The Last Picture Show July 28, 2006
Posted by clydefro in : Classic Films, 1970s , trackback
Peter Bogdanovich’s film The Last Picture Show
Numerous characters emerge in The Last Picture Show. Its cast is deservedly famous and most people know that they were virtually unknown, save Ben Johnson, at the time of its release. The actor who was unable to break out was the film’s lead, Timothy Bottoms. Bottoms plays Sonny, a normal high school senior with little ambition who probably sees his hometown as the place he’ll someday be buried. The film takes place over one year as Sonny and his high school friends Duane (played by the young Jeff Bridges) and Jacy (Cybill Shepherd in her first acting role) go from losing football games to graduating and trying to move on with their lives. Sonny gets involved with his coach’s wife, Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman as an original desperate housewife and who deserved every bit of the Oscar she won here), and learns life lessons from “Sam the Lion” (Johnson, who probably won his Oscar for the beautiful monologue he has while rolling cigarettes and fishing with Sonny) . There are many great performances in the film and a lot happens, but there’s not much plot and I mean that in the most flattering way possible.
The beauty of The Last Picture Show is that it just drifts along like the tumbleweeds and dirt we see Billy (played by Timothy Bottoms’ real-life brother Sam) sweeping throughout the film. Each viewing is a little richer than the last because of this. We get to know the characters and their flaws as the film progresses. In the adults we see the teenagers’ futures and, slowly, Sonny sees this as well. Billy’s tragic fate seems to stir up something inside Sonny and he realizes the innocence of youth can’t last. The final scene between Sonny and Ruth offers some hope that he has begun to take responsibility for his actions and, if we pretend the sequel made twenty years later doesn’t exist, the audience is left wondering what will happen to these characters.
The soundtrack consists of era-specific country and western songs, none more memorable than Hank Williams’ “Why Don’t You Love Me” which serves as the first and last song heard. I don’t know if it’s just the catchiness of the song or something more, but I’ve associated that song with the film since I first saw it a decade ago. In a nice touch, each song in the film coincides with a character actually playing the song via radio, record player or jukebox. The black and white cinematography also works well to convey the film’s 1950s setting. Bogdanovich claims Orson Welles suggested he use black and white, not because of the period, but to show the depth the director was looking for in certain scenes. Regardless of the reason, the film is better off without color, poignantly suggesting the lack of hope for most of the film’s characters.
Peter Bogdanovich has become an unintentional allegory of what can happen to a talented director when he makes a few unwise decisions and lets his arrogance stir him in the wrong direction. He made two of the decade’s best films in this and Paper Moon
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