The Last Picture Show (1971)

The Last Picture Show
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
Written by Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich from McMurtry’s novel
1971/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Sonny Crawford: It could have been worse.
Sam the Lion: Yeah. You can say that about nearly everything, I guess.

What a year 1971 was for all those film school graduates!  In this one, young critic Peter Bogdanovich peaks early with a sophomore masterpiece.

The setting is small-town Analene, Texas in 1951.  The Old West died here years ago and the town’s death is following close behind.  The only attractions remaining are the pool hall, the cafe, and the movie theater, all owned by real-live old-time Texan Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson).  So both adults and teenagers seek excitement behind closed doors.  The principal teens we get to know are sensitive Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), slightly goofy Duane (Jeff Bridges), and his pretty girlfriend Jaycee (Cybill Shepherd).  Jaycee dreams of using her beauty as a ticket to bigger and better things.  Her pretty mother Lois (Ellen Burstyn) has similar ambitions for her daughter. Ambitions that do not include the hapless Duane.  Lois is having an affair with one of her oil man husband’s employees.

Jaycee isn’t doing too hot with the big city “in-crowd” and burns her way through both Duane and Sonny in her so far futile efforts to do so. In the meantime,  Sonny has an affair  his coach’s lonely, isolated wife Ruth (Cloris Leachman).  With Eileen Brennan as a maternal figure who runs the cafe.

[on making The Last Picture Show] I hope I’m not repeating what happened to [Orson Welles]. You know, make a successful serious film like this early and then spend the rest of my life in decline.  — Peter Bogdanovich

The plot sounds like a soap opera and in a way it is.  But the script reaches so far into the souls of its characters that the story turns out to be much much more.  The ensemble cast is perfect.  Bogdanovich shows his film geekery in all his films but by some special alchemy this one turned out to be less homage and more the definitive anti-Western. An absolute must-see.

Ben Johnson won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and Cloris Leachman won for Best Supporting Actress.  The Last Picture Show was nominated for Best Picture; Best Supporting Actor (Bridges); Best Supporting Actress (Burstyn); Best Director: Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; and Best Cinematography.