Based on Larry McMurtry’s novel of the same name, The Last Picture Show is a wholly American heartbreaker. Rooted in a fading era when restless youth crossed unexpected paths with their listless elders, the film was a massive success upon its release in 1971. Earning eight Academy Award nominations and winning two Oscars, the film was championed by legendary film critics like Roger Ebert as a truly “Great Movie.”Over fifty years after it debuted in theaters, The Last Picture Show — now available on 4K-UHD and Blu-Ray from the Criterion Collection — remains an achingly powerful and bittersweet tale of growing up in a world where that doesn’t necessarily fix anything. Its themes and characters feel profoundly real and relatable even half a century later, and it’s because of the film’s commitment to portraying the somber elements of life without the showy melodrama one expects from screen adaptations. As a result, The Last Picture Show retains that realistic, somber edge element that separates it from the countless coming-of-age films that have followed it.On paper, it sounds like the kind of melodrama that stories about this subject are characterized as — with plenty of affairs, heartbreak, and deaths to fill a daytime soap opera. But instead of sensationalizing the drama, The Last Picture Show treats everything with a far more muted and realistic edge. It all starts with the setting of the story, which lends the film an almost play-like quality in terms of refined and specific scope. The town of Anarene is on the verge of dying, the handful of lingering businesses hanging on by a thread. The adults in the town are exhausted by the dry nature of their world and their lives, leading to unlikely affairs almost more out of boredom than anything else.
Based on Larry McMurtry’s novel of the same name, The Last Picture Show is a wholly American heartbreaker. Rooted in a fading era when restless youth crossed unexpected paths with their listless elders, the film was a massive success upon its release in 1971. Earning eight Academy Award nominations and winning two Oscars, the film was championed by legendary film critics like Roger Ebert as a truly “Great Movie.”
Over fifty years after it debuted in theaters, The Last Picture Show — now available on 4K-UHD and Blu-Ray from the Criterion Collection — remains an achingly powerful and bittersweet tale of growing up in a world where that doesn’t necessarily fix anything. Its themes and characters feel profoundly real and relatable even half a century later, and it’s because of the film’s commitment to portraying the somber elements of life without the showy melodrama one expects from screen adaptations. As a result, The Last Picture Show retains that realistic, somber edge element that separates it from the countless coming-of-age films that have followed it.
On paper, it sounds like the kind of melodrama that stories about this subject are characterized as — with plenty of affairs, heartbreak, and deaths to fill a daytime soap opera. But instead of sensationalizing the drama, The Last Picture Show treats everything with a far more muted and realistic edge. It all starts with the setting of the story, which lends the film an almost play-like quality in terms of refined and specific scope. The town of Anarene is on the verge of dying, the handful of lingering businesses hanging on by a thread. The adults in the town are exhausted by the dry nature of their world and their lives, leading to unlikely affairs almost more out of boredom than anything else.
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