Review of The Last Picture Show (1971) by Miguel A — 05 Sep 2012

Based upon Larry McMurtry's 1966 autobiographical novel, and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, who had done 4 films until that point, one dubbed from a Soviet film and one was a documentary about John Ford.

This is a sparse, bleak and stark drama set in a part of America that has long since disappeared, but it does make for a fascinating character piece, and it helped launch one or two film careers along the way.

Set in Anarene, Texas in late 1951/early 1952, this tells the story of two high school seniors, Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges), who are best friends, co-captains of the local high school football team and share a small house and a pick-up truck together.

Duane is going out with Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd), who is attractive and comes from a wealthy family, whereas Sonny is in a loveless relationship with Charlene Duggs (Sharon Taggart), and they later split.

Sonny meets Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman), the wife of Coach Popper (Bill Thurman), she's in a rut with her life, and finds solace in Sonny, and begins an affair with him, but then Duane meets Ruth, and too has an affair.

It's a sad look at a part of America which died out, but filming it in a stark, grainy black and white, Bogdanovich adds a sense of old school about it, but keeping in with what New Hollywood was all about.

Leachman won an Oscar for this, as did Ben Johnson as local proprietor Sam The Lion. It spawned a sequel in 1990 called Texasville, Bogdanovich and much of the cast returned.