The Last Picture Show (1971)

Director:

Peter Bogdanovich

Writers:

Larry McMurtry (screenplay) and
Peter Bogdanovich (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

22 October 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Anarene, Texas, 1951. Nothing much has changed...

Plot:

A group of 50's high schoolers come of age in a bleak, isolated, atrophied West Texas town that is slowly dying, both economically and culturally.

Plot Keywords:

High School | Friend | Texas | High School Football | Pool Hall

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 18 wins & 16 nominations

Cast

Timothy Bottoms	...	Sonny Crawford
Jeff Bridges	...	Duane Jackson
Cybill Shepherd	...	Jacy Farrow
Ben Johnson	...	Sam the Lion
Cloris Leachman	...	Ruth Popper
Ellen Burstyn	...	Lois Farrow
Eileen Brennan	...	Genevieve
Clu Gulager	...	Abilene
Sam Bottoms	...	Billy
Sharon Ullrick	...	Charlene Duggs (as Sharon Taggart)
Randy Quaid	...	Lester Marlow
Joe Heathcock	...	The Sheriff
Bill Thurman	...	Coach Popper
Barc Doyle	...	Joe Bob Blanton
Jessie Lee Fulton	...	Miss Mosey
Gary Brockette	...	Bobby Sheen
Helena Humann	...	Jimmie Sue
Loyd Catlett	...	Leroy
Robert Glenn	...	Gene Farrow
John Hillerman	...	Teacher
Janice E. O'Malley	...	Mrs. Clarg (as Janice O'Malley)
Floyd Mahaney	...	Oklahoma Patrolman
Kimberly Hyde	...	Annie-Annie Martin
Noble Willingham	...	Chester
Marjorie Jay	...	Winnie Snips
Joye Hash	...	Mrs. Jackson
Pamela Keller	...	Jackie Lee French
Gordon Hurst	...	Monroe
Mike Hosford	...	Johnny
Faye Jordan	...	Nurse
Charles Seybert	...	Andy Fanner
Grover Lewis	...	Mr. Crawford
Rebecca Ulrick	...	Marlene
Merrill Shepherd	...	Agnes
Buddy Wood	...	Bud
Kenny Wood	...	Ken
Leon Brown	...	Cowboy in Cafe
Bobby McGriff	...	Truck Driver
Jack Mueller	...	Oil Pumper
Robert Arnold	...	Brother Blanton
Frank Marshall	...	Tommy Logan
Tom Martin	...	Larry
Otis Elmore	...	1st Mechanic
Charles Salmon	...	Roughneck Driver
George Gaulden	...	Cowboy
Will Morris Hannis	...	Gas Station Man
The Leon Miller Band	...	Themselves
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Antonia Bogdanovich	...	Singer (uncredited)
Peter Bogdanovich	...	DJ (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Peter Bogdanovich

Writing credits
Larry McMurtry		(screenplay) and
Peter Bogdanovich		(screenplay)
Larry McMurtry		(novel)

Produced by
Stephen J. Friedman	....	producer
Bert Schneider	....	executive producer
Harold Schneider	....	associate producer
Bob Rafelson	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys		(archive footage)
Phil Harris		(archive footage)
Johnny Standley		(archive footage)
Hank Thompson		(archive footage)

Cinematography by
Robert Surtees		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Donn Cambern
Peter Bogdanovich		(uncredited)

Casting by
Ross Brown

Production Design by
Polly Platt

Art Direction by
Walter Scott Herndon

Costume Design by
Polly Platt		(uncredited)

Production Management
Don Guest	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
William A. Morrison	....	second assistant director (as William Morrison)
Robert Rubin	....	assistant director

Art Department
Vincent M. Cresciman	....	design assistant (as Vincent Cresciman)
Louis Donelan	....	props
George Lillie	....	painter
Al Litteken	....	construction coordinator
Ed Shanley	....	construction supervisor
Walter Starkey	....	props

Sound Department
Tom Overton	....	sound mixer
Dean Salmon	....	boom operator
James Nelson	....	supervising sound editor (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Alan Goldenhar	....	gaffer
Leonard Lookabaugh	....	dolly grip
Carl Manoogian	....	key grip
Terry Meade	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Nancy McArdle	....	wardrobe
Mickey Sherrard	....	wardrobe

Transportation Department
Frank Khoury	....	transportation (uncredited)

Other crew
Gary Chason	....	assistant to director
Marilyn La Salandra	....	production coordinator (as Marilyn LaSalandra)
Frank Marshall	....	location manager
Elly Mitchell	....	production secretary
Ron Mitchell	....	production assistant
Marshall Schlom	....	script supervisor
Mae Woods	....	production assistant
Claire Harrison	....	publicist (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation
• BBS Productions

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1971) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner-Columbia Films (1972) (Argentina) (theatrical)
• Progress Film-Verleih (1973) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• VEB Progress Film-Vertrieb (1973) (East Germany) (theatrical)
• American Broadcasting Company (ABC) (1974) (USA) (TV)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1990) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (1991) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1991) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1993) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Columbia TriStar Home Video (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2001) (UK) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2001) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2001) (Sweden) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD) (director's cut)
• Criterion Collection, The (2010) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)
• Columbia TriStar (Brazil) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2010) (USA) (DVD)
• LK-TEL Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• LK-TEL (19??) (Argentina) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Edit-Rite  sound effects
• Producers' Sound Services  re-recording

Also Known As:

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language

Runtime:

118 min | 127 min (director's cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Italy:T | Sweden:11 | USA:R | Argentina:Atp | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:18 | UK:15 (video rating) (1992) | UK:X (original rating) | Iceland:L | Singapore:M18 | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) | West Germany:16 (f) | Brazil:14 | New Zealand:M | Peru:14 | Netherlands:18 (orginal rating)

Filming Locations:

115 East Main Street, Archer City, Texas, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Peter Bogdanovich claims he edited the finished film almost entirely by himself, but had Donn Cambern do some minor work simply so they would have an editor's name on the credits.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When Sonny and Jacy are driving to Oklahoma to get married, the highway markings are incorrect. In 1952, Texas highways were marked with a solid line down the middle of the highway with no-passing zones marked with dashed lines.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Radio announcer:President Truman'll be here tomorrow, so all you folks in Dallas turn out, chuh hear? This is Cowboy Rhythms on KTRN, Wichita Falls, here's Hank Williams' big hit tune, "Cold Cold Heart".
Sam the Lion:You ain't ever gonna amount to nothing. Already spent a dime this morning, ain't even had a decent breakfast. Gimme the chalk. Why don't you comb you hair Sonny, it sticks up, look like you smelled'm wolf. I'm surprised you had the nerve to show up this morning after that stomping y'all took last night.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Growing Pains: The Last Picture Show: Part 1 (#7.23)" (1992)

Soundtrack:

The Thing

A Sense Of Realism

This is a character study wherein the main character is a small West Texas town, circa 1951. In the U.S., the early 1950s symbolized a transition from nineteenth century agrarian values to twentieth century urbanism. In the film, various people who live in the town must confront the reality that time moves on. Things change. Assumptions of previous generations give way to the untested assumptions of the future. The film's theme is thus American cultural change, and the personal disillusionment that such change can bring. It is a powerful theme, and the film imparts that theme with logical clarity and emotional frankness.

In the hands of lesser talents, the subject matter of unimportant people doing unimportant things might have yielded a tiresome soap opera. But the film's script is poetic, the direction is skillful, the B&W cinematography is artistic, the casting is perfect, and the performances are superlative.

The story draws heavily from early American individualism. Life here is mostly physical, not mental. Human relationships are direct, immediate, one-on-one. Except for schools, which are given some prominence, cultural institutions exist in the film only vaguely or not at all. For entertainment, people listen to radio, which features the mournful country-western music of Hank Williams. Or, they go to the town's decrepit picture show, where an elderly Miss Mosey kindly returns money to the kids who got there too late to see the cartoons.

If the film has a weakness it is in the presentation of a realism that is incomplete. We see mostly stifling bleakness, though that is ameliorated somewhat by humor. What we don't see are the uplifting influences and the optimism that sustained agrarian generations through hardships and rough times.

Nevertheless, within the film's story parameters, the film does convey an accurate account of what life was like for ordinary folks in West Texas in the early 1950s. I doubt that this film could be made today. Contemporary audiences have been conditioned to expect non-stop action, loudness, glitz, and overblown special effects, all of which are absent, mercifully, from this film.

Low-key, perceptive, bleak, and melancholy, "The Last Picture Show" easily makes my list of Top Ten favorite films of all time.