God Save Texas: Hometown Prison Review: Richard Linklater’s Compassionate Portrait of a Bleak System

South of Dallas and North of Houston is a city named Huntsville. Home to approximately 46,000 members of the Lone Star state, the unassuming place holds vibrant treasures like local cafés and diners where kids eat free, and community reigns supreme.

"Place" is ingrained into the American consciousness. Everyone is from somewhere, and each North American will have a story to share about where they came of age. They'll tell you in great detail about the little quirks, who their fourth-grade teacher was, and what scandalous secrets lie within the place that outsiders would never know.

Our tour guide through Huntsville is former resident and five-time Oscar nominee Richard Linklater. He blends in with the town of his adolescence, introducing himself as "Rick" and shaking hands with strangers as he ponders on his youth while peeling back the layers of a stain on North America's justice system.

Taking up 54.36 acres smack bang in the middle of the city is The Huntsville Unit, home to the most active execution chamber in the US. Just across the street, you can take your pick from the delicacies on offer at Mr. Hamburger: "Killer Burger", "Warden Burger", "Great Escape", or perhaps you'd like a taste of "Old Sparky".

If you felt capital punishment was a dying practice, Linklater's entry to the God Save Texas series reminds us that it's alive and well, albeit aging. He walks us through Texas' legacy and "tough on crime" identity while showing us how Huntsville as a city perpetuates the system.

While it has a clear stance, God Save Texas: Hometown Prison is a wildly compassionate and balanced look at the struggle faced by the residents. Linklater demonstrates how incarceration is married to its population for better or worse.

We see The Huntsville Unit through the eyes of every person who has cast a glance over it. Whether they're a previous or present employee, a formerly incarcerated person, or someone who sadly lost their life on the gurney, Linklater wants to analyze how The Huntsville Unite looms large in the minds of every resident.

Linklater is there during the final few days of Robert Sparks, a man set to be executed on September 25, 2019.

While the episode grounds itself in the red bricks cloaking the execution chamber, Linklater examines his youth in the city, connecting his experience to those who still live there.

He pulls anecdotes from a wealth of connections, from people he knew in childhood to friends of his mother and even local students who take classes each day just a nine-minute walk from the prison.

It's remarkable how intimate some of the moments caught on camera are. We see Huntsville in a way that can only be depicted by someone who loves it. While we learn more about the bleak happenings within the city, Linklater knows where to direct our anger, always away from his subjects and onto the wider system they are victims of.

God Save Texas: Hometown Prison isn't hopeless, but it is conscious of the chokehold the system has on its residents.

In its closing moments, we hear from Michelle Lyons, who summarises the system in a simple two-word statement: "Nobody wins".

Since Robert Sparks' execution, 21 more people have walked to their deaths in The Huntsville Unit.

It is a troubling reality knowing that the system is a circle, and no number of attempts to penetrate it can shatter its carefully curated cruelty.

Linklater does his best to deliver a loving portrait, hoping that love is enough to inject some humanity into a system that values its inhumane practice more than it ever does the people forced to uphold it.

God Save Texas: Hometown Prison is the first of a trilogy directed by three distinct filmmakers.