The Last Picture Show

In this article, we will be looking at 2019’s book “1001 Movies to See Before You Die” and going through each film in a random order that I have chosen. We will be looking at what constitutes this film to be on the list and whether I think this film deserves to be here at all. I want to make perfectly clear that I won’t be revealing details from this book such as analyses by film reporters who have written about the film in question, so if you want the book itself you’ll have to buy it. But I will be covering the book’s suggestions on which films should be your top priority. I wouldn’t doubt for a second that everyone reading this article has probably watched many of these movies anyway. But we are just here to have a bit of fun. We’re going to not just look at whether it should be on this list but we’re also going to look at why the film has such a legacy at all. Remember, this is the 2019 version of the book and so, films like “Joker” will not be featured in this book and any film that came out in 2020 (and if we get there, in 2021). So strap in and if you have your own suggestions then don’t hesitate to email me using the address in my bio. Let’s get on with it then.

The Last Picture Show (1971) dir. by Peter Bogdanovich

“The Last Picture Show” is a film based on a really good book by Larry McMurtry and it stars people like Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn and many more. The best thing about the film is that it features songs by Hank Williams Sr. and honestly, that was the only reason I watched the films because I adore Hank Williams’ music - and I might be the only brown person who does [please, prove me wrong].

The film has maintains a one hundred percent rating review on Rotten Tomatoes and it states the following about the film: "Making excellent use of its period and setting, Peter Bogdanovich's small town coming-of-age story is a sad but moving classic filled with impressive performances.”

But really, what would this critical reception be without the critic himself, Roger Ebert - nothing, that’s what. Roger Ebert added this film to his “Great Movies” list and had many good things to say about the film. I’m going to share my favourite part of his review:

“There is simply no way in this town to touch life and glow. The last ones who knew the secret were Sam the Lion and maybe Genevieve (Eileen Brennan), the waitress at Sam's diner. Sonny and Duane, we suspect, will grow up to drink too much, work too hard and marry desperate women -- unless Duane is killed first in Korea. There is certainly no future for gentle Billy (Sam Bottoms), who always smiles but has no reason to. The film is above all an evocation of mood. It is about a town with no reason to exist, and people with no reason to live there. The only hope is in transgression, as Ruth knows when she seduces Sonny, the boy half her age. And then he, too, falls briefly under the spell of Jacy, leading to the powerful scene where he returns to Ruth and she hurls the coffeepot against the wall and spills out her soul. (Leachman did that scene in one take, first time, no rehearsal.)”

Vincent Canby called it a ‘lovely film’ [every film student hyper-ventilates because Canby said he liked a movie that had a feel-good quality in some respects]. He straight out discusses the sentimentality of the film and its importance in the cinematic story of America:

“One of the most notable things about this new film is the fact that Bogdanovich's studies have taught him not only style, but discipline. “The Last Picture Show,” adapted from Larry McMurtry's novel by McMurtry and Bogdanovich, never mistakes its purpose, which is to define the quality of life in a small American town through stories and characters, that recall any number of other films and novels, but that have here been rediscovered, without the exploitation of “Peyton Place,” without the horror of “King's Row,” and with remarkably little sentimentality.”

You can tell it deserves its place in the American Film Registry after Vincent Canby thought it was amazing as well.

Citations:

Roger Ebert Review

Vincent Canby Review