Small town predicts my fate?

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Adam’s rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)

Director: Peter Bogdanovich

Rated R. 118 min.

No. 95 on AFI 100 reissue

Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges,
Cybill Shepherd, Sam Johnson,
Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn,
Randy Quaid

"The Last Picture Show"; No. 95 AFI 100 (2008)

“If she was here I'd probably be just as crazy now as I was then in about 5 minutes. Ain't that ridiculous? ... Naw, it ain't really. 'Cause being crazy about a woman like her is always the right thing to do. Being an old decrepit bag of bones, that's what's ridiculous. Gettin' old.”
– Sam the Lion

The Last Picture Show doesn’t get a lot of love from the film critics. It didn’t make the AFI’s list of the Top 100 American films in 1997 and it just snuck in at No. 95 in the 10th Anniversary list in 2008. Despite having a rating of 8.1 on IMDB at the time of this post and having the necessary minimum votes, it also doesn’t make the cut on the IMDB Top 250.

Either way, I don’t care.

This film is one of my all-time favorites. If you’ve ever lived in a small town -- and I have -- you’ll understand this film. And if you grew up in a small town, you’ll not only understand the movie, you’ll most likely be sympathetic to its characters, identify with the characters and – quite possibly – fall in love with the film, as I have.

Set in a small North Texas town in the 1950s, there are several stories going on in this movie. There’s the story of two teenage boys coming of age; there’s the story of the teenage prom queen, whose daddy is the richest man in town and her loose mother runs around on him; there’s the story of the local businessman, who owns the pool hall, the movie theater and the town’s only café; there is the story of the coach and his disappointed and lonely wife; and finally, there’s the town – which is slowly dying as people move away for jobs in the city that pay more money and help them better afford to raise their own families. 

But two of the films issues that resonate through this film -- and that I'd like to focus on -- are sex and, although well before its time, the plight of small town America. These themes also happen to be the film’s best social commentary.

And in 1950s America, sex is a rather taboo subject. And it happens frequently in this movie, whether it’s actual fornication or simple sexual exploration. To prove that I’m not all stuffy and high brow when it comes to movie-watching, let’s just say that if you absolutely hate this movie, it’s worth watching for seeing a young Cybill Shepherd’s fun bags.

Now, back to seriousness…

This film – and this is why it got the R rating – is really about a sexual revolution going on. There’s a lot you can say about the sex going on in this movie, but the most integral parts to the story, when it comes to sex, is main character Sonny Crawford’s (Timothy Bottoms) affair with the coach’s wife, Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman); Jacy Farrow’s (Cybill Shepherd) experimentation with skinny dipping parties with her friends, which eventually leads to her having sex with her boyfriend, Duane (Jeff Bridges) as well as her willingness to have sex with Abilene (Clu Gallager), the man her mom is running around with; and Lois Farrow’s (Ellen Burstyn) affair with Abilene, while she is married.

While these aforementioned scenes are integral to the overall story and the overall theme for a sexual revolution, probably the single most important area of this film is the overall relationship between Sonny and Ruth (there are a lot of overalls in this sentence). All characters bring their own individual story into a film like this. And there are a lot of characters to choose from with deep stories. But the relationship between Sonny and Ruth is very dynamic and powerful basis for the coming of age and the understanding that needs to happen as Sonny goes from boyhood to manhood.

It’s really interesting how the relationship begins with Coach asking Sonny to drive his wife to the doctor’s office for an appointment. Then they see each other again at a town Christmas party and share a kiss when Sonny goes outside to help Ruth out with the trash. Before you know it, Sonny’s coming over to the Popper’s house to bump uglies with Ruth. And, being that it’s a small town, all the women in town know. But we don’t find this out until later well after Sonny has graduated, Duane has shipped off to Korea and Sonny stands Ruth up one night for Jacy.

Call it the mistakes of youth, but Ruth’s genuine love for Sonny and her reaction to being snubbed by Sonny and his complete disregard for her and her feelings in how the relationship ended is what earned Cloris Leachman an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress from this film (the film was nominated for eight Oscars and won two; Ben Johnson won the other Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and another trivia fact, Jeff Bridges lost his first Oscar nomination for this film).

But with the sex and the relationships, we also see the three main adolescent characters grow up as the film goes on. And the biggest growth, I feel, comes from Sonny in this movie. Sonny is on his own. He has a father and we don’t know where his mother is. Sonny’s father lives in the town, but we are only ever introduced to him once and from the introduction, it is obvious that their relationship is an estranged one. That leaves friend and mentor, Sam the Lion, to step in as a father-figure and show Sonny how to be a man.

Sam (Sam Johnson) plays an integral role in this part of the story, but Sam’s death forces Sonny to grow up quicker than he already has at about 18 years old.

In addition to the effect Sam’s death has on Sonny as he loses a mentor and a friend, Sam’s death also has an effect on the town and the stress it faces to survive. Upon Sam’s death, Sonny inherits the pool hall, Miss Mosey the movie theater and Genevieve the café. Not long after, Miss Mosey is forced to close the movie theater (and the last picture show she shows is John Wayne’s “Red River” – a little trivia tidbit). Sonny makes a run of the pool hall, but he’s still just a young man and once Sam’s son, Billy, dies, one gets the sense that Sonny is eventually going to close shop and leave the town to find his own way. The only person who seems set on keeping her inherited business open is Genevieve. And although the film closes the same way it opens – with tumbleweed and dust blowing down Main Street -- by the film’s end, you get the sense this town is on the ropes and the only thing keeping it alive is oil. (Although I haven’t commented on it yet, oil drilling is the predominant means for employment in this area; it’s how Jacy’s dad made his fortune and roughnecks are all around.)

For 1971, the social commentary on the death of small towns seems ahead of its time. But, it is also possible that the struggles of small town America have always existed? I’m not sure how many of these elements were in Larry McMurtry’s novel, of which this film is based, but Director Peter Bogdanovich proves himself as an auteur in this film by not only bringing the characters to life, but leaving his own artistic stamp on the film in its entirety.

The movie is shot in black and white and, while it could have easily been done in color, the imagery is all the more powerful by using an older style of film that brings out contrasts and grains for a dusty, rustic look. The use of Hank Williams throughout the film’s soundtrack – and always playing on the AM radio – also gives the movie a dated feel, as it is set in the early 1950s. It’s hard to say what the film would’ve been like had it been shot in color? But Bogdanovich was obviously going for a certain feel and he clearly achieved it with this film, which marks the pinnacle of success in his career (before several unfortunate flops throughout the 1970s and 80s).

The film is also much stronger than its sequel, 1989’s “Texasville,” which is set nearly 30 years later in 1980, when the predominant characters are all back in their small Texas hometown and reunite as adults. I caught this film on cable late one night a few years ago and it was terrible. Ass-tastic is probably more accurate to explain how bad this film was, but terrible will suffice. You can’t remake the thoughts, the ideas, the mood, the tone, or the feeling of a film like “The Last Picture Show.” You just can’t. It’s a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork and that’s why it’s one of my all-time favorite films, even if it doesn’t make a lot of the “best of” lists.