By The Swimmin' Hole
"When The Last Picture Show came out, in 1971, it was acclaimed not only as the breakout hit of a young gun (the director, Peter Bogdanovich, was still in his early thirties) but also as a dusty remembrance of things past," writes New Yorker critic Anthony Lane.
"The movie was set twenty years before, in a small Texas town, where even the young folk -- played to perfection by Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms and others -- bore the look of natural-born elegists, and where the quest for sexual services (led by Cloris Leachman, as the wife of a sports coach) seemed less a matter of lust, let alone joy, than a desperate bid to delay the dying falls of love.
"Nowadays, we are the nostalgists, and it is Bogdanovich's film (which the director David Gordon Green selected for a July 20 screening at BAM) that asks to be treasured as the product -- indeed, the standard-bearer -- of a faded age. There was a time when movies themselves felt like small towns: rooted fast in their environments, and alive to the wistful chatter of minor characters as they crossed paths and then went on their way."
And the most small-towny moment in the entire film was Ben Johnson's soliloquy about change and "gettin' old" and a love affair he had about 20 years back with a girl, and a silver dollar she probably still has.
"You wouldn't believe how this country's changed. First time I seen it there wasn't a mesquite tree on it. First time I watered a horse at this tank was more than 40 years ago. I'm probably just as sentimental as the next fella when it comes to old times."
qy
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 15, 2008 at 10:47 AM
comment #1
Breedlove
says ...
Love this movie. I'm very fired up for this David Gordon Green series at BAM. He's one of my favorites, but I just got into him in the past couple years on dvd. I'm gonna try and go see every one of them over the next week or so.
Posted by Breedlove
at July 15, 2008 11:15 AM
comment #2
Edward
says ...
I hate to admit, I've never seen this. Probably should rent it this weekend.
Posted by Edward
at July 15, 2008 11:16 AM
comment #3
Breedlove
says ...
...and while we're on the subject of movies playing in NYC, what's up with Encounters at The End Of The World playing only at Film Forum, and apparently closing soon? My TV is bigger than the screen at Film Forum. Is this movie opening any wider (pun intended) or what?
Posted by Breedlove
at July 15, 2008 11:19 AM
comment #4
tophertilson
says ...
Anyone wondering why the independent movie is dying need look no further than joints like Film Forum. I just can't justify paying ten bucks to go there to see a film when I can see it for free on a almost equally large screen when it airs on IFC in six months.
Posted by tophertilson
at July 15, 2008 11:27 AM
comment #5
Richardson
says ...
Isn't there still one theater in the Film Forum which has a reasonably sized screen?
Posted by Richardson
at July 15, 2008 11:46 AM
comment #6
Richardson
says ...
That said, I saw 'Last Picture Show' at Cinema Classics which is just as small and even less comfortable. [I can't remember if it's the same place I saw 'Manhattan', which literally had folding chairs and a pull down screen like a high school.] And it was awesome just to see it. Having never seen it prior to that, sure, I wished the screen was better, but the movie was so great it didn't matter.
Oddly, The Strokes (or the majority of them) were in attendance at that screening.
Posted by Richardson
at July 15, 2008 11:48 AM
comment #7
CinemaPhreek
says ...
Disparaging PINEAPPLE EXPRESS or seething Apatow comments in 5, 4, 3....
Posted by CinemaPhreek
at July 15, 2008 12:10 PM
comment #8
tommysunshine
says ...
I love how David Gordon Green has included Tango and Cash in his rep choices!
Jeffrey, in light of the Hancock- Last Action Hero comparisons, if it's something you'd like to do, please feel free to enlighten us on the palava of 15 years ago. Thanks.
Posted by tommysunshine
at July 15, 2008 12:41 PM
comment #9
Rod32303
says ...
At The Florida State University about eight years ago, they showed "The Last Picture Show" and "Texasville" back to back...the former is truly a classic film, but when you see the sequel...well it plays so much better than it was received. Annie Potts is hilarious, and Bridges and Shepherd do beautiful work. I met Bogdanovich at The Smithsonian about nine years ago when he was doing a tour for his book "Who The Devil Made It" - very cool cat.
Posted by Rod32303
at July 15, 2008 1:54 PM
comment #10
BurmaShave
says ...
Whether it was luck or fate, the sun in this scene is unreal. One of the best shots in film history, and one of the more touching moments. Ben Fucking Johnson, glad he got his Oscar for this.
Posted by BurmaShave
at July 15, 2008 2:18 PM
comment #11
berg
says ...
the characters of Sonny and Duane in the last picture show are cut from the same bolt of cloth as Jack and Ennis in brokeback mountain
Posted by berg
at July 15, 2008 3:28 PM
comment #12
Gaydos
says ...
Sam Peckinpah had something pithy to say about this one but you'll have to get the new book of S.P. interviews to read it. Couldn't find the quote online. It's not very nice.
Posted by Gaydos
at July 15, 2008 4:11 PM
comment #13
MilkMan
says ...
Re: Peter Bogdanovich:
Don Juan says anyone who always looks like the same person isn't a person. He is a person impersonator.
Wrote William S. Burroughs in Cities of the Red Night
If Post-Modernism officially began the day Pruitt-Igoe was destroyed, then I say we should start re-thinking the legacy of the directors of the last Golden Age of Hollywood. Bogdanovich, Coppola, Spielberg, Scorsese, et al. Were these men really filmmakers, or were they men just play-acting at being filmmakers? And were the ones who flamed out the ones who could no longer maintain the performance, who could no longer modulate their performance? And if that is the case, then what is QT? Did QT and other cultural touchstones of the early 90's indicate that there had been another shift, away from Post-Modernism and towards something else for which we have not yet named?
Posted by MilkMan
at July 15, 2008 4:12 PM
comment #14
K. Bowen
says ...
The Last Picture Show is a terrific film.
Posted by K. Bowen
at July 15, 2008 5:46 PM
comment #15
madskrilla
says ...
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW is an American classic -- like STAGECOACH, CITIZEN KANE, CASABLANCA, THE GODFATHER, TAXI DRIVER, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, ROCKY. Bogdanovich, God bless him, is in the American Pantheon, the rest of his career doesn't matter, he's in the Pantheon simply on the strength of this one movie.
Posted by madskrilla
at July 16, 2008 5:14 AM
comment #16
PaulKolas
says ...
I'm so glad to see there are others out there who regard "The Last Picture Show" with the same fervent appreciation I do. It's stood the test of time, an inviolable evocation of time and place that borders on perfection, and one of the most achingly elegiac films ever made. I can forgive Bogdanovich for "At Long Last Love" simply for his one true masterpiece.
Paul Kolas
Worcester, MA
Posted by PaulKolas
at July 16, 2008 7:34 AM
comment #17
Richardson
says ...
"I met Bogdanovich at The Smithsonian about nine years ago when he was doing a tour for his book "Who The Devil Made It" - very cool cat."
When I met him, at a screening of 'The Cat's Meow', I was a little embarrassed that I hadn't seen any of his movies. But what was funny was that there were two distinct groups in the audience: one group who worshipped him for making 'The Last Picture Show' (and, to some extent, 'Paper Moon'), and another who worshipped him for making 'Noises Off...'
Posted by Richardson
at July 16, 2008 9:31 AM
comment #18
saramie
says ...
This is great news!! i'm very excited about it! of course, maybe we can say he is a good man! so, i have read some news about him on a celeb dating site " TALLMEET .COM "..he put his story on this site ..u should find out how him and her met..that's really fun..
Posted by saramie
at July 16, 2008 6:00 PM
comment #19
Clark Perry
says ...
Along with PAPER MOON, Bogdanovich delivered a one-two punch of emotional Americana I can't imagine anyone doing today.
Posted by Clark Perry
at July 17, 2008 1:24 PM
comment #20
janee
says ...
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Posted by janee
at May 17, 2011 6:28 AM