THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
US, 1971, 118 minutes, Black and white.
Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Cybil Shepherd, Jeff Bottoms.
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich.
The Last Picture Show emerged as one of the best films of 1971, although it won Oscars only for Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman as Best Supporting Actor and Actress. Peter Bogdanovich, the director, was a writer on film before tackling a feature film, Targets, in 1968. This is his second film, his third was What's Up Doc?, with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O'Neal. Bogdanovich made this film at the age of thirty.
The Last Picture Show is a film about a town dying and adolescents growing and the interaction of the two. The setting is Texas 1951, and the passing of an era symbolised by the now run-down picture show, the new world of television, industry, the post World War II war. This stagnating town contrasts with the great pioneering dreams of opening up a new world in the west. This is it and people have to live there.
The film is fairly pessimistic in outlook. It recreates Anarene, Texas, with excellent realism and in black and white photography reminiscent of that period. There is a certain nostalgia about the past (its music, films, cars, styles) but it is a black and white nostalgia, not coloured. Acting is excellent throughout. The two award winners make a great impression. Screenplay is by Larry Mc Murtry, author of Hud (which offers interesting comparisons).
1. What, broadly, was the theme of the film? How did the title symbolise this?
2. Comment on the reason for the black-and-white photography and the style and quality of the photography? Would colour have made any difference?
3. What point was being made about the dying Anarene being one of the descendents of the pioneer cities and towns of the west?
4. How did the opening sequences of the town set the atmosphere and mood and comment thematically on what was to follow? Meeting the people and their comments on the football?
5. What was the quality of life in Anarene? How different was it from any other place? What was wrong with it?
6. How despairing was the film? Did it offer any hope for its inhabitants, escape, possibilities for development and fulfilment?
7. Why was the year 1951 chosen? What was characteristic of the 1950's? Are we nostalgic for this period or can we see the decade as it really was?
8. How did the musical score enhance the film, the old records, old films, Father of the Bride, Red River (and John Wayne in a Howard Hawks film about the opening up of the west and its prospects - the last picture shown in the empty Texas picture-show)?
9. Why was Sonny the hero of the film, or was he just the average boy? What did the sequence with his father reveal?
10. What function did Sam play in the film? Critics suggest a kind of Greek tragedy chorus who comments on the action of the play. Was he dignified, wise? Did he understand what had happened to Anarene and its people? Why did he run the pool room and the picture-show? What was the significance of his death so comparatively early in the film?
11. How was the adolescent life of the town portrayed in the film - the pool room scenes, pictures, Sonny and Charlene in the truck, school scenes, Christina’s dance, nude swimming, baiting Billy about his virginity, the fishing scene?
12. Why did Sonny begin his affair with Ruth Popper? Did you feel sorry for her? Were the sequences building up the beginning of the affair credible? (The drink in the kitchen, the tears, coach at school).
13. What kind of woman was Jacy's mother? How did she bring up her daughter? Why had she married, and what did she have in life to think about?
14. What kind of boy was Duane? Why did he love Jacy so much? What did the sequences in the motel reveal about him? Why did he like Sonny, and why did they fight? Did he know about Sonny and Jacy's marriage? Why did he enlist? Has he typical of adolescents of the 50's?
15. Did you like Jacy? Whose fault was it that she was so erratic in her emotions? Why did she marry Sonny? Did the marriage ever have a chance? Why did she go back home so easily?
16. What role did the waitress play in the story, in the theme?
17. Why did Sonny go back to Ruth Popper? How badly had he treated her, and why did she relent?
18. What was the significance of the ending? What future did they have?
19. Was this film of too 'local' interest to be a great film, or did it reveal human nature well and give a well-observed picture of dying towns?
20. Sam as a symbol of this American past: his speech to the boys about Billy, his forgiveness of Sonny, speech about the fishing, love for Jacy's mother (and the explanation for her behaviour)? His death and the closing of the last picture show?
