Rating: 
Summary: It was okay.
Review: 'The Last Picture Show' was an okay film. I got annoyed by the camera zooming in and then zooming away from the characters' faces. Well acted though.
Rating: 
Summary: The Last Picture Show
Review: A must for film nuts; for sheer entertainment it's only average. Bogdanovich was always best when he was looking back at other movie eras. Plus, he had the help of a great book and a uniquely american author. Stark as white linen, it had a few actors coming to end of their career and a whole heapin' passel full of actors just starting. Cloris Leachman is particularly good. And just try to convince me that George Lucas didn't rip this off in "American Grafitti"...I'll bet he confesses on his deathbed.
Rating: 
Summary: Unique
Review: A Unique film experience. I suppose Bogdanovich mirrors his pal Orson Welles by making his masterpiece early in his career.An astounding film that comes with a total cast effort and depicts the early 50,s as no other film has done. " Strike It Rich" on TV. " Red River" and "Father of the Bride" at the picture show..all deliver a meloncholy look back at life in "that" Texas town. Cinematography is perfect and sets the mood. Cloris Leachman, during certain scenes in the film is shot in such an unflattering bleak light that it underscores her moods.( profoundly) The finale neads few words and the fade out needs no words at all. Perfection.
Rating:
Summary: "It's an awful small town for any kind of carryin' on"
Review: Adults Only! Includes male frontal nudity and female nudity. Sexual situations.
Here is a good late night film to watch with a small town atmosphere. It is like Peyton Place in the small town of Archer City, Texas. "Why Don't You Love Me Like You Use To Do" by Hank Williams plays on the radio.
The yong boy, Billy (Sam Bottoms) likes to sweep. Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) and Duane (Jeff Bridges) are best friends. Sonny tries to neck with Charlene (Sharon Ullrick). Genevieve (Eileen Brennan) has been a waitress at the downtown Texas Moon cafe for years. Jacy (Cybill Shepherd) is a nosy, presumptuous teenager who has an interest in Duane. Jacy's mother, Lois (Ellen Burstyn) tries to talk some sense into her daughter, Jacy tries to act all innocent to her mother, but she likes to cause trouble amoung the boys. She also has an interest in Lester (Randy Quaid).
Sam (Ben Johnson) owns the pool hall. he is known as "Sam the Lion". This mature man sets the record straight with the boys that he does not want them in his pool hall no more and wants nothing to do woth them anymore on account that they wrongfully took down young Billy's pants to make him lose his virginity to a trashy fat woman, Jimmie Sue (Helena Humann). Sam also tells them to stay out of his cafe and movie house too which he owns. Sam is right. The boys did wrong.
Ruth (Cloris Leachman) is a lonely housewife, deeply depressed. her husband (Bill Thorman) just doesn't have anytime for her.
There's alot more secrets in this town you're about to find out about.
This Special Edition is Director's Peter Bogdanovich's definitive edit, adding 7 minutes of never-before-scene footage in the film.
Also in the cast: Clu Gulager, Barc Doyle, Loyd catlett, John Hillerman, Noble Willingham, Jessie lee Fulton, Gordon Hurst, Joe Heathcock and filmmaker Frank Mitchell plays a football player. Loyd Catlett actually lived in Archer, Texas and was given a role in the film since he was a hometown boy.
Filmed in the small town of Archer City, Texas.
Ellen Burstyn relates a story that a man was thinking of committing suicide one day, but he went to see "The Last Picture Show" and after seeing her performance, he changed his mind about suicide. He realized if her life was bad, then his life isn't that bad after all.
Academy Award Nominations: Best Picture, Jeff Bridges for Supporting Actor, Ellen Burstyn for Supporting Actress, Peter Bogdanovich for Best Director, Best Writing, Best Cinematography.
Ben Johnson won Supporting Actor Award and Cloris Leachman won the Supporting Actress Award.
10 original cast members returned for the sequel: Texasville (1990).
DVD includes in "Special Features", Documentary--"The Last Picture Show: A Look Back" (64 min.), 1974 re-release featurette. Theatrical trailers.
Note: Sal Mineo gave Peter Bogdanovich the Larry McMurtry book "The Last Picture Show". Sal thought it would be a good movie, but felt he was too old for a young role. (Gee Whiz, they could have written a role for Sal Mineo, couldn't they have?)
Rating:
Summary: A book to movie done right
Review: After reviewing a crushingly disappointing screen adaptation of a book with "The Lords of Discipline", I thought I'd perk up my mood with one of the best adaptations ever done. It still amazes me how a black-and-white film can portray something that seems so incredibly real. I'm completely convinced that the 1950's actually happened in black-and-white. This film scores magnificently in just about every way you can think. First, the source book by Larry McMurtry was fabulous by depicting a desolate form of small-town life that somehow made you want to experience it. While McMurtry in later years wisely went the mini-series route for many of his stories, here they did a great job with the screenplay to leave the essence of the story in. While directory Bogdonovich would make his share of klunkers in later years, it was obvious in this one that a lot of care went into the movie. Maybe he was given more time because he was a young director, but the time was well-spent. Once again, he took very ordinary occurrances, and made them breathe. Finally, the casting was magnificent. Except maybe for Jeff Bridges, did any of the actors make an impression in the film world anywhere near as big as this picture afterwards? Can't really think of anything, and we're talking thirty years down the line. Sometimes you just catch lightening in a bottle. This was one of those times.
Rating:
Summary: Last Picture Show
Review: An amazing movie. Frankly, I agree with the glowing reviews of the film and I have nothing to add to them. However, concerning the quality of the restoration to DVD I must say that it appears that the widescreen formatting was done incorrectly. If you compare the image of the film's opening with that in the documentary(disregarding the full frame), you will notice that the area below the steps of the moviehouse, in the documentary, reveals the begining of the street. In the film itself, this has been cut off. You can also compare the image of Cybill Shepherd on the back of the DVD cover that shows her feet as she steps out of her car. In the film, this is also cut off.
Rating:
Summary: Very, very GOOD movie
Review: Beautiful on all levels,..story, method of filming, etc. Be sure to read the book, so much gets left out of the movie, like always...
Rating: 
Summary: Much overrated
Review: Ben Johnson earns one of the stars here given; Polly Platt, the de facto co-director, earns the other. Platt, Boggy's girl until he dumped her for the mindless Sheperd, was responsible for what [little] merit looney Peter's films ever had. One can look at the film and pick out the Ford-homage (i.e., ripoff), the Hawks-homage and the Welles-homage (even to a scene cut from "The Magnificent Ambersons"!).
This is filmmaking by the film-nerd numbers. The acting by all concerned save Johnson is deficient in one way or another.
Bottoms is a cypher.
Sheperd an incompetent in the 'Tippi' Hedren mold.
Burstyn and Brennan combine in highly unlikely spasm of omniscience.
Gulager is all goggle-eyed wardrobe creepiness.
Bridges a one-note brute.
Quaid a goofball.
Leachman the benificary of an over-wrought desperate Oscar-begging scene. Upon first viewing, one can see why the film garnered attention.
However, decades and multiple viewings later, this stunt-film collapses, its Ford/Hawks/Welles bag of tricks emptied and exposed as the derivative hodgepodge it is.
Rating:
Summary: A GREAT MOVIE
Review: Bogdanovich did his homework on this excellently directed movie about the decline of 'western' civilization. He ably directs the camera and his choice to shoot in Black & White demonstrate his ability to understand this medium's ability for longevity in the mind's eye. While it is true Bogdanovich regards Ford/Hawks/Welles as the best of all American directors, one should not be disappointed that he takes some of his visual cues from their canon (They ARE, after all, the BEST). ALL ART IS DERIVATIVE; to believe otherwise is quite simply childish & sophomoric thinking. This contemplative film stands the test of time, unlike the latest trend toward flashy editing techniques and computer generated graphics.
Rating:
Summary: A 70's gem
Review: Bogdanovich's 'Last Picture Show' is a nostalgic but achingly melancholy film about change and loss. Set in small town Texas in the 50's it charts the lives and loves of a group of young friends as they face the harsh realities of the world. Superbly acted and directed with a sensitivity and restraint that makes you wonder what happened to Bogdanovich (who really only made two great films; this and 'Targets') this sums up all that made 70's American cinema great
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