The Last Picture Show (1971)

“One thing I know for sure. A person can't sneeze in this town without somebody offering them a handkerchief.”

            In my adventures in being a film fanatic I have come across so many types of films and so many types of genres. I sit through whatever I can and I try as hard as I can to sit through anything (well except for horror I am so not a fan of that genre). What winds me up about several films I have seen is when something about the film is so good but there is that something that I cannot get over and ruins it for me be it the story or acting or direction or whatever the case may be. Sometimes with a film like that I do not feel like I wasted my time but rather like I was let down because it was almost good. This is exactly what I felt watching The Last Picture Show. Everything about the films was flawless except for the story.

            I am not going to be writing too much about The Last Picture Show because there was so much that was going on and it was incredibly too slow for me to really absorb everything. I will write that it was about a group of high school in 1951 in a ghost town in Texas. Everyone knows everyone and there is not much to do at all. The story focuses on Sonny, Duane (Jeff Bridges), Jacy (Cybil Shepherd), Sam, Genevieve, Billy, and Ruth along with a couple of other people.

            The story had the plot line of a virgin trying to get laid, a young boy trying to figure out that there is more in the world than the small town and his view of what happens it, a “bad boy” who is in love with the rich girl and wants more out of life than the small town, and other clichés and nonsense.

            I can see where many people love The Last Picture Show. The direction, cinematography, and the acting are all amazing. Peter Bogdanovich directed the movie and he was brilliant. I have seen him on several interviews on DVDs especially the Hitchcock DVDs and have read some articles about him and you can completely see that this man is a movie lover from the way the movie was filmed and edited and lit. Bogdanovich filmed a brilliant movie but the story was not there and fell so boring after a very short time. I guess it could be me though I had stories that have to do with small towns and the people who are victims of it.   

            I am not going to go through all the actors but I will say Cloris Leachman was incredible in her few scenes that she shad. Lechman even earned herself an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and deserved it. It was nice to see her in a dramatic role since I am so used to seeing her in some Mel Brooks films and on the TV show Raising Hope where she is so hysterical.

            As I said The Las Picture Show is so close to being a perfect movie but falls short and it falls short with a boring story. I understand the story fine I knew what was going on but it moved too slowly and I felt overloaded with all the characters and their problems. I say see The Last Picture Show because it is well made and I think it is a movie all movie lovers should see.