No Country for Young Men.
Cinemas
EN
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich
The Last Picture Show
An acclaimed, grounded drama.
Drama
Romance
1971
1h 59m
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
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Cast & crew
6What people say
A million little heartbreaks. Every single performance is a masterwork. Was sort of thrilling to see so many of the tricks Bogdanovich would go on to use in Paper Moon. See how good Riverdale could’ve been if they just kept it in the 50s?Got a huuuuge crush on Eileen Brennan in this movie. Have had a longstanding crush on a woman that reminds me of Eileen Brennan in this movie. Might just text her “you kinda remind me of Eileen Brennan in The Last Picture Show.” She will not respond, as I do not think people like it when you tell them they look like most celebrities, especially when it’s as precise as “Eileen Brennan specifically in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show.” If you or someone you know looks like Eileen Brennan in The Last Picture Show, let me know! Would LOVE to project a personality onto you!
90/100A feel-bad movie for the ages, shot in shimmering b&w and populated by unlined young faces to make you swoon (plus careworn old faces to make you weep). Sonny's the nominal protagonist but the film bounces around Anarene at will, laying waste to any romanticized notion of small-town America...and yet it doesn't feel cynical, only brutally honest. Ellen Burstyn sets the tone as Jacy's mother, dispensing advice so hard-won and practical that it can only be ignored; Ben Johnson serves as nostalgic counterpoint, in the movie's only nod to outright sentiment. Bogdanovich, meanwhile, demonstrates a mastery of old-school composition—boots jutting from an open car window at foreground left as figures approach from background right—that seems to have been lost somewhere along the way. (Even gorgeously-shot movies no longer look like this.) Only quibbles are that McMurtry seems unduly hard (so to speak) on young women generally and Jacy in particular, though Shepherd's blank-faced guilelessness provides her with some dignity in repose, and that the death of the town's Symbol of Innocence feels like overkill. The titular closing was more than enough.
Common questions
What is The Last Picture Show about?+
Set in a decaying 1950s Texas town, the story follows two high school friends as they face the harsh realities of impending adulthood and the realization that their home offers no future.
Who directed The Last Picture Show?+
Peter Bogdanovich directed this 1971 film, which became a significant entry in the New Hollywood era and cemented his reputation as a prominent filmmaker.
Has The Last Picture Show won any awards?+
The film received eight Academy Award nominations and won two, for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
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