Set in a small town in South Texas, the film deals with a sheriff's (played by Chris Cooper) investigation into the murder of one of his predecessors (Kris Kristofferson) decades earlier.

The cast also stars Joe Morton, Elizabeth Peña, Clifton James, Ron Canada, Frances McDormand and Matthew McConaughey.

Buddy's high reputation and election as Sheriff resulted from his being widely believed to have confronted the despised Charlie Wade on his corruption and driven him from town.

Sam is skeptical about the use of his father's name by local business leaders, such as Mercedes Cruz and Buddy's former chief deputy, Mayor Hollis Pogue, to promote projects for personal profit using taxpayers' money.

Wade terrorized the local Black and Mexican communities, extorting money from business owners and committing numerous murders[a] by setting up his victims and shooting them for "resisting arrest".

Uncovering secrets about his father's nearly 30-year term as sheriff, Sam discovers Buddy's own corruption, kickbacks, and use of prison labor for personal building projects.

In Frontera, figurative barriers exist between different racial and cultural groups, specifically the Anglo, Black, and Tejano communities.

[10] Intergenerational borders that divide Sam and Buddy, as well as Otis and Delmore Payne and Mercedes and Pilar Cruz, are eventually bridged as characters learn various truths about their parents and repair the fissures in strained relationships.

In historical accounts of the Battle of the Alamo, it is often the heroic feats of Anglo figures like Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie that are celebrated, while the contributions of Mexicans, African-Americans, and Native Americans are relegated to the margins.

[7] In an essay for The Criterion Channel, Domino Renee Perez writes, "The Alamo, both as a historical site and as a symbol, looms large in Texas mythmaking.

"[7] Writers noted that the opening classroom scene of parents challenging teachers takes on a prescient meaning in regards to the contemporary political climate and controversy over critical race theory.

[7][13] In 2021, Texas passed a law that limits the manner and extent to which students learn about issues of race and racism in relation to American culture and history.

The website's consensus reads: "Smart and absorbing, Lone Star represents a career high point for writer-director John Sayles – and '90s independent cinema in general.

[21] Writing at the time of release, Janet Maslin of The New York Times said, "This long, spare, contemplatively paced film, scored with a wide range of musical styles and given a sun-baked clarity by Stuart Dryburgh's cinematography, is loaded with brief, meaningful encounters... And it features a great deal of fine, thoughtful acting, which can always be counted on in a film by Mr.

[22] "All the film's characters are flesh and blood", Maslin added, pointing particularly to the portrayals by Kristofferson, Canada, James, Morton and Colón.

[22] The Los Angeles Times's Kenneth Turan praised the film, writing its triumph is "how well it integrates Sayles' [social] concerns with the heightened tension and narrative drive the thriller form provides".

Set in a town that until very recently was rigidly segregated, it shows how Chicanos, blacks, whites and Indians shared a common history, and how they knew one another and dealt with one another in ways that were off the official map.

"[25] Ann Hornaday, then writing for the Austin American-Statesman, declared it "a work of awesome sweep and acute perception", judging it "the most accomplished film of [Sayles'] 17-year career".

"[27] In 2004, William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said that the film was "widely regarded as Sayles' masterpiece", declaring that it had "captured the zeitgeist of the '90s as successfully as "Chinatown" did the '70s".

[28] In 2020, Hornaday compiled a list for The Washington Post titled "The 34 Best Political Movies Ever Made", in which she ranked Lone Star at number 10.

Writing in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw lavished the film with praise, calling it an "overlooked strand of indie movie-making and myth-making in 90s Hollywood, distinct from the brilliant ironies and shocks of Tarantino or the literary noir of the Coen brothers."

[4] In 2023, The Criterion Collection announced they were releasing a 4K digital restoration of Lone Star, supervised by Sayles and cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh.