Review of The Last Picture Show (1971) by Tom B — 06 Feb 2011

This one's an easy five stars, sentiment or otherwise. Seen it so many times, replayed often on Channel 12 when I was a lad, watched over and over for Cybil Shepherd undressing and sweaty palms cupping girls in Texas heat.

Watching today, and I did see it perhaps four years ago, I see Ben Johnson and the shift halfway through film, the depth of character in each of the older characters, and the raw unpeeling layers of youth, and the echoes of times past.

In truth I was shocked at tonight's distillation of cinema and time, the interplay of memory and time and cinema, film and thought and feeling, what we see and where we are and where we were. Richness is a good word to describe what I felt.

And it is a film that means more as time goes by, as I learn more about film and story, and life in relation to story. Great moments from Jeff Bridges and Timothy Bottoms, and of course Ben Johnson. Most of all though the women, foregrounded in light and appreciation, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, and Cloris Leachman, who I can't seem to get enough of in this.