A Script By: Peter Bogdanovich - The Last Picture Show

0:01 Welcome to a script by Episode three. I'm your host, Brad Kozo. Thanks for joining me on this show. We break down some of Hollywood's most notable screenplays and explore why they remain powerful and timeless on the page. For our first episode, we dogged it deep into the darkness of Chinatown. Then we headed out west with the charm and inevitability of Whichecasting and Sundance Kid. This time we're going somewhere much quieter. We're traveling to a dying town in North Texas in nineteen fifty one, the play slowly fading both culturally and economically. The first clients the script feels simple, almost innocent, but underneath it become something deeper, an intimate look at teenage life in the aftermath of a major turning point in American history, where the opportunity is gone, the future feels uncertain, and all that's left is the space between. This is a script by Pierre Bogdanovitch and Larry McMurtry. Let's turn the page. Welcome back to a script by I Am Your Host Brad Kozo, and this is episode three, The Last Picture Show, a script by Peter Magdanovich and Larry mcmercury, based on the

1:34 novel by mcmartree. This is the script and the film that put Magdonovich at the forefront of the New Hollywood movement of the nineteen seventies. The story of a dying town in North Texas in nineteen fifty one, a place left behind both culture and economically, and a group of teenagers growing up in a world that offers them no clear future. But as usual, before we take our deep dive into the script, let's welcome a returning gap Chuck Brian from the Cinematic Flashback podcast. Chuck, welcome back to the show. How are you and how's the show? Brad, Thank you so much for reaching out to me and asking if I wanted to be on again, and to talk about Peter Bogdanovich. We have a couple of Bogdanovitch pictures coming up this season on the Cinematic Flashback.

2:22 We have coming up, we have What's Up Doc, and we have paper Moon coming up. So I was happy to get that hat trick in to get the last picture show in as well, So thank you for the opportunity. Yeah, Bogdanovich was one of the kind of last directors that I kind of got interested in from the seventies, didn't really he did really appeal to me at first, and I think and this was biased to me because he really just didn't have a lot of post success seventies you know, just very little here and there as opposed to you know, his all of his buddies. But when did you first see the film and later on what did you think of the script?

3:09 Well, actually, this is very interesting because I am coming back into my exploration of seventies movies, you know, with the cinematic flashback, so many of the films that I am watching, I am watching for the very first time. And that's the case for this film Tonight. So a few weeks back, I get a text on a Friday night. Jeff says, Hey, what's up? And I'm like hello, and he said, they're going to do Last Picture Show. Brad's going to do the Last Picture Show. As the next script buy and I'd like you to be on it. I downloaded the script that night. I read it within two hours. I said, this is a fabulous script, and two hours after that I had watched the movie. Meanwhile, it's about two o'clock on a Saturday morning. By the time I'm all done, and I was blown away by it.

4:02 This is this is a rule. So this was the first time. This was the first time. Yeah, yeah, yeah it was. It was the first time I saw it. I was I'll be honest, I wasn't impressed at first. I was I think my expectations are really high, you know, because they when you watch all those documentaries and read all those books about those seventies, guys Donovich is always in there with you know, the big guns, and so I guess I expected a lot more. And it wasn't until like that second third yearning that I realized it was like, now I understand why I feel bored it. It takes place later, but yeah. I think, I think, yeah, I can totally see why it would work that way for you. I'm coming at it slightly different because I'm coming at it really from the sixties. Okay, I'm coming at it from uh. I mean, last time I was on you and I talked to you about the book I read with Roger Corman and Peter Bogdanovitch was yet another Corman alumni, if you will.

5:07 In fact, Bogdanovitch's first film, Targets, was a Roger Corman produced film where basically Corman told him, you can make your first film, but there's two stipulations. Number One, it's a Corman film, so you cannot go over budget. Number two, you have to use Boris Karloff because Boris Karloff. Karloff owes me two days of work for a previous contract, and I have him. So Bogdanovich in through Corman style, goes to one of Corman's earlier films that had Boris Karloff in it, takes film from that, even steals a clip from Howard Hawk's film with Carloff in it, puts it together, goes off, does some guerrilla style shooting by the freeway, and if you've seen Targets, you might know what that's about. Puts all that together and it gets in front of Robert Evans, Robert Evans screens. It gives Roger Corman one hundred and fifty thousand dollars right there on the spot before the movie's even been released. Roger Corman just made a twenty thousand dollars profit because that movie only costs him one hundred and thirty. So I'm coming at the last picture show from that my expectations are really not coming at it from the reception of what The Last Picture Show was. It's really coming from my just enjoying this gorilla style filmmaking and not knowing

6:41 what to expect from the film, being blown away that they chose to film this in black and white and everything that that kind of opened up with the cinematography. So yeah, I think I had it from it. I think maybe it was an advantage that it was my first time and I didn't have a lot of reviews on it beforehand. I'm glad you brought that up because that leads us into our background thing. And you mentioned right now he was like, I said, he's one of the Roger Corman as all those guys, and they they got taught how to do everything, you know, editing, shooting, they you know, they had to do it all. And then it was I the BBS. The Bert Schneider asked Magdonovich, what do you want to do next? After Targets, you know, kind of shook the world a little bit, and he goes, I'd like to, you know, adapt this Larry McMurtry novel The Last Picture Show. But the only problem was is that no one really heard of it, and Bert Schneider had a hard time finding a copy of and he's like, because and the kind of balls on Fordanovitch. He goes, well, you send me the book. He goes, why don't you go buy it paperback. I'm like, okay, and he's like, finally I found it. But after he read it, he he was agreed and get in McMurtry and mcgonag ushed to work together. It wasn't really a problem, you know, he said. He goes, I went to McMurtry and said, I want to do this. Let's do this together. And

8:13 at the same time, his house, his house guests is Orson Wells living in his house, just kind of feeding off and they're really good friends and they've got a weird relationship that you can extend on later to a whole other episode. But he's the one that said that they should shoot it in black and white, and yeah, it is very And as I was watching it last night, I'm like, yeah, I don't think the color would have nailed the the real emptiness for it, you know. So I mean so. Because I was gonna say, you blew by something very fast, and I think it's in case people don't know this acronym BBS, yeah, which it was a film studio, right, yeah, And they were responsible for.

9:04 What Schnyder, Bob Rafelson and it's on the tip of my tongue, Terry Southern No, but yeah. But they the BBS guys, right, and they're responsible for a lot of films of the of the new Hollywood films. I mean that that whole definition of it, everything from what easy Rider Fighter, Big One pieces, uh drive, he said, all of these are like Jack Nicholson vehicles. Oh yeah, uh uh. And I think the first one wasn't it like the movie about the monkeys? Was it Head?

9:45 Yes, which apparently is I've never seen and it's just trippy and you can apparently tell by me by a bunch of people that are just on drugs. Well, if you if you ever wanted to get every all of those films, you can get it. Criterion has the American Lost and Found Collection. It's the BBS story, So it's it's about one hundred bucks or so. Might get it on cell here and there. But if someone is looking to fill out their collection with a grade of a great list of New Hollywood cinema, that's a great collection to get. Yeah, and all those films are different too. Oh, and I would say that you know that that game one of these things, it's not like the other from the Old Kids Show, the Last Picture Show is nothing like any of the others. It is completely unique.

10:35 I would say, I would say that it fits within their mold, but yet at the same time, it's it's just a completely different film. Getting your author to help you write the script is obviously very, very nice. So I guess my question is do you think adaptations are stronger when the original author is involved or is that limit kind of what the film can become. I think it's going to depend on what that working relationship is like, because I've seen it go both ways. I've seen I've seen film adaptations where you know, the author's material just does not the author and the writer, the screenplay writer just don't work well together. Obviously this wasn't the case they appeared or they seem to have gotten along fairly well, just in terms of adapting the material for it.

11:29 Yeah, I mean, it just seems it's very when we get into like page and screen, we'll see how close you know the novel itself, which I claim I have never read. The only thing I really know about Larry McMurtry is Lonesome Dove. I believe he was the writer of a really hard movie to find with Paul Newman called hud Oh great movie. If you ever see that, I think that believe that's and that one's very very Last Picture Show, ask if you ever see that. But before we get started, though, we're going to take our first quick break, and when we come back, we're going to discuss the first ten pages and act one the Last Picture Show. We're talking the first ten pages of The Last Picture Show. In the first time pages, they don't really hook you with plot. They hook you with absence in a very bleak mood. I mean, right away, Donovitch McMurtry, they established the town Annerine, Texas, as a town that it already feels like it's fading. I mean, the streets are quiet, the wind never stops. I mean, nothing's urgent, nothing's alive. I mean, but that's the point.

12:41 You know, then you meet Sonny and Dwayne not they don't not as characters goals, They have no goals. They're just drifting through the routine. You know, they're driving around, hanging out you know, looking for something to do. There's no clear direction. They're constantly talking about the you know, getting laid. That's just I'm passing. And there's a great line that Lois says that I think sums up so well. She says she's talking to Jasy and she says everything is flat and empty here and there's nothing to do. It isn't just dial I mean that's the story, yeah, I mean, because the script is showing us what happens when there's no future to move forward, you know, nothing to chase. I mean, it turns into boredom, screwing around relationships, I mean, just these weird attempts to just feel something.

13:41 And then you learn about everybody through gossip and you know, Sonny and Dwayne are high school football players that had the game the night before and apparently they just got destroyed. I mean, the whole town knows, and they do not stop berating them for that. They just keep going an off on that. I thought that part was actually rather low key hilarious because the entire time they're like, hey, you think tackling would be a good thing to do, and they are just they are just getting nailed with that. The entire time. But I love how it shows that no matter where they go, they're no secrets. Not in this town. Oh yeah. I mean that's how this place works, you know.

14:23 And there is this high school sports, right, this is high school sports, and and this is like the big thing in this town. It's one of the big things. So there's nothing much else. So if they're if their team doesn't win, it's a reflection of the town. And the attitude. And I mean not ashamed by it. Dwayne and Sunny, there's what is high school football? We don't care, you know, Like I said, they're like, what's it gonna do? They know what's it going to do for us? You know? I mean their lives are small. They go to the movies, spend time with their girls, friends, make out, and that's that's about it. I mean, there's no bigger goal. It's just routine. But the thing is that routine is what becomes a problem. So let me ask you this. The first ten pages, do they kind of pull you in because nothing's happening or because you can already feel that something's missing? And I mean, you know, are we learning about Sonny and Dwayne just from how they spend their time.

15:28 I mean, the script isn't really telling us you were just kind of just watching it. The first ten pages actually covers quite a bit very fast, and in fact, I would I would say for a film that's two hours, this movie actually, to me it sounded like the first time you watched it. For you, it was a little bit slower, but to me it seemed like the first that the film went by very quickly. And the film brings you right in initially with you know, you have Sonny, you have Bil, you have Sam, you have Abiline, you have Dwayne, Miss Mossi, you have Charlene, Jace and Genevieve. I mean, these are all characters that are being thrown at you, one right after the other.

16:11 And then there's the different locations. You're in the pool hall, you're over in the cafe, you're over at the picture show, and you start to get this, uh, you see that there's this really you know, the friendship between Sonny and Dwayne, and something that the script gives you that you don't really see. Well, you see it, I think you you see it on the screen, but the script spells it out. Is that there is a brotherly relationship between Sonny and Billy. And there's also this foreshadowing of this tension that's going to happen between uh one of the triangles of people here between uh j C, between Dwayne and between Sonny.

16:56 The other thing that I wanted to say about the script in the first ten pages is that the first three pages of this script is three pages of character description. Yeah, which this is like one of the first times. But I told you last time. I haven't read too many scripts, but of the ones that I've read, I've never had three pages of character description. So the first time that I'm reading it, I'm a little bit overwhelmed by the by the sheer number of characters that are in this film. Yeah, and it's and they make that up with the film with silence. Yes, well, then let's get into act one. Act one. The last picture show. It's not given a clear goal. It isn't. It's just given this drift. We spend time with Sonny and Dwayne. You know, we go through their routines, like you said, the school pool hall, their relationships. You know, even Sonny says it. You know, it's gonna be trouble when he's like the only good looking girl or the only pretty girl in town is jays See and Dwayne already hazard that's obviously going to be a problem. But yeah, that's the structure. You know.

18:06 There's nothing changes in their world, and the lack of change is what becomes the tension, you know. And the adults around them are no better, to be honest, I mean, they're not really offering much guidance. You know. They're either they're disconnected, they're stuck. They're in a weird relationship themselves. So for the kids, there's nothing to move toward. You know, it just feels like, let's just hold on until we fall into this, you know, And that's where that emotional shifting, because eventually drifting is just not enough, you know. And the loneliness, you know, Sonny's the first one to feel it, you know. The boredom turns into restlessness, turns into curiosity, leads in into relationship with Ruth Popper, and that brings us to our inciting incident. But unlike our other two previous scripts, it doesn't explode, you know, It's just it just kind of pulls the story inward a little bit, you know, because now Sonny, just for the first time, he's not just passing time. He's getting to do something.

19:18 It's real, you know, it's it's not the necking, it's not a relationship because the girl is friends with jac who's dating Dwayne. You know, it's it's real. He's not just going through the things, you know, He's he's really getting to be So do you think Act one is about waiting for something to happen or just realizing that, all right, nothing's going to happen. Well, I think Act one is setting up a lot of the things that you said. And one of the things that I kind of wanted to go in on is this idea of this whole generational thing, right, because what's happening with the parents is just what the kid's future is going to be, right, So they're stuck in this box, and some of these kids are trying to get out of this box, right, but they're not going to be able to this this box being the town that they're in. Adeline was it Adeline or Anerine? Anerine because in the script is called Okay, the script it's called Archer City, uh, and sometimes it's called Anerine and sometimes it's called Abilene. Right. I think there's like three different times three different things, but in the film it's anerine uh the entire time. So I think they were still landing on the name for that. But that that that that town, that that town is just this this

20:48 I don't know, some kind of like a metaphor for for this this thing that is keeping everybody in this one one location. One of the scenes that I think points out just how you see their adult role models are is the Christmas dance. You know, all the adults there and they're acting like children. I mean that the sonny is acting like more of an adult than any of the actual adults there. Yeah, there's a lot of interesting things that happen, and a lot of things that don't both said. It's not said right. So for instance, uh, you know, it's it's never really explained what Ruth Popper is going to the clinic for. It's it's something, it's something that was I forget the word that she used, but basically it's it's she seems very sad. It seems like there's there's maybe uh some I was thinking maybe some kind of counseling going on. Right.

21:49 Yeah, there's a lot of questions that just kind of go you know, just unanswered. But you can, I mean, I guess any way you take them this is not good, you know, but you can go really dark, you know of the interpretation. But yeah, why is she going to that? You come across Sonny's dad and you hear Sonny's dad's taking him out. That's the only thing you hear about Sonny's dad. You hear about Dwayne's mother and them too in a boarding house. That's it. That's for them that I mean, you hear nothing about Sonny's mom Dwayne's dad. So those are their adults. It's frustrating when yeah, there's your role models.

22:30 Yeah, and and of course there's there's Lois. Okay. Lois is the mother of jac and Lois is probably I don't know. I would say she's the prettiest woman in the town, if you will. And her husband is probably the richest man in the town. But she has she has, she has gotten into it, this monoton monotonous monotony. Or she's no, she's bored, she's she's she's bored. And so she is now hooking up with one of his foremen, Abilene, and Abilene brings his date into this Christmas party and Lois walks up, plants the biggest kiss that you ever.

23:20 I mean, it would be inappropriate in any situation. Yeah, and just does it right in front of of his date and Uh. And then they go off and they start dancing, and it's one of those things to where they're dancing and there everyone's clearing the floor and they're the center of attention, which kind of drives jc uh and Duayne out so that jac can go to this the after party exactly. Well, we're going to take our second break and when we come back, we will continue on to Act too, the Last Picture Show. Welcome back to a script buy. We were talking Act two of The Last Picture Show Too.

24:02 This is where the characters start to fill their emptiness. Sonny's relationship with Ruth begins. Then that story shifts. We're not just observing, we're experiencing. Finally feels real, but that just leads more experimentation. Jac she begins taste testing. You know, these boundaries jumping from relationship, you know, Bobby Sheen, Dwayne Abbe, you know Sonny and Sonny doesn't really know what's going on. He's just not really sure what's He's being tossed around like, you know, a ping pong so much, you know, and then the thank God there's Sam the Lyon. You know, he's kind of their quiet anchor, you know, he remembers the life when the town actually meant something, you know, is his presence gives a story weight, but it also reminds them of the days that are gone. And then Lois and genevienh yeah, Genevin, they show us the other side.

25:06 They show us that the adulthood, it's shaped by the compromise, the emotional distance what once might have been a possibility to just kind of settled into routine by now. So Act two goes a little bit beyond the teenagers. We start to get into a little bit of the rest of the town. You know, the whole town's just being filled with They're all trying to fill this emptiness, you know, and just none of it holds. And it finally just comes crashing down when Stunny and jac run off, you know, and they're just immediately pulled back. I mean, not a it doesn't feel like, oh it's a twist, it's inevitable. I mean, and she's just she just takes him for a ride. And just like I said, these are people that are so bored, so bored that this is what it comes to. Uh So do you think Act too is it about the teenagers experiment or about town just showing them what the future is going to be like for them.

26:07 I kind of see Act two as centering in more on what I would call the moral center being being sam it it. There are two acts, or there are two, I want to say they're they're kind of rituals that happen in this in this movie. Uh and it's these rituals are separated by social class, which plays actually an interesting aspect in this film. One of them is the country club kids, that's what I want to call them.

26:49 And Lester played by Randy Quaid, brings j C to a party that is hosted by Billy mm hmm. And it's a swimming party. And there's only one rule for the swimming party is that everybody there is naked. Yep. So in order to become part of this club, jac has to go into the diving board and has to strip. The weirdest thing about that to me is not these teenagers who are sitting around naked watching her do this. It's the little boy with the mask on you swimming in the pool, right, he's the I mean, this kid's gonna grow up to be something weird, you know. Yeah, So then you compare that or you can trast that now with the roughneck kids. Okay, so the Roughneck kids.

27:48 Dwayne has been jilted by jac so he's getting drunk with it boys, and these kids are now starting to talk about we gotta go get a woman, we gotta go get something, you know, and they're using all sorts of language, you know, for that, you know, and they they entertain lots of things in this film. It's if you try to describe it, it makes why is he saying this is such a great film. Yeah, but they end up trying to take the character of Billy and having him lose his virginity. So it's another ritual, but this is not one that's natural or one of his choosing.

28:29 Is one that they're putting upon it because Billy uh Is is mentally retarded and is and is not able to make those decisions for himself. And Uh In the act, Jimmy Sue, who is the waitress of the local UH drive in, who also happens to trick on the side, ends up punching Billy giving him a bloody nose, which which leads to an encounter with I Am the Lion, who expresses disappointment and all the kids tells tells the boys who were involved, which also includes Sonny that you're not to come into my pool hall, You're not to come into my cafe, You're not to come into my picture show anymore. I don't want your business. And that's a crushing blow on Sonny because Sonny was not wanting to participate in this, but he was just really wrong place, wrong time, trying to be there for Dwayne, and Dwayne was asleep in the back seat of the car, so he doesn't get the ban. And yeah, so we have these two different these two different conference, these two different rituals that are happening within there, and then it gets booked in with the fishing trip, right. Yeah, So I'm telling you Ben Johnson, that's his His monologue at the fishing tank is such a great it's a it's such

30:07 a great scene of a person who is older, who is reflecting on something that was good but is lost in his life and just it's it's just the memory of and it was. It was just so well done. Uh, it's done in one take. There's this gentle push in on his face. And this is why I think the black and white works so well, because in lighting, they can choose where to where to put the lights in the film for the for the black and white, and it's just so much it's just it's just so much more magnified than when it's in color. And I just thought that that scene was just the highlight of of the movie. Like it's like that the epicenter almost everything afterwards it starts to kind of lead to resolution as as everyone is trying to uh, you know, finish, finish up the the their story. But but yeah, then afterwards, as you were saying, they have a trip to Mexico.

31:07 Yeah, and and things seem like they're they're okay, you know a little bit, you know, everybody seems like they're they're doing okay. And every time you get comfortable, there's always gonna be somebody to pull out the rug, you know. And they go to Mexico and they have a good time and they come back and well, oh it just it just turns bad up there. But we're gonna get in to Act three now. Uh So Act three begins after this illusion collapses. Sandal Lion has died, and even though his death has happened more in the the second act, you know, and that's important because it wasn't the ending, it was the warning. It showed us, like you said, what used to be and but what's already been lost?

32:03 You know. The characters don't. They don't fully understand a yet, you know. They they keep moving, they keep trying to experiment, to see if different things work, you know, But that's where it finally stops. You know, Sonny and Jase are caught. There's no escape from the town. You know, it's gone. Everything finally begins to centle. Dwayne just leaves for the army. I mean, you can't, like you said, but I agree with Dwayne. What does he have? He says, what I have here? And he's right, you know, he gets out, you know, Jason moves on, and all the relationships from Act too they all fall apart. But everything else, not just the relationships, because of Sam's death, the pool hall, the movie theater, they all are starting to disappear, and Sonny is just left. He's just he's just left. And you know, it was fading and now it's it's final, you know, and that's the shift. Act one is the drift, Act two the experimentation, and Act three the realization. There there is no reinvention here, you know, there's no there's no last minute clarity. There's just acceptance. You know, there's a final moment between son and Ruth. There's no resolution, you know, it just it just offers something just much quieter.

33:33 You know, it's just not what's next, but all right, well what's left? You know, this isn't a movie where I'm sorry. This is not a script where a lot of solutions happen, you know at the end. So do you think that Act three is about loss or about finally seeing things clearly for the first time? The way the script ends, Okay, Sonny is the last one. He has nothing else. Sam has died, Billy, Billy has been killed, uh tragically, hit by a truck, and Sonny really he tries to leave, but he can't, and there's there's no one else really left for him but Ruth, who may have been the only person in the town capable of loving him. I know there's a sequel many years later. I don't think I want to see.

34:43 That, And I agree with you. I haven't seen it yet because I don't know what to expect, and I don't know what I should expect. I like, I like this film. I like the script. It's hard to talk about the script and the film, and we'll talk about that in a second, but I like how it just ends and one of the things you've alluded to, and it's present in both the script and in the film. The movie is not a straightforward, connected narrative. It's almost like you're going from scene to scene to scene, and really you're following JC a lot in terms of she is the one who is kind of controlling the emotional well being of either Dwayne or Sonny, depending on where she's at. Her whole goal, I think is always to marry and get out of the town, and I think Dewayne is always trying to work to where he can make enough money to where he could be you rich enough for JC.

36:00 We're gonna get into page versus screen. Now. What makes Last Picture Show is such a strong adaptation is how close to the film matches the tone of the script but translates it visually on the page. Donovich mcmercury right, with restraint. There's very little exposition very little explanation. The emotion is understated, and the film leads into that the shoot, the decision to shoot in black and white isn't just stylistic. It reinforces the emptiness of the town, the flat landscapes, the quiet streaks, the lack of movement. It all feels stripped down, almost bare. Nothing is romanticized. And that same restraint carries into performances. Acting is natural, it's it's quiet, it's sometimes uncomfortable, but it fits material perfectly. I mean, the film got I think almost every other person was nominated for an Academy Award for performances. It's very very This is a this is a great actor piece, you know, and you know that's where the film really succeeds. You know, it doesn't expand the script. It just kind of preserves it.

37:10 You know, the tone of the screenplay, the silence, the awkwardness, the emotional distance. I mean that translates pretty good on the screen, you know, and that's what made it fit so perfectly in the New Hollywood movement of the nineteen seventies. You know, it doesn't tell you how to feel, It lets you just sit with them. Do you think the film works because it because it is pretty faithful to the scriptor because it just it finds that visual language to match that tone of the script. Well, it definitely, I think it definitely starts with the script. Yeah, you know, And I think this script, I think in anyone else's hands other than Peter Bugdanovich back in nineteen sixty nine or seventy, whenever this project starts, I don't think it would have been the same film whatsoever. I think that it's it is what it is, primarily because Bogdanovich is one of these directors who's he's new Hollywood, right, but he also respects classic Hollywood.

38:24 Oh yes, you know. And I think this is where you start to see this, this this melding of two styles, and you even see it in a weird way between you know, you have Sam the lion. Let's say that he is the old guard, you know, and then you have the younger kids. They are the new Hollywood directors themselves, you know. So it's it's I think that in anyone else's hands, I don't think that what we would see on the film would match with what is on this on this on the script, on the page. And another thing that's really interesting when you read the script, is the script is in color.

39:10 It describes color all over the place. Yeah, and it's it's it's interesting because that that caught me. I didn't notice it the first time because I hadn't watched the movie yet and didn't realize it was in black and white. And then the second time I went through and read the script again, it's like, ooh, there's so much color in the very beginning of this of this script that it was almost distracting because I'm like, but it's in black and white. Nope, it wasn't in black and white. Yet, but I like that how it's almost like we can't even afford color. Yeah, you know, it's almost just perfect to the you know the film. Yeah, which brings us to dialogue, character and subtext. A stands out most about the dialogue in The Last Picture Show is basically how little it explains. The characters do not articulate what they're feeling. They the conversations they're awkward, they're incomplete, they're uncomfortable because you know, the real story has been underneath the dialogue. I mean, for exent, take Sonny and Ruth.

40:13 You know, they really don't say anything direct to each other, you know, me, you just feel their loneliness, just this need for connection, the confusion, it's all there, just just they don't talk about it, you know. And same with jac you know, she talks to talk, but what she says and understands aren't always the same thing. You know, there's huge gap between her and her awareness, you know. Yeah, and then things like like I said, like very little is explained. We don't know why Ruth is going to the clinic. And then when she tells Sonny about Sonny says, I hope you're You're probably going to feel better once you coaches, you know best, while the coach would be homewarre And she's like, oh, you don't even know. Your mind can go into a bunch of different places. Mine did.

41:10 But I did a little research on it, and it's not as apparently as as crazy as my mind when you know, it's just more of the two people that are so lonely, like you have no idea that we're not even we're just we live in the same house. We don't we don't have a loving relationship. It doesn't exist anymore. And the thing is is you can play that either way, right, and and it, and it does work, and there's like enough I think there's enough like visual evidence of in the in the you know, the screen, especially in the uh uh when when the coaches is having the boys run around and everything. Yeah, there's there's lots of things that can make you go huh. He seemed they seem to linger on on on on that kid going by and he slapping him on the butt kind of thing a little bit too long, and you start trying to you start putting things together. It's never explicitly said, because you know, in nineteen fifty these conversations we would not be having, you know, And so I think that that's a great that's a great example. Another example of the film that I that I liked was when Jenna was a Genevieve who said, you know, no one can sneeze in this town without someone offering you a handkerchief, basically saying, you know, to Sonny, you think your little affair with Ruth is a secret. Everybody knows about it. Everybody knows

42:43 everyone except for jac apparently. But yeah, so, I mean, I think so you think the performances are the film is more powerful because the characters don't say what they feel. Yeah, well, I think that invites you, okay to put put put some stuff in there. And that's a that's great for any kind of conversation because then you and I can sit here and we can have a whole conversation about why you see things as one way and I see something as another. And you know that's just two guys talking about art, right, And that's something that's really great. We can look at something observe it, and because not everything is spelled out, you know, like a like like a Marvel film, you know, we we have we have room for interpretation. Uh and and a lot of times they're they're equally valid, because that's that's the great thing about about.

43:38 Art, Yeah, which brings us to legacy and lessons. The script didn't just capture a moment in time. It captured a feeling quiet emptiness, doesn't announce itself. It just settles in. But that's what makes it last. You know. Structurally, it brings a lot of traditional rules. I mean there's there's no strong maternal there's no goal, there's no clear antagonists, no major plot engine driving things forward. And yet it works because the script understands something fundamental. You don't always need big events to tell a meaningful story. You know, sometimes it's just that whole condition of the story. I mean, the town isn't just the setting of where everything's taking place.

44:28 It's the force that's just the shaping every decision, every every relationship. I mean, and instead of resolving it, the script just lets it exist. I mean. And that's why I think if it's so perfect into that new Hollywood thing, because it's it's not it's a little bleak, it's you know, it's dark, but it's honest. It's it's restrained, and it trusts this, it trusts the audience, and it shows that you don't have to shout to have a screenplay be so powerful. Sometimes it just you know, really has to be. It's got to be true. This isn't a screenplay that could have been filmed ten years earlier. Yeah, Okay, the Hayes Code was still in effect, but at that time, I would believe sixty sixty two.

45:24 So yeah, So so, you know, the Hayes Code relaxed a lot of those standards that you know, the studios would generally agree upon, and basically once we got into the rating systems, you know, they were able to then put category movies into categories to say, hey, we will have this kind of content inside it. They wouldn't have been able to tell that kind of of a of a of a story back then. But yeah, all. Right, well, we're gonna step aside for one of our things that we do here a companion picks. So each episode we'd like to highlight a companion piece to our episode.

46:06 It can be anything from a movie, book, or whatever you feel goes well with the episode. I'm so glad that I'm not alone on this one, Chuck, because my companion pick is Targets. This movie is fantastic. I really considered this as the Peter Bogdanovich episode, but because Last Paper showed just more well known, you know, the script and stuff thatut. But Targets, I mean, it's not just because of what you said of being able to take two days of Boris Carlock footage footage from Terror with Jack Nicholson and turning it into this movie about a guy that resembles Charles Whitman in a way that it's almost put together with just editing. Yeah, and it works so well, and it's creepy. It's I mean, if you watch this movie now it is still shocking. If you watch Targets to day, you would not be This would not pass the ratings laws. This would be an X rating.

47:19 This movie's but if you haven't seen Targets, it's a little hard to find. You might find in like t B Swear, but the Criterion Targets. I'm so glad it finally came out. And but yeah, that's definitely my companion pieces. So first of all, I have to say that makes me really happy that it's on Criterion. That the second bit was that they held this movie because certain events happened in the sixties, and they put it out a little bit afterwards. And I'm not going to say that it was exploitive of of of certain assassinations, but you know Corman. Corman knew what he was doing. Yeah, actually, I think that would have been probably paramount by that point.

48:04 Who would are be putting that out? So, well, do you have a companion piece for me? I do. And it's not fair if I say, go back to Chinatown for the book on Roger Corman that I was talking about then, So I'm going to go with I don't know if I've talked about this one. Now, this is the movie Brats. So the Movie Brats is written by Michael Pie and Linda Miles. It is it was published in nineteen seventy nine. So it is a book that is about not necessarily the new Hollywood directors, but the first generation of film school directors who grew up loving films they didn't grow up in as directors in the studio system. And so this is almost like a first source material for information on Martin sac John Millius, Brianda Palmer, George Lucas, Francis for Coppola, and Steven Spielberg.

49:09 Sadly it is missing an entry on Peter Bogdanovich, but he probably would have been in that same mold with Roger Corman and Francis for a Coppola. That's funny because the book, the book that that I always come back to is the Peter Biskins, Easy Writers, Raging Bulls and all those other guys in it. And when you read that book, you obviously want to see all their types of films. But and I'm sad to say this, but Magdonovich was one of the last ones that I said, all right, I need to I need to find out what the delio was you know, and then seeing that he was this because when this came, you know, his name was at the top of the list of geniuses. You know, he was friends with Oresome we L. He had no problem getting these Howard Hawks and john Ford people to sit down with him. I mean, he got john Ford to give to get Ben Johnson the part of Sam the line you want to be John Wayne's sidekick for the rest of your life, do this part and he wins him an oscar. Yeah, but yeah, I mean it's but that you're I definitely now want to pick up this book. It was like, there's more, there's more about Sebany's film.

50:29 And and you you actually gave a great reference for the for the Peter was a Peterbiskin book. As well as writer. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's another one because I was either going to bring that one or the movie Brats, and the movie Brats is just a I like it because it was written in seventy nine, so it's talking about Spielberg and he's finishing filming uh C E three K at the time, so I mean it's it's like it's like right right there. And also too, I know, were kind of moving out, But I did want to make a couple of notices. Is that the the movies that are shown at in the Last Picture Show at that theater, the Royal.

51:14 They started off with I can name one. I know one of them, No, two of them, two of them. Okay, so you probably know Father of the Bride, right, that's right there. What was the last one? Red River? Do you know who was a stuntman in Red River? He was also a star of this film? Ben Johnson? Ben Johnson, he was, he was a He was an unlisted stuntman in that film that is now credited on IMDb. It's funny enough. I didn't realize how many films that I own with Ben Jonson, Ben Johnson, And I'm like, okay, Last Picture Show, the get Away, to get Away a wild bunch, just like.

52:05 Just take just take the Getaway, watch the get watch the Getaway. Let let the Getaway be your introduction to Ben Johnson. First of all, you're gonna have to like go like take a shower to get the sleeves off and all that, just because that guy is But then go and watch the Last Picture Show. Because that was the order in which I saw it. My mind could not reconcile that these were the same actor. That's how good they are. Chlorus Leachman. When I saw her, I'm thinking Leachman from rob Or or yeah, or even from a Frank and Stick, but I'm thinking, Okay, I might be a little bit older. I'm thinking of her from Mary title Moore, right, and and she's a She's gorgeous, and you know, I'm watching her and I'm just so amazed at how they can make Chloris Leachman looks so plain, and I was. I was so happy to see that she won uh the the Academy Award for that. Although I would have said that she was she was I think also up against with Ellen Burston who who who was fabulous as Lois in this film? Either either one of them winning, I I was. I was pretty happy with we just covered uh this, We just covered Gene Hackman and al Pacino in Scarecrow.

53:26 I didn't see that. I need to see that movie. That's one that I haven't gotten to yet. Put it on your list. It's it's good. It has a small role with Eileen Brennan in it, and she is small roles, small role, but but she is always memorable. But yeah, she was. She was so good in this film. She was. Her role as Genevieve was almost like the mother figure for Sonny. But then with a cool ant. Yeah yeah, so if if, if, if, what was if Sam was kind of the father figure Billy that she's the cool ant. Okay, I get that one. So well, that's going to be a wrap on the last Picture show A script by Peter mcdonovich and Larry McMurtry. Now, I know for these last three episodes, I have picked some grim and dark, bleak screenplays with some very downer annies, but I am pleased to let the audiences know that for episode four, I'm gonna have a little bit more fun as we dig into Jordan Peele's get out, and that's going to be next on A script by I want to thank my guests Chuck, Bryan, Chuck, what's coming up for you? Anything new on the podcast coming up?

54:39 Yeah? Thanks a lot for asking. We have so we had, Like I said, we just had. Scarecrow has been released and next month we are let's see what month are we in. We're in March, Mark, all right, So in the month of April we're starting our crime wave month and we're kicking off Crime Wave Month. Our first film is The Getaway, and then we follow The Getaway with a Don Siegel film that you may not have seen but you should. It's a vehicle with Walter Mathou playing against type. He's not the Jack Lemon's sidekick, but he's Charlie Verrick, who is the last of the Independence. And this is a film that you might even want to look at the script for this film because it is so tight and the ending is so good that well we couldn't we couldn't even give the ending away because it's just too good. So join us in April.

55:40 All right, Well, make sure you keep up with a Film Buy with new episodes dropping every Monday and the continuing popular Star Trek series. Phaser said it's Sun every Wednesdays. Please join us on social media. You can find us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and x don't forget to visit the official film by Podcast website at wwwa film by podcast dot com. Email us at a film by podcast dot com. We love interacting with you, sharing opinions, taking your requests for future episodes, and debating great movies that will do it for a script by. See you next time.