ANARENE, TEXAS, 1951. NOTHING MUCH HAS CHANGED…
The most famous film Peter Bogdanovich ever made didn’t come from a complete beginner. In the 1960s, he had worked as a film programmer for the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and critic for Esquire. After deciding to become a director, he went to work for Roger Corman, releasing both Targets and Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women in 1968. Bogdanovich had struck up relationships with other Hollywood profiles, like Sal Mineo and Orson Welles. It was the former who gave him a copy of Larry McMurtry’s novel “The Last Picture Show”, and it was the latter who told Bogdanovich that he should do the movie in black-and-white.
With friends and a background like that, and obviously a lot of talent to boot, no wonder that the film adaptation of McMurtry’s novel was hailed as “Wellesian” in the best sense of the term.
Welcome to Anarene, Texas
The year is 1951 and the place a small town in Texas called Anarene. The town itself doesn’t have much going for it, but we’re introduced to what might be its future, a bunch of high-school students. Sonny Crawford and Duane Jackson (Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges) are seniors playing for the unsuccessful football team. The latter is dating Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd), the prettiest girl in school, who’s restless and eager to lose her virginity and be considered an adult. Meantime, circumstances throw Sonny into a unexpected affair with Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman), the frustrated 40-year-old wife of the high-school coach…
Veterans and newcomers
The film has an unusually memorable cast of characters, played by several actors who went on to have successful careers. There were veterans as well. Ben Johnson was allegedly talked into playing Sam the Lion, the paternal owner of the local movie theater, pool hall and diner, who makes sure that the boys don’t misbehave too much. Shepherd and Leachman are excellent in their roles, and so is Ellen Burstyn as Jacy’s bitter, hard-drinking mother. Bottoms’s younger brother Sam ended up playing Billy, the intellectually handicapped boy whom the other kids humiliate and ultimately becomes a symbolic victim of the town’s narrow-minded culture.
The characters move us and we’re quickly drawn into their lives and challenges, recognizing teenage angst and small-town regrets. Rich 1950s nostalgia is on display, accompanied by Hank Williams songs on the radio (there’s no other music score) and a portrait of sexually curious kids at a time when teenagers started influencing cultural trends. But this isn’t a pretty fantasy about white picket-fence neighbors, but rather a sad film about the decline of a way of life. The mood is set already in the first shot, as Robert Surtees’s camera slowly pans over the desolate town and a wind stirs up dust.
Everything that happens in the town, such as the screening of movies at Sam’s theater, depends on the energy of few individuals; if they lose interest or disappear for some other reason, there’s no one to replace them. This feeling of decay seeps into everything, including the people who live in Anarene, and it is especially toxic for younger generations who grow up with a burning desire to get the hell out of there and start their lives.
Still, Bogdanovich and McMurtry follow their characters with a lot of love, compassion and a sense of humor; it feels real, never boring. Surtees’s lovely cinematography goes hand in hand with that vision of a past about to fall victim to a more modern way of life. The search for something better, a longing for freedom, as it is shown here goes straight into one’s heart.
The Last Picture Show 1971-U.S. 118 min. B/W. Produced by Stephen J. Friedman. Directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Screenplay: Larry McMurtry, Peter Bogdanovich. Novel: Larry McMurtry. Cinematography: Robert Surtees. Cast: Timothy Bottoms (Sonny Crawford), Jeff Bridges (Duane Jackson), Ben Johnson (Sam the Lion), Cloris Leachman (Ruth Popper), Ellen Burstyn, Cybill Shepherd… Eileen Brennan, Randy Quaid.
Trivia: Shepherd’s first film. Followed by Texasville (1990); the same year Bogdanovich also released a seven-minute longer version of this film.
Oscars: Best Supporting Actor (Johnson), Supporting Actress (Leachman). Golden Globe: Best Supporting Actor (Johnson). BAFTA: Best Supporting Actor (Johnson), Supporting Actress (Leachman), Screenplay.
Last word: “We had to use black and white. Color made the town look too… pretty, I guess. And one of the things in the back of my mind was the hope that maybe we could help break that silly taboo against black and white. A lot of pictures shouldn’t be shot in color. John Schlesinger wanted to shoot ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday’ in black and white, but they wouldn’t let him. Orson Welles told me once that all the great performances have been in black and white. That is almost literally the truth. There’s something mysterious and enriching about black and white. Color is too realistic.” (Bogdanovich, interview with Roger Ebert)
