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The Last Picture Show | Actors/Actresses: - Ellen Burstyn - Jeff Bridges The Show Isn't Over Yet The Last Picture Show is one of the best films that I have ever seen. When it first premired in 1971, it garnered both praise and critism, mainly because of the sexual content in it's stories. But don't stress about that, it's really nothing bad at all, especially for today's standards(nothing close to Monster's Ball), remember The Graduate caused an explosion too in 1967. A plotless mood piece, but very well done To call a movie plotless sounds negative, but in the case of The Last Picture Show, there's so very little plot that it's barely worth speaking about. The film revolves around a number of characters, most notably two high school seniors. Duane is dating the "only beautiful girl in town" and Sonny is carrying on an affair with a married woman. Several other characters move in and out of view, notably the beauty's mother and the owner of the pool hall. The film carefully develops its dozen or so main characters and simply watches them as they move about the bleak-looking desert town. Further adding to the immersion is the fact that the soundtrack consists solely of early-50's country music heard through tinny radios in the background. This film was quite controversial at the time of its release for its frank (and unglamorised) depictions of sex. Jacy sums up the attitude of sex for the teens when she tells her mother "I would never do that, it's a sin before marriage," but later tells a college boy "I'm a virgin, but I don't want to be." In a small town with little to do, sex is just a form of entertainment, while 1951 morals required that it be hidden from view. This is a film that cares about its characters and allows them to inhabit the setting. The dialogue and events occur naturally, and at the end of the film, the only things that have really happened are Jacy losing her virginity, a funeral, and the high school football team gets some better linebackers. But because you care about the characters (and the performances are universally fantastic), you care about these events that are objectively small, but which are important to the characters. This DVD is not of high quality. This may be deliberate - the film is supposed to have a hard-edged, bleak feel that might not be as effective if the film had been cleaned up for the DVD. There is an hour-long reminiscence on the making of the film, which is interesting to watch once. Director Bogdanovich gets the lion's share of time, but many cast members have their say as well. Overall, it's a decent DVD, but the VHS will contain the important part, which is the film itself, and likely of the same quality. plaudits for cinematography This flick is overrated. But you've got to give the filmmakers credit for going with black- and- white, for shooting it in Texas (where the story takes place) and for not trying to squeeze in too many characters into the "plot." Hud, also shot in Texas, was a better film than this. It seems to me, a good rule of thumb to doing pictures in Texas is to go with black-and-white photography. Don't know why, could be the automatic, built-in authenticity factor one gets with B Buy The Last Picture Show at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on The Last Picture Show Search with the Priority Search Engine on The Last Picture Show This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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