A Trip to Tinseltown via Brownsville

 By Diego Garcia III | Editor of The Brownsville Beacon

When I was young, I was fascinated with television. I was fortunate enough to live in a home that had cable. Cable was a relatively new technology in the early 80's. Before Spectrum gobbled up Time Warner Cable, I remember our cable was provided by a company called Heritage Cablevision. The channel lineup was an interesting amalgam of different programming including a channel from the Atlanta area and WGN, a channel from the Chicago area. I watched WGN religiously. I have memories of watching The Bozo Show, Chicago Cubs games, and commercials advertizing the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Among all the English programming, there were also several Spanish language channels. If you stayed up late enough, you would watch what could be generously described as "B" movies; low-budget action movies that were sometimes filmed in Brownsville. My grandparent's dog even made a cameo appearance in La Mugrosita, one of these low-budget films that would appear late at night on channels two or three.

These Mexican films weren't the only movies filmed in Brownsville. Brownsville has been a filming location for several other Hollywood films. In 1980, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones descended on Brownsville to film Back Roads. Internet sites describe the plot as a romantic comedy that has a prostitute travel the South with a down-on-his-luck boxer. Field and Jones did not get along during shooting. Several locations in Brownsville were used during filming, including several downtown spots. The old VTC terminal on East 13th Street, as well as several night spots along East Adams Street can be seen. Market Square also figures prominently in a night scene where Field walks past the Texas Cafe to a restaurant on East 11th Street. 

Several spots on South Padre Island Highway can also be seen, including an old truck stop/saloon/flophouse that used to be seen on the way towards the Port of Brownsville. The highway on the way to Port Isabel is also seen, as well as a small bus stop in Port Isabel.

Highway 48 and spots along the highway to Port Isabel are also used in the 2012 Mel Gibson film Get the Gringo. The local newspaper and social media sites exploded with stories of Mel Gibson sightings around town. The bank heist movie has scenes filmed at the old Port Mart convenience store on 48 and across the old Hotel El Jardin. 

2012's Get the Gringo was followed up by 2013's A Night in Old Mexico. Robert Duvall wasn't a fan of South Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, or Brownsville, based on some comments he made about the local area and local leaders, but he came down with the production company and filmed in several spots around town. Downtown was once again featured prominently as location scouts used the Colonial Hotel on Levee Street and the Capitol Theater on the same block. Other spots used for filming include the Old City Cemetery, Market Square, an old warehouse across from the old Maldonado's Pharmacy, the International Airport, and a local trailer park off Old Port Isabel Road. 

I was on location during one of the nights filming was being done at the Capitol Theater. I was across the street while two of the leads exchanged dialogue and while Angie Cepeda sang to the camera. 

The small screen has also brought their cameras to Brownsville. NBC's show Friday Night Lights filmed an episode in Brownsville. Brownsville stood in for Mexico as some of the lead characters were supposed to make it across the border and end up getting arrested. The Market Square area, as well as some shops along East Adams Street, were used for filming. I was also on the scene the day they were filming for the show. I remember several vehicles being driven around the area, including a police vehicle dressed up to look like a Mexican police car.

Brownsville is known for its chess players. Endgame is a 2015 film that follows the exploits of a young chess playing prodigy. The University's new opera house was showcased as the main hall of a chess tournament taking place in Houston. Several places around town were used for filming, although I do not recommend this movie. The producers seem to have gone out of their way to depict Brownsvillians as poor, non-English speaking illegal aliens who lived in fear of Border Patrol agents boarding school buses to arrest children; people who lived in homes with dirt floors with no running water. This is a film I would really try to avoid. 

One of my favorite movies could have definitely been filmed in Brownsville, but it was filmed in Eagle Pass. Lone Star is a murder mystery based in a fictitious Texas border town (Frontera, Texas in Rio County). The movie stars Matthew McConaughey, Chris Cooper, and Brownsville native Kris Kristofferson as Sheriff Charlie Wade. If you've never seen Lone Star, I strongly recommend you watch. You won't be disappointed.

If you can remember any other movies filmed here in Brownsville, please feel free to contact us, or drop a comment below. I am always fascinated to see my Beloved Brownsville appear on the silver screen.