The Last Picture Show

Dir: Peter Bogdanovich, 1971, bw (9.2*)

AFI Top 100

Coming of age tale of Timothy Bottoms in Larry McMurtry’s sequel to Horseman, Pass By (filmed as Hud), taking place in the town of Anarene, Texas in the 50’s. Best friend Jeff Bridges has the town’s prettiest girl, Cybil Shepherd, as his steady, to the chagrin of her mother Ellen Burstyn. Timothy's brother Sam Bottoms plays his little brother, an autistic kid who works for pool hall owner Ben Johnson, known as 'Sam the Lion', once a local ladies man, now the wise town elder. He and Cloris Leachman, as a high school coach's unloved wife to befriends Timothy, both won supporting Oscars. Larry McMurtry (Terms of Endearment, Lonesome Dove) at his best, perhaps America’s best living novelist, finally won an Oscar for adapting Brokeback Mountain from another author’s short story; now, that is irony. The title refers to the town’s only movie theater, which, like the town, seems to be dying a agonizing, slow death. 8 nominations, 2 Oscars