The Last Picture Show reviews (1971)

The Last Picture Show

1971

Overall rating: 3.5 out of 5

from 4831 members

Produced by Hollywood iconoclast BBS Productions, film critic-turned-director Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 film pays homage to Hollywood's classical age as it chronicles generational rites of passage in Anarene, a fictional one-horse Texas town. In 1951, high school seniors Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) play football, go to the movies at the Royal Theater, hang out at the pool hall owned by local elder statesman Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson), and lust after rich tease Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd in her film debut). As the year passes, Sonny learns about the pitfalls and compromises of adulthood through an affair with his coach's wife Ruth (Cloris Leachman) and a thwarted elopement with Jacy after she dumps Duane. Following two tragic deaths, and with Duane gone to Korea and Jacy packed off to college in Dallas, Sonny is left behind in Anarene, wise enough to absorb the life lessons of Sam the Lion and Jacy's mother Lois (Ellen Burstyn). He is determined to honor Sam's legacy as the town's conscience, despite a telling sign of incipient communal disintegration: the closing of the Royal Theater after a final showing of Howard Hawks's Red River. Paying tribute to classical Hollywood directors like Hawks and John Ford, Bogdanovich used old-time cinematographer Robert Surtees and shot The Last Picture Show in crisp black-and-white, with a restrained style devoid of the kind of new wave techniques (jump cuts, zooms, and jittery hand-held camerawork) used by such contemporaries as Arthur Penn, Robert Altman, Mike Nichols, and Martin Scorsese. As in such Ford films as The Grapes of Wrath (1940), Bogdanovich relies on careful visual composition in deep focus to help communicate the regret over the passing of an era. Hailed as one of the best films by a young director since Citizen Kane (1941), The Last Picture Show premiered at the New York Film Festival and went on to become a hit. It was also nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Larry McMurtry's and Bogdanovich's adaptation of McMurtry's novel. John Ford stalwart Johnson won Supporting Actor and Leachman won Supporting Actress, beating out their cohorts Bridges and Burstyn. For an audience steeped in movie history and caught up in the chaotic 1971 present, The Last Picture Show presented a nostalgic look backward that was not so much an escape from the present as a coming to terms with what the present had lost. Its 1990 sequel Texasville, in which Bridges and Shepherd played later incarnations of their original characters, was not as successful.~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

The Last Picture Show details

Format:	15 DVD
Starring:	Cybill Shepherd, Eileen Brennan, Randy Quaid, Ellen Burstyn, Jeff Bridges, Randy Qua, Timothy Bottoms, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman
Director:	Peter Bogdanovich
Genre:	Drama - Romantic
Studio:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMENT

DVD 1 disc

Name	Discs
The Last Picture Show	15 Feature

DVD Information

Run time:	1 hour 54 minutes
Rental release:	26 Nov 2001
Main languages:	English
Dubbed:	German, French, Spanish, Italian
Subtitles:	Arabic, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish

Write your own review

Most helpful review The Last Picture Show

Masterpiece

By a customer from london , 02 Dec 2004

[Highly rated reviewer]

Bogdanovich's best film is this melancholy tale of life in a small Texas town that follows the infidelities, unrequited loves and everyday tragedies of its inhabitants.

The direction is sensitive and restrained and demonstrates that somewhere in Bogdanovich there is a great artist (his only other great film was 'Targets'). Really though this is an actors film and there are some superb performances by the likes of Johnson and Leachman. The performances add a depth and realism to the film that makes it all the more heartbreaking to watch.

The film is further evidence of the brilliance of the true 'golden age of cinema' when films were driven by story and character rather than SFX. 'The Last Picture Show' is a moving, haunting and truly wonderful piece of cinema.

However, before anybody says 'they don't make em like that anymore' let me point you towards the marvellous 'The Station Agent' a recent little gem of a film that fans of 'The Last Picture Show' may enjoy
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (14) Yes |
- No (0)
Report this review

All reviews

(35)

Sort by:

A fine film.

By Kowalski (38 reviews) , 28 Apr 2013

This film manages to capture that coming-of-age moment that so many others attempt to and fail. Cleverly shot with a nostalgia both of youth and of films before it, the film uses the dull town and its only cinema as a metaphor for the stage in life we strive to leave but will always cherish. In doing this it manages to generalise the theme so it lives outside of any particular character. Certainly recommended.
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (0) Yes |
- No (0)
Report this review
Sparse but beautiful

By Bassman71 (619 reviews) from Didsbury, England , 06 Mar 2013

Small Texas town in the 1950s, teenagers being teenagers, people moving away from town to bigger places, teenagers not sure whether to stay or go. Superb coming of age film from Peter Bogdanovich which has excellent character development, a good script but all-in-all quite sad. A strong cast of up and coming actors including Jeff Bridges, Cybil Shepherd, Randy Quaid and Timothy Bottoms with Ellen Burstyn great as usual and very sexy as Cybil Shepherd’s Mother. The whole look and feel of the film is sparse but also beautiful with its run down stores and houses and tumbleweed blowing around that you become attached to the place as the film goes on. Great music too with most of it using Hank Williams songs.
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (0) Yes |
- No (0)
Report this review
The Lost Picture Show

By Robinski (152 reviews) from Glasgow , 24 Feb 2012

A tender and heartfelt story, spiced with youthful humour that follows the coming of age of its central characters while marking the end of an era for their town and, by extension, for large parts of America itself. The open and engaging performances of the film’s young stars sit nicely beside beautifully judged turns from the senior actors, and Bogdanovich handles the piece with a deft touch, sensitive to its emotional without losing the exuberance of adolescence. Well worth a re-viewing, or a first look.
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (0) Yes |
- No (0)
Report this review
The last picture show

By Scotwimen (21 reviews) , 18 Nov 2011

[Highly rated reviewer]

This is one of my favourite films of all time! I love everything about it-the acting, plot & that it was filmed in Black & White instead of available colour. it's lush.

I wish there were more current movies made with this quality, direction and sensitivity.
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (2) Yes |
- No (0)
Report this review
The Last Time That I Will Consider It

By Emjay69 (327 reviews) from Kidlington, Oxford , 27 Sep 2011

Slow and boring. I stayed with it for 55 minutes when I considered that enough was enough. Slow southern drawl about the most mundane of topics. I don't like using the word awful but it was.

Give it a miss!
- Was this review helpful to you?
- (2) Yes |
- No (9)
Report this review