The Last Picture Show

Another of the movies I wastched over the weekend was The Last Picture Show.

Anarene, Texas, November 1951. It's a town about a half hour southwest of Wichita Falls, in the dusty oil-producing part of the state. Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) show up one Saturday morning at the pool hall and cafe run by Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson). They also have to deal with the insults from the locals, since last night they were playing on the high school's woeful football team. In fact, the town itself seems woeful, with there not being much but Sam's businesses, which also include the local movie theater.

Sonny has a girlfriend in Charlene, but she's offended that he didn't remember the anniversary of their going steady, and he's to the point where he's bored with her. Duane has a girlfriend in Jacy (Cybill Shepherd), a much more exciting young woman since her parents were among those who struck it rich in the oil boom. Jacy's mom Lucy (Ellen Burstyn) doesn't want Jacy going with Duane, if only because Mom thinks her daughter can snag a much wealthier husband.

Since there's basically nothing to do in town, Sonny isn't just on the football team but on the basketball team too. One day, Coach asks a favor of Sonny. Since Coach is way too busy with his work, and his wife Ruth (Cloris Leachman) has a doctor's appointment tomorrow, could Sonny drive her there? It's a half-day off school apparently and getting in good with Coach, so Sonny agrees. He finds something he doesn't expect, which is a lonely woman who isn't sick but who cries after leaving the doctor anyway, and wants affection from somebody. For her, Sonny would be as good as anybody.

Over the course of the year, the adolescents all grow up, more or less. Sonny starts an affair with Coach's wife; Jacy explores her sexuality too by going to a nude swim party and convincing Duane to try to have sex with her; Duane finally loses his virginity and tries to escape town. Jacy's wealthy boyfriend up in Wichita Falls gets married, so after Duane leaves to get a job in the oil fields, Jacy starts an affair with Sonny, who doesn't seem to care about Ruth any more.

Although there is a narrative to The Last Picture Show, I really found the movie to be more a snapshot of a particular place and time. I found it easy to identify with, if only because my hometown (Kingston, NY) has, although much bigger than the fictional Anarene (portrayed by Archer City, TX, population about 2,000), followed much the same trajectory ever since an IBM facility in town shut down for good in the mid-1990s. Anarene is even bleaker and more deathly, however, and the question of whether to resign onself to this life or how to escape looms over everybody.

I briefly alluded to the movie at the end of yesterday's post on I Vitelloni, but I think this one is much the better movie. The bleakness is better portrayed, the characters seem much more realistic, and really none of them are people you want to smack some sense into the way you do with the five men in I Vitelloni. The acting is also quite good. Leachman and Johnson both won Oscars, but pretty much everybody is good. I haven't mentioned Eileen Brennan as the proprietess of the cafe, or Clu Gulager as Abilene, the owner of the oil wells that made the Farrows well-to-do. The cinematography is also excellent.

I can strongly recommend The Last Picture Show.