539. The Last Picture Show (1971)

Running Time: 118 minutes
Directed By: Peter Bogdanovich
Written By: Peter Bogdanovich, James Lee Barrett, from novel by Larry McMurtry
Main Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn
Click here to view the trailer

NOTES: Couple things...

Sorry for the delay in reviews. I actually found myself in the emergency room on Sunday night, after having a bit of an episode. It turns out I was on unneeded blood pressure medicine and my pressure was running way too low, causing me to get little blackouts and bouts of dizziness. I wanted to be down to having only forty films left before August ended, but I didn't make it. Oh well, I'll just have to make up a couple in September, so that we can get done by Halloween.

In other news, I contacted Barron's about getting a review copy of the newest 1001 edition, due out next month. I received a reply saying that they already had me on the list and to expect THE NEW BOOK to be delivered sometime in mid-October. I did happen to see the cover, which isn't just one film this time, but a bunch of movie posters and noticed that "Birdman" and "Boyhood" are two of the films that made the new edition. I'll, as usual, be reviewing the new edition and looking at the ins and outs.

Now then...

END OF AN ERA

I ended up having to order this one through my OnDemand service, as Netflix had it listed as a "very long wait" and I'm trying to make sure I get all of my loose ends tied up before it comes down to nut cuttin' time. I'd only seen The Last Picture Show one other time, many years ago, as I used to consider Jeff Bridges to be my favorite actor and there was a period where I was scarfing up all of his movies I could get my hands on.

When considering the plot of The Last Picture Show, think a more serious version of American Graffiti, that takes place over a more extensive time period. While Graffiti takes place over one night, The Last Picture Show takes place over the course of a couple of years and happens to use country music as it's soundtrack, as opposed to rock 'n' roll. Timothy Bottoms can be considered the star of the picture, playing Sonny Crawfoed, who, when the film begins, is nearing his high school graduation, a member of his school's football team. He has a girlfriend who refuses to put out and when his coach asks him to take his "old lady" to an afternoon doctor's appointment, in exchange for the coach getting him out of his civics class, Sonny accepts. The coach's wife is Ruth (Leachman) and the two bond when she gets bad news from the doctor and ultimately begin an affair. Meanwhile, Sonny's best friend, Duane (Bridges), is dating popular high school senior, Jacy Farrow (Shepherd) and focusing on being a typical American teen - attending the local picture show, shooting pool at Sam the Lion's pool hall and copping a feel in front of his pickup. When Jacy becomes promiscuous, she tires of Duane and spends the end of her youth in a constant state of sexual exploration, attending nudist parties, making eyes at her daddy's friends and getting married - only to get divorced soon after. The lives of the residents of this small Texas town intertwine, as the fifties come to a close annd before the hippie era that would soon follow. Men contemplate going to war, women contemplate marriage - it's a coming of age tale and a pretty good one at that.

Yes, "pretty good", as I can't go "great" or even "very good". I liked it enough and it's another one of those movies where I can see myself liking it more and more every time I watch it, until it becomes a favorite. That's actually what I did with Taxi Driver, as I watched it once - hated it and then, for some reason, kept re-watching it and liking it a little more each time. Today, Taxi Driver is a favorite movie of mine and every time I watched it, I picked up something new, something different, more appealing attributes, more to like. Anyway, I initially had The Last Picture Show pegged at around the '5' mark, when I watched it years ago. This go around, I'd call it closer to '7', so it's growing on me, for sure.

I thought all of the actors here were superb and loved the characters to the point where I'd kind of like to check out the novel, just to see if I could gain more insight into them. These were not characters who just existed on the surface, for the sake of filling in roles in a motion picture, but rather, they more resembled real life people. While this was a slice of life of a small Texas town, it reminded me of a slice of life of any American town that may have existed in the 50s and when I think of the world that my mom & dad grew up in, I don't think this is too far off of my perception. It just seemed so perfectly right on. I must say too, that I loved the country music soundtrack and found myself searching Spotify after the film was over, re-listening to some of the old, whiney (in a good way) tunes. I feel like it was the voices of Hank Williams and company who added a little seasoning to this otherwise perfectly tasty, yet just slightly bland dish.

RATING: 7/10  Was going to go '6.5' right up until the end there and then I just decided to say "screw it" and go to '7'. Sorry for the short & sweet review, but it's nearly dinner time here and I feel like I've said what I needed to say.

MOVIES WATCHED: 960
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 41

September 2, 2015  5:45pm

490. TARGETS (1968)

Running Time: 90 minutes
Directed By: Peter Bogdanovich
Written By: Polly Platt, Peter Bogdanovich
Main Cast: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Peter Bogdanovich

THERE ARE THINGS IN THE WORLD SCARIER THAN MOVIES

Having realized that I have yet to watch a movie from the decade of the 60s, I sat down and scoured through the movies from that decade that were available to watch instantly on Netflix, and came up with "Targets", the first film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and a very effective thriller, which stars Boris Karloff and Tim O'Kelly.

The film follows two different plotlines, which in the end are tied together. First off, we have Byron Orlok (Karloff, essentially playing himself), an aging actor, who in his prime was the main man when it came to horror films. After screening his most recent picture, Orlok comes to the assumption that his career is winding down and although he is scheduled to shoot another movie, decides to throw in the towel and retire. This angers up and coming director, Sammy Michaels, who is quite proud of his newest screenplay and was counting on Orlok to make it a success. Later Orlok also cancels an appearance that he was supposed to make at a local drive-in, where they'll be screening his new movie "The Terror". He eventually changes his mind, suggesting that this could be his final swan song before bowing out of the movie business for good.

Meanwhile, we also follow the day to day life of Bobby Thompson (O'Kelly), who lives a pretty basic life. It's just about as "Leave it to Beaver" as you can get, as the family, consisting of Bobby's wife, mother and father, crowd around the television watching the late night shows, going to work and gathering at the dinner table each evening to talk about their day. As clean cut as that all sounds, Bobby has some demons lurking in his mind in the form of morbid thoughts about murdering people. He keeps a small arsenal of guns in the trunk of his car and one day finally snaps, murdering his mother, his wife and the grocery boy. He types a letter, basically saying that these murders are only the beginning and before he is caught, more people will die. He heads to an oil refinery, with a staircase leading to the top of a large platform and with his guns in tow begins to snipe out drivers on the freeway. When the cops arrive on scene, Bobby flees and ends up at the Reseda Drive-In, the same drive-in where Byron Orlok plans to say his goodbye to the movie business in just a few hours.

You don't have to dig very deep into the film to realize the motives behind the story. In the world there are pretend monsters, like Orlok and there are indeed real monsters like Bobby Thompson. While Orlok can turn his evil on and off, the evil that lurks inside Bobby is an evil that will only grow bigger and bigger until it manifests itself in the form of murderous actions. I loved the idea behind this movie, because its all so true. There is nothing that we can witness on a television or movie theatre screen that could possibly compare to the real terrors that are on the streets everyday. While watching "Targets" it was that very idea that bounced around my head for most of the ninety minute runtime. I've never really had much experience with the directing skills of Peter Bogdanovich, but this was a great directorial debut, despite its floundering success at the box office. I loved all the little eerie nuances that Bogdanovich put into play to make the film that much more creepy. The fact that there is no score during scenes of major suspense, the close-ups of Bobby's itchy trigger finger, the herky-jerky editing style (which I thought was brilliant) and the subtlety of Bogdanovich trying to tell us all a little something about life, like no matter how clean cut and well brought up you are, evil can still creep into your psyche and eventually your actions.

RATING: 7/10 Nothing really bad here, just really only felt like a '7', but I'll definitely keep an eye out for more Peter Bogdanovich.

MOVIES WATCHED: 140
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 861

September 10, 2010 11:32pm