The Last Picture Show

I have been focused on Larry McMurtry lately, even getting the final Jeopardy question right the other night when none of the contestants did. This led me to watch The Last Picture Show, a movie I heard about for years and never caught on television.
After watching the DVD, I understand whey it is not on television.
A movie released in 1971, based on a story written by the author of stories that led to many popular movies, such as Hud, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove and Brokeback Mountain. An early direction work by director-actor Peter Bogdanovich, whose immediate following works included Paper Moon. More recently he has appeared as a psychiatrist on the series The Sopranos.

The movie is based in a dying Texas town of the early 1950's.  The main characters are high school classmates, with little sense of future or ambition.  The opportunities for employment are all out of town, those being in oil, military or college.  Duane is Jacy's boyfriend and has all he can handle with girl that is learning to be an expert at manipulation.  Sonny has the same affection for Jacy but respects the order of things.  In time they graduate and move on the the next stage, except for Sonny who seems trapped in a town with no future. 

The cast is positive, catching many well known actors early in their careers.

• Timothy Bottoms, the lead male, as Sonny Crawford, in a created and later reprized in Texasville.
• Jeff Bridges as Sonny Crawford's best friend Duane Jackson.
• Cybill Shepherd as Jacy Farrow, the object of every young man's affection.  A good looking girl, whose poor ability was masked by the director's control of the role.  Her naked breasts, even then, did not match the beautiful exterior.
• Ben Johnson as Sam the Lion, always entertaining.
• Cloris Leachman as Ruth Popper, a good portrayal of a sad woman.
• Ellen Burstyn as Lois Farrow, Jacy's mother, whose skill at manipulating men is her chief bequest to her daughter.
• Eileen Brennan as Genevieve, not quite sure how all the relationships worked, and at the time has a pretty good figure.
• Sam Bottoms as Billy, brother of the lead, playing the town mute.
• Randy Quaid as Lester Marlow, a goofy looking, awkward rich kid with the hots for Jacy.

My enjoyment of the movie is based on the story and film editing.  Filmed entirely on location, it has a visually gritty feel not unlike The Grapes of Wrath. This is a movie most people would not enjoy.  To have seen Sal Mineo in the lead role of Sonny would have been very different and I think not as good.

More