The film's ensemble cast includes Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, and Cybill Shepherd.
Set in a small town in northern Texas from November 1951 to October 1952, it is a story of two high school seniors and long-time friends, Sonny Crawford (Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Bridges).
In 1998, the Library of Congress selected The Last Picture Show for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".
[2][3] In 1951, Sonny Crawford and Duane Jackson are high school seniors and friends in oil town Anarene, Texas.
At a Christmas dance, Jacy is invited by Lester Marlow to a skinny-dipping party at Bobby Sheen's, a wealthy young man and seemingly better prospect than Duane.
He forbids the group from entering any of his businesses, the only entertainment in Anarene: the pool hall, movie theater, and café.
When Sam notices that Sonny actually cares for Billy, who habitually sweeps Anarene's main street, he lifts the ban on him.
Out of boredom and feeling rejected, she has sex with Abilene, her father Gene's roughneck foreman and her mother's lover.
Sonny approaches the local townsmen surrounding Billy's corpse; they blame the dead boy for being stupid and careless.
Grief-stricken, Sonny yells at them for their behavior and carefully carries Billy's body away, covering his face with his letterman jacket.
As Bogdanovich later explained to The Hollywood Reporter, while waiting in a cashier's line in a drugstore, he happened to look at the rack of paperbacks and his eye fell on an interesting title, The Last Picture Show.
[5] The film was shot in Larry McMurtry's small hometown of Archer City located in north-central Texas near the Oklahoma state line.
[5] Cambern disputes this, stating that Bogdanovich did do an edit of the film, which he screened for a selection of guests, including Jack Nicholson, Bob Rafelson and himself.[who?]
In interviews, Bogdanovich emphasized that a lot of attention was paid to the music being accurate and contemporary to the narrated time span between November 1951 to October 1952, and that no songs were used that in reality were released later than that.
It is a result of a thoro [sic] Peyton Place investigation into Anarene's bedrooms, parked cars, football games, movie theater, restaurant, and pool hall.
"[15] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film "the most considered, craftsmanlike and elaborate tribute we have yet had to what the movies were and how they figured in our lives.
"[16] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "an exceedingly well-made and involving narrative film with decent aims, encouraging us to understand and care about its characters, though not to emulate them.
The site's critics consensus reads: "Making excellent use of its period and setting, Peter Bogdanovich's small town coming-of-age story is a sad but moving classic filled with impressive performances.
"[18] According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 93 out of 100 based on 15 critics, the film received "universal acclaim".
"[33] The film was released by The Criterion Collection in November 2010 as part of its box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story.
This version restores seven minutes of footage that Bogdanovich trimmed from the 1971 release because Columbia had imposed a firm 119-minute limit.
One comes between basketball practice in the gym and the exterior at The Rig-Wam drive-in; it has Jacy, Duane and Sonny riding along in her convertible (and being chased by an enthusiastic little dog), singing an uptempo rendition of the more solemn school song sung later at the football game.
Another finds Sonny cruising the town streets in the pick-up, gazing longingly into Sam's poolhall, café and theater, from which he has been banished.
The film reunites actors Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, Cloris Leachman, Eileen Brennan, Randy Quaid, Sharon Ullrick (née Taggart) and Barc Doyle.