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The Last Picture Show (1971)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
22 October 1971 (USA) moreTagline:
Anarene, Texas, 1951. Nothing much has changed... morePlot:
The coming of age of a youth named Sonny in a small Texas town in the 1950s. full summary | add synopsisAwards:
Won 2 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 16 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(19 articles)
Q&A - Director Peter Bogdanovich Finally Gets Five Minutes of His Movie Back (From amctv.com - Exclusive Interviews. 6 May 2009, 10:11 AM, PDT)
DVD Playhouse: April 2009
(From The Hollywood Interview. 11 April 2009, 11:58 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
... worthy of its place in the list of great films of the 1970s moreCast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| 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 |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for sexuality, nudity and language.Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
118 min | 126 min (director's cut)Country:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Black and WhiteAspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
MonoCertification:
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 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Italy:T | Sweden:11 | USA:R | Argentina:Atp | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:18Fun Stuff
Trivia:
Cloris Leachman's last scene in the movie was printed on the first take without any previous rehearsals. She wanted to rehearse the scene but director Peter Bogdanovich thought it would ruin the scene if it was rehearsed. Ultimately his sense of direction paid off, as Leachman won the Academy Award for her performance. moreGoofs:
Audio/visual unsynchronized: At the very beginning of the film Sonny is having trouble starting the old rusty pickup truck. After getting it running he starts to drive off. The soundtrack has him changing gears but we still see him with both hands on the steering wheel. moreQuotes:
Sam the Lion: You see? This is what I get for bettin' on my own home town ballteam. I ought'a have better sense.Abilene: Wouldn't hurt to have a better home town.
more
Soundtrack:
Blue Velvet moreFAQ
Why did Sam the Lion leave the preacher's boy $1000?more
more
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Perhaps the greatest tragedy to befall any artist is to have their life become more compelling than their work; such is the sad case with Peter Bogdanovich whose meteoric rise to fame was matched only by a truly famous fall from favor and a bewildering journey through tabloid hell. (Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers mined the not inconsiderable drama of the first act of his life to sporadically great comic effect in 1984's Irreconcilable Differences. And his tragic love affair with Playboy model turned actress Dorothy Stratten is fictionalized in Bob Fosse's astonishing, horrifying Star 80 (1983). How many directors become characters in films?)
Bogdanovich's love affair with film is undeniable, though it has, in the past three decades, yielded far more perplexing misfires (The Cat's Meow, At Long Last Love, Nickelodeon) than unqualified successes. That said, The Last Picture Show is an extraordinary accomplishment and worthy of its place in the list of great films of the 1970s.
1971's other important films (Friedkin's The French Connection, Pakula's Klute, Kubrick's Clockwork Orange) are loud, angry, violent and contemporary in-your-face reflections of a society in which rage and nihilism, engendered by Vietnam and the growing discontent over government corruption, is the currency of communication. The uncertainty coursing through the veins of American pop culture also begat in equal, if not equally graphic, measure a palpable sense of sorrow at the destruction of a simpler way of life (no matter how "true" that memory may be).
Like Jewison's Fiddler on the Roof and Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Last Picture Show is a powerful and poignant evocation of the death of a community and a way of life. Thematically rich and imbued with Bogdanovich's remarkable knowledge and passion for film, the movie works on a dazzling number of levels; and Bogdanovich's use of nostalgia and traditional, archetypal genre conventions both enriches the movie and compounds the heartbreaking loss at the heart of the story.
His deft handling of a cast comprised of then (largely) unknowns (Bridges, Bottoms, Shepherd) is first-rate and he draws forth superb, often sublime performances from everyone (in particular, Johnson, Burstyn and Leachman). There isn't a false note or a misstep in the movie and there is a naturalness here that is not easily achieved or earned. The great production design (by Bogdanovich's then wife and partner Polly Platt whose contributions to his work and her subsequent involvement in the best works of James L. Brooks should not go underestimated) and the achingly beautiful cinematography by the late Robert Surtees are vital to the success (emotionally, intellectually, thematically) of the film.
The Last Picture Show is a truly rare work of surprising depth and emotional resonance; and the heartache for a time and place forever gone and the desperate and quiet struggles of its very real, very human denizens is matched only by the sorrow found in contemplation of Bogdanovich's Icarus-like fall from such exalted heights.