the camera is endlessly circling Shepard sitting on a sofa in the middle of the street, it feels as if he and his director were making things up as they went along.
Geoff Andrew
The story is as meandering as it is self-indulgent. Jun 1, 2006 | Rating: 2/5
The story is as meandering as it is self-indulgent.
Bill Muller
The charm here is in watching Shepard and Lange, and Shepard and Saint play off one another, and the leisurely pace of the 'discoveries' that aren't really secrets in the first place. May 19, 2006 | Rating: 3/5
The charm here is in watching Shepard and Lange, and Shepard and Saint play off one another, and the leisurely pace of the 'discoveries' that aren't really secrets in the first place.
Roger Moore
Sam Shepard, an actor of increasingly bimbo-ish narcissism, gives another tiresome, cowboy-hat-wearing performance in a monumentally boring and conceited film. May 6, 2006 | Rating: 1/5 | Full Review…
Sam Shepard, an actor of increasingly bimbo-ish narcissism, gives another tiresome, cowboy-hat-wearing performance in a monumentally boring and conceited film.
Peter Bradshaw
Spence has much in common with Shepard and Wenders. They seem equally bewildered about what to do, other than spending nearly two hours demonstrating that Spence is a self-pitying fool. Apr 21, 2006 | Rating: 1.5/4 | Full Review…
Spence has much in common with Shepard and Wenders. They seem equally bewildered about what to do, other than spending nearly two hours demonstrating that Spence is a self-pitying fool.
Peter Howell
The bitterness of the playwright's vision is expanded by the director's fascinated fondness for American culture Aug 30, 2009 | Full Review…
The bitterness of the playwright's vision is expanded by the director's fascinated fondness for American culture
Fernando F. Croce
Apart from an extraordinary scene of attempted reconciliation between Shepard and Lange "Don't Come Knocking" is an inflated drama that lies stagnate on the screen. Apr 20, 2009 | Rating: C | Full Review…
Apart from an extraordinary scene of attempted reconciliation between Shepard and Lange "Don't Come Knocking" is an inflated drama that lies stagnate on the screen.
Cole Smithey
hardly Wenders' most adventurous feature, although perhaps his bravest, dramatising not only the director's undoubted influence on the last 20 years of indie cinema, but also his increasing redundancy within it. Jul 4, 2007 | Full Review…
hardly Wenders' most adventurous feature, although perhaps his bravest, dramatising not only the director's undoubted influence on the last 20 years of indie cinema, but also his increasing redundancy within it.
Anton Bitel
full review in Greek Oct 3, 2006 | Rating: 2.5/5 | Full Review…
full review in Greek
Joseph Proimakis
[It has] a terrific sense of place, something missing from much contemporary US cinema. Sep 28, 2006 | Full Review…
[It has] a terrific sense of place, something missing from much contemporary US cinema.
Richard Falcon
Wim Wenders y Sam Shepard (Paris, Texas) recuperan (en excelente fotografía y mejor música) una iconografía norteamericana al servicio de una historia sobre el desarraigo y la necesidad de recuperar vínculos largamente perdidos. Aug 26, 2006 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…
Wim Wenders y Sam Shepard (Paris, Texas) recuperan (en excelente fotografía y mejor música) una iconografía norteamericana al servicio de una historia sobre el desarraigo y la necesidad de recuperar vínculos largamente perdidos.
Enrique Buchichio
Very impressed with this film. A great anti-Western, it's depicting a world outside of the Western genre still shot in, basically, the Western genre. The leading man echoes Clint Eastwood in a way - Clint's got six children by a few different women - and you can't help but ask what that's like when the on-screen cowboy has an off-screen cowboy story of a life to live. Utah, Nevada and Montana look beautiful and desperate in this film, and though it starts off sort of comically, it becomes clear that there is a lot of pain in these characters. Well-acted and well-shot, if not an example of super writing, I'm still hearing that Don't Come Knocking isn't one of Wim Wenders' best. It's the first of his movies I've watched, and it's opened my eyes to his oeuvre nevertheless. Coming from Germany, it blows my mind that he can tell a wonderfully American story like this one, but thanks to this film I'll be sure to visit Paris, Texas shortly. Lots of meta-film going on here, too: how many movies are actually filmed in Bute, Montana? Import Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange, Sarah Polley et al to the town, and you have to wonder if it could have had a real effect on the town akin to the one the main character's film did within the story... probably not, but it's a question that makes it interesting. It's hard to say much about this movie without spoiling it, and it does move really slowly, but I was hanging off it the whole way - suffice to say that in a later scene, why the White Stripes make sense to America, the world and me was hammered home, which might've made the movie in itself. The style and the chase at the heart of the story seemed like an inspiration for No Country For Old Men, too... at any rate, in my opinion, this is a film (and probably a director) not to be missed.
Super Reviewer
Faraway,so close dear Wenders...it's a shame,really,to stuck en route for the American dream as you say in all your filmography,discovering the core and then self-exploding?A pity,this was the pinnacle of Wenders' journey.I believe it's about time to pick up the rest of the pieces and think of concrete ideas instead of dead end road trips.I wish I hadn't given one star on this but he wouldn't leave me any other option.Utter failure.
The poetic journey of an aging cowboy who seeks for redemption and forgiveness. Wenders lyric take on an existencial drama, with exceptional and touching performances by Sam Shepard, Jessica Lange and Sarah Polley.
[font=Century Gothic]In "Don't Come Knocking", movie star Howard Spence(Sam Shepard, who also wrote the screenplay) rides a horse away from his latest picture, not quite into the sunset, leaving the crew in the lurch. Where he does end up eventually is the home of his mother(Eva Marie Saint) in Elko, Nevada. While getting into his usual trouble, he finds out about the son he fathered 25 years previously while working on a film in Montana.(He was probably having too much fun to keep up with the tabloids.)[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]And lukewarm on his trail is Sutter(Tim Roth), an employee of the film's insurance company, who is after Spence to complete the film.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Don't Come Knocking" is an intriguing, slow and anachronistic(the filming of westerns regretfully being few and far between these days) movie that is reminiscent of "The Electric Horseman." The photography of the American West especially of Butte, Montana is beautiful. However, the movie does not live up to its full potential. Some of the fault lies with Sam Shepard who gives a wooden performance in the lead.(I know Spence is supposed to be sleepwalking through life but this is taking it a little too far.) But there is an eclectic cast, with Tim Roth and Sarah Polley coming off best, and a classic scene involving a couch.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]The movie is mostly concerned with the difference between the world of movies and the real world. In the movies, we prefer our heroes to be pure and untainted whereas in real life, people are much more complex and flawed. Take Howard Spence, for example, who made a career of playing heroes in westerns while living a rather imperfect life off screen. [/font]
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