A town is old, dusty, and stagnant. It seems vacated but there are residents. And they are not a content people.
The cast include familiar faces. Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, and Cloris Leachman. Shepherd, Bridges, and Bottoms play highschool seniors and Leachman plays a middle-aged woman. The performances are challenging to convey. This is a coming-of-age drama and we watch people deal with curiosity, confusion, and hopelessness.
What is the movie’s point? It seems to say that adulthood is not worth looking forward to. An adult is a dull state. Consider the parents of Jacy (Cybill Shepherd) whose mother is a drinker while her husband eye’s are fixed to a television. Or the married Ruth who has an affair with a man old enough to be her son. It’s a town that reeks of discontent. Therefore it’s not inappropriate that the film is shot in black and white.
Meanwhile the teenagers explore their sexuality. This consists of one nude party and about three sex scenes. Not one is portrayed as an act of love. It’s either done to show off, to talk about with friends, or to prove how grown up they are. Just like many teenagers do. This shows an idle town atmosphere. There’s the local pool hall and the old theater. There are the rich and the middle class. But there are no important sporting events, fairs, or picnics. Just one dance party.
If the movie isn’t about growing up, then it’s about capturing a mood of a small town. There’s enough information on how well these residents known one another. For example, the pool hall owner (Ben Johnson) remembers long ago when he would swim in the pond with his girlfriend. But there’s a feeling that the lives of these people in Anarene (in Texas) are not heading for something to look forward to. In this sense, The Last Picture Show, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, conveys the message quite effectively.
A Motion Picture Site 