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Small town life has been a traditionally popular topic for filmmakers to expound upon like in the 1971 movie “The Last Picture Show” directed by Peter Bogdanovich and starring Cybill Shepherd, Jeff Bridges and Ben Johnson.
This prequel to the 1990′s “Texasville,” which featured much of the same cast, is a long and drawn out trip into small time life in the dying Texas town of Anarene. For anyone who has lived in a small town, the concept of the movie is familiar, but far too melodramatic for its own good.
Drawing on the themes and cinemagraphic features of black and white film masters such as Howard Hawks and John Ford, the movie rarely draws on its own technique, making it tedious at times to weed through and boring to watch. Why we would care about any of the characters in this movie other than Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), and Sam the Lion (Ben Johnson), who learns about growing up in a dying town where friends are fickle and seduction is prevalent?
In fact, Shepherd’s manipulating, manevolent character Jacy is simply looking for a chance to experience each shocking experience she can (all things shocking maybe?). In a small town where pulling the talk of the town to you makes you the center of attention and popular. Lauded as the only pretty girl in town, she ends up ultimately unhappy.
The death of the only beloved businessman in town, Sam the Lion, shows the downward spiral of despair and death that is looming over the town. Life lessons, the despair and the hard knocks affecting all high school kids and their teenage relationships and first loves abound in this overly ambitious movie which attempts to solve all problems without dealing realistically with them.
Compostionally, this movie is beautifully done and provocative and while the acting bridges on melodramatic and amateur, it can at times have actual breakthroughs in realism.
In true “Grapes of Wrath” style, the drama of the death of small town America and the end of an era are all provocative reasons this tedious movie earned 22 awards and nominations with two academy awards won by Johnson and Cloris Leachman (who played Ruth Popper, the movie show operator).
Lauded as an American classic, the movie has promise, but unfortunately took too long and too much drama to show its story. While it had promise, it also has a lot that needs to be worked out, making it a movie better left for watching on hot, dry nights in a small town where there’s not enough to do.
