"The Last Picture Show' 53 years later

 

timothy bottoms and cloris leachman in "The Last Picture Show"

Timothy Bottoms and Cloris Leachman

Ican’t remember when I first read Larry McMurtry’s novel “The Last Picture Show” – early ’70s probably – but it was years before I got around to seeing the movie. And when I did see it for the first time, it was probably on a 27-inch TV hooked up to a VHS player. 

So it was good to watch it again last night, this time streamed via Netflix on our medium-large TV.  Maybe it was the bigger screen and higher resolution, or maybe it was all the years that have passed since then, but the film struck a haunting minor chord in a way it hadn’t before. 

“The Last Picture Show” was billed as a coming-of-age story. Maybe it is. But to me the two young protagonists, Duane (Jeff Bridges) and Sonny (Timothy Bottoms) now come across as the story’s least compelling characters. Same with the young Cybill Shepherd as Jacy. They’re all adequate, but playing callow teens couldn’t have been much of a stretch. Bottoms, in particular, seems pretty wooden in those crucial final scenes. 

Cloris Leachman’s character is the true center of the film. There are the boys, with their whole lives in front of them, and there’s Sam the Lion, with his whole life behind. Then there’s Ruth Popper, facing middle age and lost in that no man’s land between what might have been and what, she thinks, still can be. 

Leachman earned an Oscar for best supporting actress, edging out Ellen Burstyn. It was one of those rare times when the Academy got it exactly right. 

I wasn’t much older than Sonny and Duane when I first read the book. I am now about the same age as Sam the Lion was supposed to be (although Ben Johnson was only 53 at the time). Funny how a bunch of decades can change the way you see things.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen “The Last Picture Show,” or even if you have, it’s definitely worth a look. Dave Bob says check it out. Probably wouldn’t hurt to reread the book, too.

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