Overview
Contact:
View
company
contact information for The Last Picture Show on
IMDbPro.
Release Date:
22 October 1971 (USA)
more
Tagline:
Anarene, Texas, 1951. Nothing much has changed...
more
Awards:
Won 2 Oscars.
Another 14 wins
&
16 nominations
more
User Comments:
An American classic
more
Crew believed to be complete
Additional Details
Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.
Runtime:
118 min | 126 min (director's cut)
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1
more
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Ellen Burstyn was originally considered for the role of Genevieve, but after meeting with Bogdonavich and reading for all three of the older women characters, he asked her to play Ruth Popper. Burstyn, however, preferred the role of Lois, and Bogdonavich told her to go home, think about whatever part she wanted to play, and call him the next day. She called him the next morning, telling him she still wanted to play Lois, and he agreed.
more
Goofs:
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The Texaco sign is missing the letter "E" on one side and "A" on the other; as both sides are seen, some people got confused.
more
Quotes:
Sam the Lion:
You boys can get on out of here, I don't want to have no more to do with you. Scarin' a poor, unfortunate creature like Billy just so's you could have a few laughs - I've been around that trashy behavior all my life, I'm gettin' tired of puttin' up with it. Now you can stay out of this pool hall, out of my cafe, and my picture show too - I don't want no more of your business.
more
Soundtrack:
Give Me More, More of Your Kisses
more
FAQ
Why did Sam the Lion leave the preacher's boy $1000?
more
more
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on
IMDb message board for The Last Picture Show (1971)
more
Recommendations
Related Links
In this nostalgic, atmospheric study of small town life in the fifties as seen a decade later, filmed on location in Wichita Falls and Archer City, Texas (from a novel by the incomparable Larry McMurtry), the force of slow, inevitable change is symbolized in the showing of the last picture at the local movie house. That last picture show, incidentally, is Howard Hawks' celebrated Western, Red River (1948) starring John Wayne and Montgomery Clift.
Well, the movie houses came back to life as multiplexes charging eight bucks a pop, but the Western movie died out, and the boys watching that movie went their separate ways into manhood.
Peter Bogdanovich's direction is episodic and leisurely, naturalistic with just a hint of the maudlin. We get a sense of the North Texas prairie wind blowing through a cattle town where there is not a lot to do and a whole lot of time to do it. Hungry women and a sense of drift. Boredom, gray skies and a lot of dust. You could set `Anarene, Texas' down any place in southwestern or midwestern America, circa 1951, and you wouldn't have to change much: a main drag, a Texaco gas station, a café, a feed store, flat lands all around, old pickup trucks and a pool hall, youngsters with a restless yearning to grow up, drinking beer out of brown bottles giggling and elbowing each other in the ribs, and the old boys playing dominoes and telling tales of bygone days.
Robert Surtees's stark, yet romantic black and white cinematography, captures well that bygone era. The wide shot of the bus pulling out, taking Duane off to the Korean War with Sonny watching, standing by the Texaco station with the missing letter in the sign, was a tableau in motion, a moment stopped in our minds.
Cybill Shepherd made her debut here as Jacy Farrow, a bored little rich girl playing at love and sexuality. Part of the restorations in the video not shown in theaters in the early seventies includes some footage of her in the buff after stripping on a diving board (!). She is as shallow as she is pretty, and one of the reasons for seeing this film, although in truth her performance, while engaging, was a little uneven.
The rest of the cast was outstanding, in particular Timothy Bottoms whose Sonny Crawford is warm and forgiving, sweet and innocent. Jeff Bridges's Duane Jackson is two-faced, wild and careless, self-centered and probably going to die in Korea. Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman deservedly won Oscars as best supporting actors. Leachman was especially good as the lonely 40-year-old wife of the football coach who has an awkward affair with the 18-year-old Sonny, while Johnson played a lovable, crusty guy that the kids looked up to. Sam Bottoms played the retarded Billy with steady, tragic good humor. Ellen Burstyn as Jacy's terminally bored mother, and Eileen Brennan as the wise waitress with a hand on her hip were also very good.
Memorable, but perhaps too obviously insertional, are the medley of country, pop, and rock and roll tunes from the late forties/early fifties jingling out of car radios and 45 record players throughout the film.
Peter Bogdanovich followed this with some hits, including the comedy What's Up Doc (1972) with Barbra Streisand, Ryan O'Neal, and Madeline Kahn, and the excellent Paper Moon (1973) with Ryan and Tatum O'Neal, but then tailed off. I don't think he ever lived up to the promise of this film, an American classic not to be missed.