The Last Picture Show 1971

Andrew Sarris, Village Voice: At first glance, the movie is a faithful and skillful adaptation of the source, but a second look at both the film and the book reveals some interesting divergences. Read more

Vincent Canby, New York Times: The Last Picture Show becomes an adventure in rediscovery -- of a very decent, straightforward kind of movie, as well as of -- and I rather hesitate to use such a square phrase -- human values. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: It's meant to make you feel sad for what's lost, but a vitality throbs through it. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader: It's all fairly calculated, though Bogdanovich knows how to cast actors and highlight character turns. Read more

Pauline Kael, New Yorker: It's plain and uncondescending in its re-creation of what it means to be a high-school athlete, of what a country dance hall is like, of the necking in cars and movie houses, and of the desolation that follows high-school graduation. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The film is above all an evocation of mood. It is about a town with no reason to exist, and people with no reason to live there. The only hope is in transgression. Read more

Stefan Kanfer, TIME Magazine: Director Peter Bogdanovich has seen Anarene, Texas, in the cinematic terms of 1951 -- the langorous dissolves, the strong chiaroscuro, the dialogue that starts with bickering and ends at confessional. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: The scene where Sam imparts his wisdom to young buck Bottoms may be the saddest, loveliest moment in 1970s American cinema. And that's saying something. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: Notre Dame professor Edward Fischer has said that 'the best films, like the best books, tell how it is to be human under certain circumstances'. Larry McMurtry did a beautiful job of this. Read more