Synopsis
High school seniors and best friends, Sonny and Duane, live in a dying Texas town. The handsome Duane is dating a local beauty, while Sonny is having an affair with the coach's wife. As graduation nears and both boys contemplate their futures, Duane eyes the army and Sonny takes over a local business. Each struggles to figure out if he can escape this dead-end town and build a better life somewhere else.
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Cast
- Timothy BottomsSonny Crawford
- Cybill ShepherdJacy Farrow
- Jeff BridgesDuane Jackson
- Cloris LeachmanRuth Popper
- Ellen BurstynLois Farrow
- Ben JohnsonSam the Lion
- Randy QuaidLester Marlow
- Clu GulagerAbilene
- Eileen BrennanGenevieve
- Sam BottomsBilly
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
Using period songs and decor to create nostalgia is familiar enough, but to tunnel down to the visual level and get that right, too, and in a way that will affect audiences even if they aren't aware how, is one hell of a directing accomplishment. - 100
The Guardian
Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 ode to a Texan small town is still a masterpiece whichever way you look at it. - 100
Slant Magazine
Delineates the quiet, desperate lives of the citizens of Anarene, Texas over the course of one year in the early 1950s. - 100
The Telegraph
Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman won Oscars, but the work of Eileen Brennan and Timothy Bottoms is even more cherishable. - 100
Time Out
The scene where Sam imparts his wisdom to young buck Bottoms may be the saddest, loveliest moment in 1970s American cinema. And that’s saying something. - 90
Variety
Notre Dame professor Edward Fischer has said that the best films, like the best books, tell how it is to be human under certain circumstances. Larry McMurtry did a beautiful job of this in his small novel (which he transferred to the screen), The Last Picture Show. - 88
Rolling Stone
It's a snapshot of a small Texas town in the 1950s that's ostensibly filled with bighearted, god-fearing real Americans. But this exceedingly sad film spits in the eye of such homespun niceties: This is an Eisenhower-era world riddled with directionless teens, bored housewives and disenfranchised citizens who can't escape the futility around them. - 80
Empire
Bogdanovichs perfect recreation of the sense of time and place, and his ability to mix wit with poignancy that make this such a charming, timeless film.