Review of The Last Picture Show (1971) by Derek T — 26 Feb 2011

The people in this movie seem real. When the movie begins, Timothy Bottoms and Jeff Bridges are being ripped on by people in town for not winning a football game the night before. The movie ends with people standing around over the body of a dead boy who was hit by a truck and they are grumbling over why he was in the street in the first place and want to go get breakfast.

The town in The Last Picture Show seems only to exist because the elders don't know any better. Set over the course of one year in the early 1950's, it's a story about two friends having to deal with small town life and the unsimple way it is.

The people in this town gossip. Everyone knows why two friends would fight, because it's over a girl and everyone knows that the Bottoms character is having an affair with Cloris Leachman. Speaking of Leachman, she gives a great performance as a housewife, whose affair with Bottoms, seems to give her something to do with her life.

Even though Bridges, Ellen Burstyn and Cybill Shepherd went on to have big careers, the two stand-outs are Bottoms and Leachman. It's hard to believe this is the same Leachman who is now reduced to playing their crazy grandmother roles and that Bottoms once had a promising career as an actor in the 1970's and is now reduced to appearing as George W.

Bush to get acting gigs. The only drawback to this movie is Ben Johnson was vocal in his opposition to this movie and the role because it had nudity and people having sex. Apparently, Johnson, a sidekick to John Wayne, had no problem with appearing in violent and even racist westerns.

The good thing is that Johnson's character kicks the bucket half way and we don't have to endure him. He gets a speech that might have been better if a more seasoned actor had delivered it.