Varietal: Powerful, Full-flavored Red
Vintner: Peter Bogdanovich
Vintage: 1971
Vineyard: Columbia/Tri-Star

by Brian.


Roger Ebert, Rex Reed, Andrew Sarris, and Pauline Kael are all people who love film enough to talk about it for a living. Francois Truffaut, Jean-luc Godard, Dario Argento, and Peter Bogdanovich are all people who love(d) film so much that they talked about it until they could do it. I liken this breed to those pioneers that didn't give up at the Rockies, going all the way to California and building piers when they found that land would take them no further. It's no coincidence that these critic-cum-directors each took cinema a step further, heading west when others settled for high altitudes and football stadiums. The Last Picture Show, although only his second film, is Bogdanovich's Pier.

A story so personal, told so personally that if I didn't know any better I'd say Bogdanovich himself hailed from Anarene; so intricately intriguing with its people, places, and things that it could only be made by a new hand. Studied in old technique and new style, filtered through stark imagery and source music, breaking conventional rules and showcasing forgotten ones, Bogdanovich tells this story of a small town as if it were a final examination of his own brand of film school. The masters look on: Ford, Hawks, and Welles in the audience grading him on things learned, delivering exemplary marks of course. It is true that all of the major influences in Bogdanovich's education shine clear in this film, but I'd hesitate to cite this as a fault. Ford landscapes and Welles depth-of-field are not by any means the worst things to see on the screen. Bogdanovich indeed chose his mentors well for this film stands as a landmark in several ways. This is a film to make you love black and white photography. This is a film that tells you why Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman are stars. This is a film that makes you wonder where the hell Timothy Bottoms is today. This is a film that convinces you that adult dramas can be made about teenage kids.

Lucky for me, this fine cabernet is now available on DVD, complete with a wonderful widescreen transfer, archived re-release footage showcasing Bogdanovich's youthful arrogance, and a retrospective documentary detailing his age-wizened views and everyone else's memories. Both are rather interesting and well worth viewing.

By now it should be clear that I love and respect this film quite a lot. By most accounts it's a film that a person my age with my interests shouldn't like, yet something about it keeps me entertained each time I see it. Perhaps I like it because it's the work of a critic, or perhaps I like it because it sites its influences very openly, but I'm willing to say that I like it simply because it's good.

While I'm somewhat disconcerted that Bogdanovich's career took a perpetual turn for worse shortly after The Last Picture Show (although his later films weren't bad by far), I find it hard to wish for more. As Welles responded to Bogdanovich's saying that Greta Garbo only had a few really great performances, "you only need one."


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