Peter Bogdanovich had a nice run of movies in the early seventies with Paper Moon, What’s up, Doc? and this movie, The Last Picture Show.  Since then it’s sort of hard to read what happened to him.  He directed some bombs, some TV episodes and has acted a bit.  I would assume that now people know him best as Dr. Melfi’s shrink on The Soprano’s.  None the less, he made a classic with The Last Picture Show.  It was nominated for everything, including Best Picture.  It won both supporting actor awards and gave Jeff Bridges his breakout role.

The movie takes place in the early 1950’s in a small, sleepy Texas town.  It’s mostly about three graduating seniors and what they are going to do with their lives; move on to bigger and better things or die a slow death much like the tiny town they inhabit.  This is a character driven film.  The pace is slow and it’s about people not plot.  I can see some people being bored with it.  I do really appreciate this movie, but will only recommend it to those that like slow moving, slightly depressing, black and white movies with really good performances.  

If you want to see a lighter, but almost as good movie from Bogdanovich, check out Paper Moon. It’s a con artist comedy/ drama set during the depression. Tatum O’Neal won a best supporting actress Oscar in this movie at the age of 9. Then she married John McEnroe, divorced him and became a smack head.