Classic Tuesdays: The Last Picture Show
R
Run Time: 118 min.
June 28, 2022 at 7pm
Main Theater
Starring: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybil Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Ben Johnson
Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Screenplay: Larry McMurtry, Peter Bogdanovich
The Last Picture Show is one of the key films of the American cinema renaissance of the seventies. Set during the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a movie screen, this aching portrait of a dying West, adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, focuses on the daily shuffles of three futureless teens—the enigmatic Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), the wayward jock Duane (Jeff Bridges), and the desperate-to-be-adored rich girl Jacy (Cybil Shepherd)—and the aging lost souls who bump up against them in the night like drifting tumbleweeds, including Cloris Leachman’s lonely housewife and Ben Johnson’s grizzled movie-house proprietor. Featuring evocative black-and-white imagery and profoundly felt performances, this hushed depiction of crumbling American values remains the pivotal film in the career of the invaluable director and film historian Peter Bogdanovich.
“… a masterpiece whichever way you look at it … Unmissable.”
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
