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THE LAST PICTURE SHOW
Directed by Peter Bogdanovich; with Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybil Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan, Clu Gulager, Sam Bottoms, and Randy Quaid.
1971
  efinitely a contender for all-time best Texas film, The Last Picture Show captures a time -- the fifties -- and a locale -- small-town Texas -- so well that it has become legendary. The opening scene, where a solemn Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson) makes a futile attempt to sweep his pool hall just as a fierce wind kicks up the dust in the streets and under his broom, becomes a metaphor for the entire film. High school pals and football teammates Duane Jackson (Bridges) and Sonny Crawford (Bottoms) grow up, get girls (Cybil Sheperd in her first feature performance, and Cloris Leachman who is exquisite in her role as the wife of the basketball coach), get married, go to war, and return to the sameness of home; lives intertwined under a hopeless Texas sky. The film also expresses a true and simple understanding of state culture: high school football, dance halls, and movie theaters, all framed in dazzlingly stylized black and white cinematography.
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