--- title: "The Last Picture Show" year: 1971 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-last-picture-show" fi1m_score: 89 critics_score: 83 critics_reviews: 13 published: "2026-09-16T10:16:58.130323+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T10:16:58.697834+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Last Picture Show (1971) Directed by Peter Bogdanovich · 1h 59m · MPA R · Drama, Romance **Fi1m score: 89** · Critics 83 from 13 reviews *In a sentence:* The teenagers want sex; the adults would settle for someone being kind afterwards > Peter Bogdanovich’s small-town drama is patient, frank about sex and unusually kind to people behaving badly. One central character is underwritten, but the performances make Anarene’s disappointments hurt. We recommend it warmly. ## Synopsis In Anarene, Texas, in 1951, Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) is approaching adulthood with little sense of what his town can offer him. Fellow high-school students Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) and Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd) have their own hopes and sexual frustrations. The local cinema offers a distraction from a town in decline, while romance offers Sonny the prospect of affection. Around the teenagers are Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson), Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman) and Lois Farrow (Ellen Burstyn), whose adult lives provide few reassuring examples. The young people’s search for intimacy takes place among neighbours still struggling with their own desires. ## Review Peter Bogdanovich takes the sexual restlessness of the young people in *The Last Picture Show* seriously, including their capacity to hurt one another. In Anarene, Texas, in 1951, the adults offer little reassurance that growing older will make life easier. Larry McMurtry adapts his novel with Peter Bogdanovich, and their screenplay is warm, sad and perceptive about people who want affection and mishandle it. It is a fine film, though one of the young leads deserved fuller treatment. Timothy Bottoms makes Sonny Crawford’s uncertainty worth attending to, without turning him into the young man who understands everything. Jeff Bridges gives Duane Jackson more outward confidence, which helps keep the boys from merging into a general picture of restless youth. Their performances allow foolishness and vulnerability to occupy the same person. The screenplay is candid about sexual appetite, but it also understands the shame of wanting attention from someone who has other things to think about. Cloris Leachman, as Ruth Popper, gives that shame an adult face, and we found her longing painful to watch. The embarrassment in her performance makes even the hope of affection seem difficult to admit. Ben Johnson’s Sam the Lion has a quieter authority, but Ben Johnson never lets apparent steadiness make him seem beyond disappointment. Ellen Burstyn’s Lois Farrow helps prevent the older generation becoming a row of warnings for the young; there is appetite here too, and an impatience that age has not cured. Robert Surtees’s black-and-white cinematography makes the shabby town seem thoroughly familiar to its inhabitants. There is little invitation to admire the period and forget the people living through it. Polly Platt, credited with both production design and costume design, supports that sense of ordinary use: the surroundings and clothes belong to the same unpromising daily life. The restraint works, although the pictures can occasionally look too carefully composed for people whose lives are this untidy. We notice the film’s beauty at moments when we would rather stay with a face. The editing by Donn Cambern and Peter Bogdanovich gives the interlocking stories room to develop without pushing every exchange towards a dramatic announcement. That leisurely pace lets us consider one person’s foolish decision before the next person’s trouble demands attention. The period songs are equally well judged, supplying words for feelings these characters would struggle to put into a sentence. The music helps us understand them without asking the actors to tell us how much they hurt. Our reservation is Jacy Farrow. Cybill Shepherd is convincing as someone whose desires do not have to be sensible to feel urgent, but the screenplay gives her less inward life than it gives Sonny or Ruth. That imbalance matters in a film so alert to the pain of being wanted for the wrong reasons. Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich are generous writers elsewhere, and Jacy needed more of the attention they give to the people troubled by her. As a coming-of-age drama, the film is unusually willing to let adulthood look unfinished. The older characters have experience, but experience has not made them reliable guides to happiness. That is why its small-town sadness stays with us without requiring us to believe that life was better in 1951. Save it for an evening when nobody needs the people on screen to cheer up. *Fi1m score 89, published 16 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are uniformly positive about The Last Picture Show, with praise centred on its ensemble, its understanding of small-town life and its treatment of desire and disappointment. Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman draw particular admiration, while most critics value the black-and-white photography for making the Texas setting feel lived in rather than merely recreated. Several also praise Bogdanovich’s combination of classical Hollywood style and sexual frankness, finding warmth and wit amid the melancholy. The differences concern the degree of enthusiasm rather than any fundamental rejection of the film. Variety admires the performances but finds the black-and-white cinematography only partly successful, departing from one of the clearest points of agreement elsewhere. Empire finds the accumulation of tragedy slightly excessive, though this does little to diminish its appreciation. The spread runs from measured approval to wholehearted admiration, with the reservations remaining specific and limited. ### Reviews we read (13) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (4/4): The film captures the closing of a small-town movie theater as a motif for the fading American movie-going habit and community in early 1950s Texas. Bogdanovich succeeds in evoking not just the period decor but the visual style of a 1951 film itself. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-last-picture-show-1971) - **Time Out**, Tom Huddleston (5/5): The critic calls the film a masterpiece for its emotional intensity, insight into how people become who they are, and memorable characters, singling out Ben Johnson's performance as the most iconic. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-last-picture-show-1) - **Slant Magazine**, Budd Wilkins (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Bogdanovich’s affecting look at small-town Americana as a Janus-headed product of the New Hollywood that pours sexual frankness into classic Hollywood visual grammar. The film’s tragicomic melancholy, period song score, and performances, especially in scenes of desire and loss, are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-last-picture-show-4k-uhd-blu-ray-review-peter-bogdanovich/) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (90/100, inferred): Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 film is a masterpiece and unmissable re-release in its director's cut. It is praised for its eroticism and sexual tension in a small Texas town, with the nude swimming-party scene singled out as inspired. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/apr/14/the-last-picture-show-review) - **Sight and Sound**, Tom Milne (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's visual reflection of its themes of lost illusions and the way its circular structure suggests history repeating itself, while noting that Bogdanovich handles actors skillfully despite questionable self-advocacy for the work. [Read](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/reviews/releases/last-picture-show.php) - **The AV Club**, Keith Phipps (80/100, inferred): The piece highlights how the film conveys dramatic life changes in a short time through Duane’s arc and the ensemble, noting its striking black-and-white photography and enduring power as a collection of early star turns. Bogdanovich’s adaptation is called still-striking for its depiction of loss and decline in a dying town. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/young-jeff-bridges-the-last-picture-show-bad-company-1798223843) - **Empire**, Kim Newman (70/100, inferred): The critic praises Bogdanovich's recreation of time and place in this black-and-white drama of small-town Texas life, mixing wit and poignancy in a John Ford-style Western about a fading era. A single excess tragedy in the final act is noted but does not detract from the film's charm and timeless quality. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/last-picture-show-review/) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (70/100, inferred): Bogdanovich's fine second film adapts Larry McMurtry's novel into a leisurely, horizontal portrait of life in a shabby Texas town, with interlocking stories of love and loss that illuminate a segment of American experience. It is beautifully photographed in black-and-white and features strong ensemble performances. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1971/10/04/archives/screen-life-in-a-shabby-texas-town-on-the-plains.html) - **Variety** (70/100, inferred): The adaptation of Larry McMurtry's novel tells how it is to be human under certain circumstances in a small Texas town. Strong performances by Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman stand out, though the black-and-white cinematography does not fully succeed. [Read](https://variety.com/1970/film/reviews/the-last-picture-show-2-1200422383/) - **Collider**, Mike Shutt (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as the most honest depiction of high school experiences, particularly its nuanced exploration of teenage sexuality and small-town dynamics. They single out its black-and-white photography and timeless themes for making the 1950s setting feel relevant today. [Read](https://collider.com/best-high-school-movie-last-picture-show/) - **Eye for Film**, Robert Munro (90/100, inferred): The film is an unfaltering masterpiece that blends classic Hollywood style with New Hollywood angst in its portrayal of small-town Texas youth facing unfulfilling lives. The critic singles out the striking black-and-white cinematography, powerful performances, and the film's inherent humanism for particular praise. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/the-last-picture-show-film-review-by-robert-munro) - **The Ringer** (80/100, inferred): The piece highlights the film's sophisticated bittersweet take on small-town life and generational shifts compared to more nostalgic contemporaries. They single out the exceptional cast, including Oscar winners Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman, and its moving final gesture. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2022/01/07/movies/peter-bogdanovich-obituary-director-resume) - **Paste**, Aurora Amidon (70/100, inferred): The critic examines the film's portrayal of fading traditional masculinity through characters like Sam the Lion and the young protagonists. They single out the black-and-white cinematography and the small-town Texas setting for evoking a sense of obsolescence and melancholy. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/peter-bogdanovich/the-last-picture-show-masculinity) ## Details - **Director:** Peter Bogdanovich - **Director:** Peter Bogdanovich - **Screenplay:** Larry McMurtry, Peter Bogdanovich - **Novel:** Larry McMurtry - **Cinematography:** Robert Surtees - **Editor:** Peter Bogdanovich, Donn Cambern - **Production design:** Polly Platt - **Costume design:** Polly Platt - **Producer:** Stephen J. Friedman, Bob Rafelson - **Cast:** Timothy Bottoms as Sonny Crawford; Cybill Shepherd as Jacy Farrow; Jeff Bridges as Duane Jackson; Cloris Leachman as Ruth Popper; Ellen Burstyn as Lois Farrow; Ben Johnson as Sam the Lion; Randy Quaid as Lester Marlow; Clu Gulager as Abilene - **Runtime:** 1h 59m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 22 October 1971 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance - **Budget:** $1 million - **Box office:** $29 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NufO2KXHbKQ ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $12.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NZ, PH, PL, PT, RS, SE, TR, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - BAFTA Film Awards 1973: Best Direction (nominated); Best Film (nominated); Best Actor in a Supporting Role (won); Best Actress in a Supporting Role (won) - Academy Awards 1972: Best Cinematography (nominated); Best Director (nominated); Best Picture (nominated); Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated); Best Supporting Actor (won); Best Supporting Actress (won) - Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film 1971: Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing – Feature Film (nominated) - Golden Globes 1971: Best Director (nominated); Best Motion Picture – Drama (nominated); Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture (nominated); New Star of the Year – Actress (nominated); Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture (won) - National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress 1971: National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actress (won) ## If you liked this - *American Graffiti* (1973), Fi1m 84: Another small-town youth ensemble, with warmer nostalgia and an equally uncertain future. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/american-graffiti.md) - *A Brighter Summer Day* (1991): Teenage desire and adult disappointment become more dangerous amid political unease. - *Distant Voices, Still Lives* (1988), Fi1m 90: Family hurt and shared songs, observed with a similar patience towards troubled adults. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/distant-voices-still-lives.md) - *The Spirit of the Beehive* (1973), Fi1m 87: Cinema offers another isolated community a way to imagine something beyond itself. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-spirit-of-the-beehive.md) - *Linda Linda Linda* (2005): Teenage friendship gets a gentler treatment, with music doing the difficult talking. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-last-picture-show