Directed by Peter Bogdanovich • 1971 • United States
Starring Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd
THE LAST PICTURE SHOW is one of the key films of the American cinema renaissance of the seventies. Set during the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a movie screen, this aching portrait of a dying West, adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, focuses on the daily shuffles of three futureless teens—the enigmatic Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), the wayward jock Duane (Jeff Bridges), and the desperate-to-be-adored rich girl Jacy (Cybil Shepherd)—and the aging lost souls who bump up against them in the night like drifting tumbleweeds, including Cloris Leachman’s lonely housewife and Ben Johnson’s grizzled movie-house proprietor. Featuring evocative black-and-white imagery and profoundly felt performances, this hushed depiction of crumbling American values remains the pivotal film in the career of the invaluable director and film historian Peter Bogdanovich.
Up Next in New Hollywood
-
Dog Day Afternoon
Directed by Sidney Lumet • 1975 • United States
Starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles DurningOn a sweltering August day, novice criminals Sonny (Al Pacino) and Sal (John Cazale) attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank in order to pay for Sonny’s lover’s gender confirmation surgery—a situation that qu...
-
Seconds
Directed by John Frankenheimer • 1966 • United States
Starring Rock Hudson, Salome Jens, John RandolphRock Hudson is a revelation in this sinister, science-fiction-inflected dispatch from the fractured 1960s. SECONDS, directed by John Frankenheimer, concerns a middle-aged banker who, dissatisfi...
-
MASH
Directed by Robert Altman • 1970 • United States
Starring Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom SkerrittRobert Altman’s distinctive genius first announced itself with this innovative, smash-hit black comedy in which a pair of irreverent surgeons (Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould) at a mobile...
