The Last Picture Show (1971) – High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating local beauty, Jacy, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach’s wife, Ruth. As graduation nears, both boys contemplate their futures. While Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business, each boy struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
Director: Peter Bogdanovich (What’s Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Saint Jack)
Writer: Larry McMurtry (Texasville, Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove)
Release Date: October 22, 1971
Domestic Box Office: $11.5 million
Top 5 Cast:
- Timothy Bottoms (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Paper Chase)
Jeff Bridges (The Fabulous Baker Boys, Tron, Crazy Heart)
Cybill Shepherd (The Heartbreak Kid, Taxi Driver, Kramer vs. Kramer)
Ben Johnson (The Searchers, Rio Bravo, The Wild Bunch)
Cloris Leachman (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Young Frankenstein, The Muppet Movie)
Critical Reviews:
- Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times): “The Last Picture Show is a beautiful film, a beautifully acted film, and a beautifully written film. It is also a very sad film, but it is a sad film that is full of life.”
- Vincent Canby (The New York Times): “The Last Picture Show is a film of great beauty and power, and it is a film that will stay with you long after you have seen it.”
- Pauline Kael (The New Yorker): “The Last Picture Show is a film of great emotional force, and it is a film that is both funny and moving.”
- John Simon (The New York magazine): “The Last Picture Show is a film of great technical accomplishment, and it is a film that is full of memorable performances.”
- Gene Siskel (Chicago Tribune): “The Last Picture Show is a film that is both funny and sad, and it is a film that will stay with you long after you have seen it.”
Cinematic Importance: The Last Picture Show (1971) is considered to be one of the most important films of the 1970s. It was praised for its realistic depiction of small-town life, its sensitive portrayal of adolescence, and its beautiful cinematography. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won two awards: Best Supporting Actress for Cloris Leachman and Best Cinematography for Robert Surtees. The Last Picture Show is a classic film that continues to be studied and enjoyed by film lovers today.
This is part of the Top 25 Movies 1970 to Today Series.
Read How Movies Changed in the 1970s to understand why we made this list.
To see a full list of the movies, click here.