Made in 1971 but set 20 years earlier, The Last Picture Show feels like it belongs to two distinct eras in US history: the 50s and the 70s. The Last Picture Show is available to rent, buy or stream.
Peter Bogdanovich‘s second feature film is often considered one of the best American films of the 20th century. The Last Picture Show is a quintessential slice of the Hollywood Renaissance and an honest, cruel dissection of the American Dream.
Based on Larry McMurtry’s book of the same name, the film follows a group of high school seniors living in the dusty and windswept town of Anarene, Texas, as the Korean War of 1951 unfolds. Best friends Duane (Jeff Bridges) and Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) are searching for their place in the world, contemplating their future and trying to escape their dead-end town without much success. Duane is dating the town’s most beautiful girl, Jacy (Cybill Shepherd), while Sonny is having a secret affair with the wife of their school football coach, Ruth (Cloris Leachman).
In The Last Picture Show, parental figures are either hypocrites or burned-out failures with deep regrets. Jacy’s mum (Ellen Burstyn) disapproves of Jacy and Duane’s relationship by projecting her frustration over missed opportunities for a better life onto her child. Meanwhile, Ruth is chronically depressed as she battles with her unhappy marriage and seeks long-lost intimacy with a young man half her age. However, instead of this parental regret serving as a warning to the younger generation, they, too, sink into the same hopelessness as school ends and slowly drift apart. It is the town itself that generates this despair and traps both the young and old in its dusty prison.
As our teens grow, they gradually lose faith in their carefree days, in the importance of friendships and relationships, and, eventually, in the American dream. Their only escape is the local cinema (about to close its doors forever) and the brief diversions offered through sex and intimacy. The Last Picture Show is the ultimate “end of an era” film. We watch Duane and Jacy break up, and Duane and Sonny fight as the town slowly folds in on itself, and the outside world invades the Dust Bowl with very few prospects. Here, Bogdanovich reflects on the dying embers of childhood and the uncertain path to adulthood in a town held hostage by poverty and time.
Made in 1971 but set 20 years earlier, The Last Picture Show feels like it belongs to two distinct eras in US history: the 50s and the 70s. The result is an unforgettable, nostalgic, yet melancholic slice of cinema and a stunning farewell to adolescence, innocence, and childhood freedom.
Follow Us