The Last Picture Show (1971)

The Peyton Place of the South

Anyone who buys the Mayberry image of Southern small town life will be greatly shocked after watching this movie. Anarene is definitely no Puritan utopia. The town's residents include adulterers, sex-obsessed teenagers, and even a pedophile, who happens to be the minister's son. This film just goes to show that you cannot always believe what's on the surface. Few films expose small town hypocrisy better than this one, while at the same time treating the characters with respect. This difference is what sets this film about from the typical teenage sex comedies, which are not worthy to be mentioned in the same sentence as this cinematic classic.

The performances are all outstanding, but the performances of Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman are especially noteworthy. It is not difficult to figure out why both won Oscars for their roles. No one but Ben Johnson could have played Sam the Lion. Even John Wayne couldn't have pulled it off. Cloris Leachman's dramatic scenes made you forget that she was a regular on the Mary Tyler Moore show. May 17, 2008

One of the Great Films

This is just an amazing movie. I saw it at the Dryden Theatre in Rochester, NY about 10 years ago and was just blown away. Maybe it was dust and wind blowing up the small town Texas streets. Two young men graduate from high school and struggle with becoming adults as they learn more about the adults in the community and their lives. Larry McMurtry never wrote a better novel than this one nor had a book turned into a better film. (Well, Hud is just as great I think.) Peter Bogdanavich directed a classic film and Cybill Shepherd make a great debut as an actress. Let's not forget Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges too. The older actors are given roles of a lifetime - Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman, Randy Quaid, Don Johnson and others. A near perfect film of a wonderful novel. May 12, 2008

Face the emptiness of a small town.

The Last Picture Show is considered to be a black and white classic but this film just left me depressed. Cloris Leachman is the best thing in this downer, her performance is so heartbreaking (she won an Oscar for best supporting actress). Cybill Shepherd lives up to her own stereotype, pretty blonde who sleeps with everyone in town, her character is so unlikeable. I just thought this movie was just ok, decide for yourself. May 2, 2008

An American Classic

Loosely based on gossip and scandal that surrounded various residents of Larry McMurtry's hometown of Archer City, Texas, the novel THE LAST PICTURE SHOW was much admired by critics--but didn't really explode into public conciousness until adapted to the screen, when it became one of the cinematic touchstones of the generation that had shed 1950s mores in favor of less restrictive attitudes.

The film has no plot per se: it is simply a portrait of those who live in and around Anarene, Texas--a tiny town in the middle of nowhere that is slowly but surely dying. It most particularly focuses on three high school students and their various travails. Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) are best friends, play on the high school foot ball team, and both lust after the same girl--the very rich and extremely superficial Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd.) Like most teenagers, they are all eager to climb into the back seat of car... but their hormones have unexpected consequences.

The cast of characters spiral out from these three. Through Sonny and Duane we meet Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson), who owns the local cafe, pool hall, and picture show, and his sexy waitress and cook Genevieve (Eileen Brennan); through Jayce we meet her embittered and flamboyant mother Lois (Ellen Burstyn); and then there is the coach's wife, the painfully lonely and unhappy Ruth (Cloris Leachman.) Although sex is a major catalyst in their various collisons, the real tragedy of their lives is the town, which is essentially a microsm of American hypocrisy, ennui, and failure.

At the time, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW's frankess about sex was considered nothing short of scandalous; today it is merely so-so. But the overall portrait of the characters as the struggle against the emptiness of their lives and their community remains as powerful as ever, and few films have delivered such a powerful ensemble cast. The film essentially made the careers of everyone associated with it, brought Academy awards to Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman, and was nominated for virtually every award going. It also put director Peter Bogdonavich on the map in a very major way.

The DVD offers several bonuses, most particularly a "making of" piece in which Bogdonavich and such stars as Leachman, Brennan, and Burstyn recall the intensity of the shoot. The transfer is very nice, beautifully preserving the memorable black and white cinematography by Robert Surtees and production design by Polly Platt. Strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer April 20, 2008

Haunted by The Last Picture Show

At the time I saw this movie I was probably under age 30. Didn't really pay much attention to the story line but loved many of the old songs remembered from childhood. I saw it on TV but was in-and-out of the room in which it was playing. In the very last scene, a radio can be heard in the background: a comic recording (a la Arlo Guthrie) telling a very funny story of a town's use of Grandma's lye soap. At that point I lost all interest in the movie characters as I had been looking all my adult life for that recording. I turned up the volume to hear the very little of the recording that was included and missed the dialogue between the characters.

I continued to search for the recording (it may have been entitled "It's in the Book") off-and-on for many more years with no luck. After reading so many of the reviews here I want to sit down and watch the entire movie again. I will still love the music but it's now more than 35 years later, I'm far more mature, and I'm certain my rating will be higher than that of so long ago. I shall purchase both the movie and the soundtrack. No one has indicated anything on the soundtrack other than songs, but I'll settle for that.
March 8, 2008

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