Press Release Criterion Press Release: The Last Picture Show (1971) (4k UHD Combo) (Plus: Texasville) (1 Viewer)

[Ronald Epstein]

One of the key films of the American seventies cinema renaissance, The Last Picture Show is set in the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a movie screen. This aching portrait of a dying West, adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, focuses on the daily shuffles of three futureless teens—enigmatic Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), wayward jock Duane (Jeff Bridges), and desperate-to-be-adored rich girl Jacy (Cybill Shepherd)—and the aging lost souls who bump up against them in the night like drifting tumbleweeds, including Cloris Leachman’s lonely housewife and Ben Johnson’s grizzled movie-house proprietor. Featuring evocative black-and-white imagery and profoundly felt performances, this hushed depiction of crumbling American values remains the pivotal work in the career of invaluable film historian and director Peter Bogdanovich.
​

FILM INFO​

• United States
• 1971
• 126 minutes
• Black & White
• 1.85:1
• English
• Spine #549

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES​

• 4K digital restoration of the director’s cut, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
• Texasville (1990), the sequel to The Last Picture Show,presented in both the original theatrical version and a black-and-white version of Peter Bogdanovich’s director’s cut, produced in collaboration with cinematographer Nicholas von Sternberg
• Two audio commentaries, featuring Bogdanovich and actors Cybill Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Cloris Leachman, and Frank Marshall
• Three documentaries about the making of the film
• Q&A with Bogdanovich from 2009
• Screen tests and location footage
• Introduction to Texasville featuring Bogdanovich, Shepherd, and actor Jeff Bridges
• Excerpts from a 1972 television interview with filmmaker François Truffaut about the New Hollywood
• Trailers
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Graham Fuller and excerpts from an interview with Bogdanovich about Texasville,with a new introduction by Bogdanovich biographer Peter Tonguette
  
  Cover by F. Ron Miller
  
  November 14, 2023

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Thank you for supporting HTF when you preorder using the link below. As an Amazon Associate, HTF earns from qualifying purchases. If you are using an adblocker you will not see link.

See on Amazon See on Amazon

 

[Lord Dalek]

In which Sony FINALLY figures out a way to get people to buy...eugh...Texasville.

 

[SD_Brian]

In which Sony FINALLY figures out a way to get people to buy...eugh...Texasville.

Texasville would be my only reason for buying this, as I have two copies of Last Picture Show already: Once in Criterion's BBS box set and once (twice actually, since it includes two versions of the movie) in the Columbia Classics v3 4k box.

 

[Will Krupp]

Texasville would be my only reason for buying this, as I have two copies of Last Picture Show already: Once in Criterion's BBS box set and once (twice actually, since it includes two versions of the movie) in the Columbia Classics v3 4k box.

I just don't like Texasville enough to make this a must-buy. I'm over-the-moon with the 4K release from the box set so the only thing that might make me double dip would be the miraculous return of Gary Brockette's johnson to the pool scene. Otherwise I'll hold firm with what I've got.

 

[SD_Brian]

I just don't like Texasville enough to make this a must-buy.

I haven't seen Texasville, and have only ever heard mixed-to-negative things about it. Hopefully they'll stream it on the Criterion Channel so I can try before I buy.

 

[Will Krupp]

I haven't seen Texasville, and have only ever heard mixed-to-negative things about it. Hopefully they'll stream it on the Criterion Channel so I can try before I buy.

Do you already have Picture Show in 4K? If so, then yes I would definitely recommend seeing Texasville first, lol. If you don't have Picture Show in 4K then it seems like a no-brainer since I'm sure Texasville will be a free bonus. I guess I shouldn't really say that because we don't have a price yet, do we?

 

[Todd Erwin]

Do you already have Picture Show in 4K? If so, then yes I would definitely recommend seeing Texasville first, lol. If you don't have Picture Show in 4K then it seems like a no-brainer since I'm sure Texasville will be a free bonus. I guess I shouldn't really say that because we don't have a price yet, do we?

Per the Criterion website, MSRP is $59.95, pre-order direct price is $47.96.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Per the Criterion website, MSRP is $59.95, pre-order direct price is $47.96.

This November release means it falls into Barnes & Noble's November sale window for those of us living in the States.

 

[SD_Brian]

Do you already have Picture Show in 4K? If so, then yes I would definitely recommend seeing Texasville first, lol. If you don't have Picture Show in 4K then it seems like a no-brainer since I'm sure Texasville will be a free bonus. I guess I shouldn't really say that because we don't have a price yet, do we?

I do have LPS in 4k via the Columbia Classics version. If I bite on this release, I would just pick up the less expensive Blu-ray-only set and skip the 4k.

 

[Jeffrey D]

Texasville would be my only reason for buying this, as I have two copies of Last Picture Show already: Once in Criterion's BBS box set and once (twice actually, since it includes two versions of the movie) in the Columbia Classics v3 4k box.

Same here- I have the film in these box sets too. I watched the Columbia UHD about a week and a half ago, and I thought the image looked a bit soft at times- not the usual razor sharp focus and contrasts that we normally see with UHD.

 

[Kevin Antonio (Kev)]

Interested in seeing the B/W version of texasvillie.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I’ve never seen Texasville. Went to IMDB- directed by Bogdanovich, written by McMurtry, and starring Bridges, Shepherd and Bottoms. I doubt it’s awful, or a complete misfire- there should be some good elements about it, I would think.

 

[battlebeast]

Are all the bonus features on the BBS box set?

If not, I guess I’m gonna have to buy this new Blu Ray.

 

[compson]

I’ve never seen Texasville. Went to IMDB- directed by Bogdanovich, written by McMurtry, and starring Bridges, Shepherd and Bottoms. I doubt it’s awful, or a complete misfire- there should be some good elements about it, I would think.

According to David Thomson, Texasville was “badly recut by others.” It was pretty bad, but I’m looking forward to seeing the director’s cut.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I know Criterion gets guff sometimes about the cover art they choose, but I like their choice for this release.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Preorder live see post #2

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I don't actually have this in any disc format, so guess I'll probably finally get it in Criterion 4K...

_Man_

 

[battlebeast]

I’ll get this if a new Blu ray is warranted (new bonus, better transfer).

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

Interested in seeing the B/W version of texasvillie.

I’ve never seen Texasville. Went to IMDB- directed by Bogdanovich, written by McMurtry, and starring Bridges, Shepherd and Bottoms. I doubt it’s awful, or a complete misfire- there should be some good elements about it, I would think.

According to David Thomson, Texasville was “badly recut by others.” It was pretty bad, but I’m looking forward to seeing the director’s cut.

So, I went through this set, the Blu-ray version of it, and on Texasville here's what I can tell you.

The director's cut is in black and white but to my eyes, it looks kind of crappy, almost like a digital video quality. This was more evident because I watched it right after watching The Last Picture Show, which looked gorgeous. I did not watch Texasville in it's entirety in color after watching it in black and white but to my eyes, the color version just looked much better.

Aside from the black and white looking fairly terrible, the editing of Texasville does seem a bizarre mess. The character played by Annie Potts, Karla, seems to suddenly be cut into scenes in different costumes all over the place. She also seems to magically suddenly transport from one location to another. So, she will be in a scene talking to someone, then boom she walks into a new scene, in a different outfit, and it does not seem any time really has passed between scenes. It's almost as if it is cut by throwing the film in a blender but there does seem to be some intent for there to be a story flow...the problem is, it seems incredibly obvious that whoever did this cutting is jumbling up scenes that do not seem to have been shot to run together. I assume Bogdanovich oversaw the "director's cut" but perhaps he only had so much he could work with. I should do a run through of the color version to see how it is cut because the director's cut kind of seems like a hatchet job.

Many actors from the first film do show up in Texasville in small parts. It is kind of fun spotting them. Jeff Bridges is the primary character in Texasville and the story is told through the eyes of his character. There are many events taking place in Duane's life as we pick-up with him but the primary one the story is focused on is Cybil Shepard's Jacy who suddenly shows up in town and becomes wrapped up in his life in a hurry.

Duane is married to Karla (Annie Potts) and sleeping around with several women in town. It's kind of a running gag in the film that everybody is sleeping with everybody and everybody knows this. Jacy seems more interested in Duane's family, including his dog, than Duane himself, who she seems to just be toying with.

And here is where you get to the real difference between Picture Show and Texasville. Picture Show is a melancholy drama about the end of an era for a town, Texasville is a light comedy filled with goofy situations and goofy characters. It's a humorous little romp, I enjoyed it, but really it seems totally disconnected from Picture Show, outside of the returning characters.

It's not really a sequel as much as it is someone imaging what it would be like if they aged the characters from Picture Show and put them in a situation comedy. That's really what it is. Randy Quaid is back as the character he played in Picture Show, but he is pure comedy here. Annie Potts as Karla kind of sets the tone for the film. Jeff Bridges as Duane sort of walks around constantly perplexed at what is happening around him and how off the wall everybody is.

It's not a great film, but it has a great group of actors basically having fun with their parts. It kind of utterly fails as a sequel to Picture Show though, almost as if it was written by someone that had no understanding of the first film and instead thought "Well, that one was kind of depressing, let's make this one a fun comedy!"

I can see why when it came out critics probably said "WTF is this?" because it is nothing like the character study the first film was. It literally could be the pilot for a TV sitcom.

Bottom line, if you don't go in looking for a drama in the style of the first film, well, you may enjoy the goofy little ride. The actors are fun and the film has some laughs in it. The black and white version serves no purpose at all. It looks pretty lousy in black and white and seeing it that way kind of only pushes the point that it is nothing like the first film.