The Last Picture Show - 1971

This story is in a small Texas town during the 50's. The town is drying up and blowing away (and their high school football team sucks). The film focuses on two young boys (one of them is Jeff Bridges) who are trying to figure out what to do with their lives.
Bridges is involved with Cybil Shepard (her first movie) and plans to get married to her one day. She expects that too, until her Mom undermines that desire by telling her that she should sleep with him a couple of times and get it out of their system. She does and it does.
Actually there is a lot of sleeping around in this movie. Affairs and heartbreak dominate. Having grown up in a small town I can tell you that that really is the best way to spend your time. The hidden message is not to get involved with Cybil Shepard though. Boy is she trouble.
It's an arty movie. It has a few nice moments but I really didn't become attached to any of the characters. It also has the realistic Texas touch that can only come from a director who was a European immigrant who grew up in New York City. Not bad, but not really that good either.

Comments

Ken Moffett said…
Interesting story about that movie for Barb and I. We saw it when it first came out, liked it...and recommended it to another couple (from Texas), that we were staying with. We forgot about all the "adult themes" in it...after we left the theater. They took their two young, teenage daughters with them to see it. Yikes! Did we hear about that!
1:47 PM
Peder said…
Yeah, I maybe should have mentioned the Cybil Sheppard strip scene. Adults only.
8:13 PM
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