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The Last
Picture Show (1971)
In critic turned director Peter Bogdanovich's best
film about life and rites of passage in the small, dying Texas town
of Anarene in the early 1950s, with Robert Surtees' magnificent black-and-white
cinematography:
- the sex-capades of co-captains of the football team,
Texas high-school seniors Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) and Sonny
Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) as they pondered their uncertain futures
- Sonny's affair with the coach's wife Ruth Popper
(Oscar-winning Cloris Leachman), when the two hurriedly and self-consciously
undressed (without looking at each other) in separate areas of her
bedroom, and he lost his virginity when he awkwardly made unceremonious
love to the older woman - under the sheets
- the reading of a Keats poem by an English teacher
(John Hillerman) to his disinterested class of teens: ("When
old age shall this generation waste Thou shalt remain, in midst of
other woe Than ours, a friend to man To whom thou sayest, 'Beauty
is truth, Truth Beauty' That is all ye know on Earth And all ye need
to know")
- the scene of the private, teenaged midnight skinny-dipping
indoor pool party when neophyte Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd in her
film debut) was greeted by a stark naked Bobby Sheen (Gary Brockette)
and his nude girlfriend Annie-Annie Martin (Kimberly Hyde) who asked: "Wanna
join the club?" - Jacy was challenged to get undressed out on
the diving board as part of the initiation rites ("so everybody
gets to watch"); expectantly, the whole naked group of teenaged
boys and girls eagerly sat by the edge of the pool to watch "the
strip show" - she nervously and gingerly removed many articles
of clothing, almost fell off the diving board, and then with one
dramatic gesture, yanked off her bra top and flung it on top of her
pile of clothes; finally, she was cheered as she hopped into the
water - completely naked
The Skinny-Dipping Indoor Pool Party
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- the fishing scene at the old tank dam on an overcast
day, where old-timer, ex-cowboy Sam 'The Lion' (Oscar-winning Ben
Johnson), owner of the local pool hall, delivered a monologue to
Sonny about his recollection of the idyllic "old times" and
his one true love; he remembered a "crazy" youthful romance
with a girl who swam nude with him in the water: ("You wouldn't
believe how this country's changed. First time I seen it, there
wasn't a mesquite tree on it, or a prickly pear neither. I used
to own this land, you know. First time I watered a horse at this
tank was more than forty years ago. I reckon the reason why I always
drag you out here is probably I'm just as sentimental as the next
fella when it comes to old times. Old times. I brought a young
lady swimmin' out here once, more than 20 years ago. Was after
my wife had lost her mind and my boys was dead. Me and this young
lady was pretty wild, I guess. In pretty deep. We used to come
out here on horseback and go swimmin' without no bathing suits.
One day, she wanted to swim the horses across this tank. Kind of
a crazy thing to do, but we done it anyway. She bet me a silver
dollar she could beat me across. She did. This old horse I was
ridin' didn't want to take the water. But she was always lookin'
for somethin' to do like that. Somethin' wild. I'll bet she's still
got that silver dollar....Oh, she growed up. She was just a girl
then, really"); at the end of the monologue, he explained
why he didn't marry her: ("She was already married. Her and
her husband was young and miserable with one another like so many
young married folks are. I thought they'd change with some age,
but it didn't turn out that way"); he concluded that marriages
were often miserable and failed ("About eighty percent of
the time, I guess"); he also lamented the coming of old age
("If she was here, I'd probably be just as crazy now as I
was then in about five minutes. Ain't that ridiculous? Naw, it
ain't really. 'Cause bein' crazy 'bout a woman like her's always
the right thing to do. Bein' a decrepit old bag of bones - that's
what's ridiculous - gettin' old")
- the revelation of Sam's sudden death from a stroke
to the two stunned teens Duane and Sonny after they returned to town
following a trip to Mexico, and the cascade of misfortunes that followed
in the wake of his death (i.e., the closing of the local movie house
and the pool hall, the molestation of a little girl)
- the pre-arranged rendezvous and sexual encounter between
Duane and the town's ravishingly beautiful, calculating, fortune-hunting
Jacy at the Cactus Motel in the dying Texas town - she laid back
on the motel bed and half-closed her eyes as she encouraged him to
take her virginity: "Oh Duane, hurry"; but then asked annoyingly:
("Aren't you gonna do it?...What do you mean? How could anything
be wrong? Just go on and do it"); aggravated by the aborted
love-making when he was unable to perform, she ordered him to dress:
("You think I wanna sit around here and look at you nekkid?");
she instructed him to "not tell one soul - you just pretend
it was wonderful," and then threw her panties at his face; afterwards
she told her admiring girlfriend-classmates: "I just can't describe
it in words"
- the scene of Duane and Sonny attending the 'last picture
show' in town - Howard Hawks' western Red
River (1948) before Duane's deployment to fight in the Korean
War
- the senseless death of Sonny's mentally retarded brother
Billy (Sam Bottoms, Timothy's real-life brother) -- hit by a truck
-- and Sonny's anguished cry: ("He was sweepin', ya sons of
bitches. He was sweepin'!") - before covering Billy's body with
his letter jacket
- Ruth's tirade at Sonny for abandoning her when he
returned to her after Billy's death: ("I'm sorry, I'm still
in my bathrobe. What am I doing apologizing to you? Why am I always
apologizing to you, you little bastard?! Three months I've been apologizing
to you without you even bein' here! I haven't done anything wrong.
Why can't I quit apologizin'?! You're the one oughta be sorry! I
wouldn't still be in my bathrobe if it hadn't been for you. I'd have
had my clothes on hours ago. You're the one made me quit caring if
I got dressed or not! I think it's just because your friend got killed,
you want me to forget what you did and make it all right? I'm not
sorry for you. You'd have left Billy too, just like you left me.
I bet you left him plenty of nights whenever Jacy whistled. I wouldn't
treat a dog that way. I guess you thought I was so old and ugly,
you didn't owe me any explanation. You didn't need to be careful
of me. There wasn't anything I could do, so why should you be careful
of me? You didn't love me. Look at me. Can't you even look at me?
See? Shouldn't have come here. I'm around that corner now. You've
ruined it. It's lost completely. Just your needin' me won't make
it come back")
- in the final moments of the film, Ruth empathically
realized Sonny's pain: ("Never you mind, honey, never you mind...")
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(l to r): Sonny, Duane, and Jacy
Sonny's Affair with Ruth Popper
Sam's Eloquent Monologue
Reaction to Sam's Sudden Death
Jacy and Duane's Sexual Encounter in Motel Room
The Sequence of The Senseless Death of Sonny's Brother
Billy
Ruth's Tirade Against Sonny
Ruth to Sonny: "Never you mind, honey, never
you mind"
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