The Last Picture Show: Classic or Dud?

Some of that symbolism is provided by the characters watching Red River, ala Karina viewing The Passion of Joan of Arc in Vivre Sa Vie.

My dad saw it when he was 16 and talks about coming out of the theater in a daze, just walking around aimlessly for hours. Besides connecting with elements of the story, he took it as of a piece with Dylan going country and the 20 year nostalgia cycle making Hank Williams hip again. it took a moldy, uncool milieu and updated it for the times, not only in terms of explicitness (that's imo all that's going on in Easy Rider and Bonnie & Clyde even more so, as circa said). it's returning to TV of the 50s but with the disillusionment of the 70s using European existentialism. people like my dad were part of the counterculture but grew up watching Ben Johnson ride horses in John Ford movies (he always talks about how devastating his speech to the kids is, that they're no longer welcome after what they did).

TLPS is practically an Antonioni movie, but it's not showy. it's hard to articulate what's so moving about this movie. Took me 3 viewings over 10 years for it to really hit, though.

Timothy uh Bottoms sure is purty.

I prefer TLPS to Boggo's two followups; my circuity can't process Paper Moon.

I always loved the touch of all the Country songs on the soundtrack, but at the Farrow household, when you hear a Hank song, Tony Bennett is doing the singing!

The placing of the action is key: after the war, but before Rock'n'Roll. Korea is happening, but isn't quite real until a local boy ships out.

the radio playing softly in every scene, the lack of people, the bone bleach white, the wind. it's like wandering into a purgatory of Americana, vanishing with that last fade out of Bottoms & Leachman ("never you mind, honey."). evocative, dreamlike, and surreal without ever being silly. I think it moved a lot of people that wouldn't normally see or respond to more arch or oblique art films.

I always forget that Hud was also based on a McMurtry novel, set in the same fictional town.

Never realized they were set in the same town. Hud would be set about a decade later then...if there's any crossover between the two, I missed it. Not as famous, but I definitely like Hud more.

Apparently Hud was more loosely adapted from Horseman, Pass By (set in 1954, published '61) -- the Patricia Neal character is a black woman. And they "softened" Hud...

TCM had this on last night: watched a few minutes and started wondering what happened to Timothy Bottoms (wasn't even sure if he was still alive). Looking at his IMDB page, 1) he continues to work, usually making one or two films a year (he's slowed down a bit the past five years), and 2) except for the LPS sequel, I don't think I recognize even one of them in the last 40 years--nothing since Hurricane in 1979. It's really remarkable; I wonder if there's ever been another actor who had a fast start to his career, then spent the next four decades choosing one nowhere role after another.

He did give us this:

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/to-hollywood-and-beyond/images/7/78/That%27s_My_Bush%21.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141006083405

https://assets.nflxext.com/us/boxshots/hd1080/70055288.jpg

"Holiday in Handcuffs" (2006) is worth a watch if you enjoy unbelievably bad movies

I don't remember him in Gus Van Sant's Elephant, but that was a prestige movie at least.

One of my favourite films, missed that--and I do remember recognizing him.