THE LAST PICTURE SHOW

THERE WAS an old-fashioned feel to the 1971 film The Last Picture Show. At a period when emerging directors were experimenting with new methods, colours and techniques director Peter Bogdanovich stuck to the styles of such classic directors as John Ford and Howard Hawks.

A unique aspect of The Last Picture Show was that it was shot in stark black and white and an old-fashion style of direction and acting. All but one of the film’s shots were taken at eye-level.

Bogdanovich and James Lee Barrett adapted the screenplay from the bestselling novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry.

Bogdanovich and producer Stephen J. Friedman assembled a strong production team headed by director of photography Robert Surtees, musical directors Hank Williams and John Philip Sousa.

The film for Columbia Pictures was shot on a modest budget of

$1.3 million. It was filmed mainly on location in Archer City, Texas, hometown of Larry McMurtry.

Basically the story was in the form of a tv soap but Bogdanovich constructed it in the style of a John Ford western.

Bogdanovich originally offered the role of Sam the Lion to James Stewart but he was already committed to a tv series. Ben Johnson accepted the role. James Dean was also considered for a role but declined.

THE PLOT concerned a comingof-age story set in a small, dusty Texan town of Anarene in 1951. Sonny Crawford and Duane Jackson are high-school friends who spend their time between films, football and girls. Study is the furthest thing from their minds. Jacy Farrow is Duane’s girl friend, the blonde teen who spreads chaos everywhere. Her father is a rich businessman and all the boys fancy her. She ditches her young boy friend to run with an older, richer set. The best scene takes place outside town at the ‘tank’ an unlovely pond that briefly breaks the monotony of the flat Texas prairie. After finishing school the youngsters have to decide whether to stay in the run down town or head for life in the city. The film follows their lives, loves, jealousy and loneliness. Sam the Lion is a wise old cowboy who runs a cinema and pool hall. He muses about his long-ago relationship with Farrow’s feisty mother.

Bogdanovich assembled a superb cast of mostly newcomers headed by Jeff Bridges as Duane Jackson, Cybill Sheppard as Jacy Farrow, Randy Quaid, Eileen Brennan, Ellen Burstyn and Timothy Bottoms as Sonny Crawford.

Ellen Burstyn was originally considered for the role of Genevieve, but after meeting with the director and reading for all three older women characters, he asked her to play Ruth Popper.

The director stated that he saw Cybill Sheppard on a magazine cover and it inspired him to cast her in a leading role.

THE SUPERB cast of newcomers were joined by veterans Cloris Leachman and Ben Johnson.

Bogdanovich was nearly fired from the production after filming the fight sequence because he had not filmed a major shot that was regarded as essential in all films. The producer defended him saying that the cuts he needed were already in the camera.

The film was one of the first to use already popular recordings of original artists to score a film. Featured here are songs by Frankie Laine, Hank Williams and Jo Stafford.

The film received overwhelming good reviews. The following are a sample: ‘Larry McMurtry did a great job on it.’ ‘A tender yet melancholy coming of age film that looks at the erosion of the American ideal.’ ‘The dialogue that starts with bickering and ends at confessional.’ ‘It’s meant to make you feel sad for what’s lost, but a vitality throbs through it.’ ‘The scene where Sam imparts his wisdom to young buck Bottoms may be the saddest, loveliest moment in 1970s American cinema.’

THE FILM was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Jeff Bridges and Ben Johnson for Best Supporting Actor and Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman for Best Supporting Actress.

Johnson’s performance in this film is the shortest to ever win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor.

Cloris Leachman won the Best Supporting Actress award.

In 1990 the director and cast reunited to film Larry McMurty’s more farcical sequel Texasville.

In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked The Last Picture Show as the 95th Greatest Movie of All Time. ■