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| The Last Picture Show (1971) | |
| Plot Synopsis (continued)
Ruth sits on her bed with a blank look on her face, sensing that an end to her affair has come. As Sonny drives past the Popper house some time later, he looks over - feeling guilty and cowardly. In town, he jumps from a Farrow Oil pickup truck (he's now working for Jacy's father to "make a livin'" so he can afford to keep the poolhall open) and notices Duane sleeping in the front seat of his used but shiny Mercury parked in front of the poolhall. The conversation turns strained when macho Duane asks about Sonny's affair and reveals that he knows that Sonny has been "goin' together" with Jacy that summer during his absence. He first tests his rival friend's trustworthiness and honesty:
Sonny is convinced that Jacy would never marry Duane, even if he made more money and moved back into town. Duane doubts that Sonny isn't man enough to succeed in making love to Jacy ("You ain't that good a cocksman") while Sonny counters: "She likes me just as much as she ever liked you." Sonny is confident that Jacy will let him "stay with her all night one of these nights...she's done promised." Enraged that Sonny knows that Duane was impotent "that time in Wichita Falls," he smashes Sonny's face with his beer bottle and bloodies his eye. They punch at each other until Sonny passes out on the pavement. Hospitalized in the Hamilton Hospital, with his eye bandaged, Sonny declines a visit from Ruth, who has sent a note to him via the Nurse (Faye Jordan), reading: "May I come in and see you a little while?" Later after being released, Sonny and Genevieve, in the poolhall, discuss Duane's future - she believes that his enlistment in the Army (to fight in Korea) will be beneficial. She regrets not having "made it" in life like the Farrows:
A "worried" Jacy drives up to visit Sonny after his injury, more in love than ever because he 'fought for her,' and because she was made the focal point of the boys' altercation. She enjoys the excitement and gossip that they have become a 'famous' couple in town - she hopes to con Sonny into eloping with her (she promises to do the driving - and call the shots):
On an Oklahoma road, the scheming Jacy is driving her convertible with an eye-bandaged Sonny as her passenger. They're wearing their wedding clothes and are "man and wife now." Double-crossing Jacy predicts that her marriage to Sonny (causing another scandal that places her at the focal point) will force her parents to track them down within hours. Their marriage will be thwarted and annulled before they can consummate their relationship. And consequently, Jacy will be sent her away to college forever:
An Oklahoma Highway Patrol car stops the newlyweds' car, and Sonny is harshly disappointed. He protests being apprehended by the officer (Floyd Mahaney): "We ain't done nothin' wrong. Ain't we got a right to get married? How can you arrest us, just like that?" Duplicitous, Jacy agrees to follow the patrolman, but states happily and with relief: "I'll just be heart-broken if my folks have done this." At the patrol station, an enraged Gene Farrow takes Jacy (Sonny's soon-to-be-ex-bride) by the arm and drags her away from Sonny, snarling: "Think I worked like a dog all my life so my daughter could end up in a poolhall?" He drives her home in the Farrow's Cadillac (in a swirl of prairie dust from the spinning tires), leaving Sonny to return to Anarene with Lois in Jacy's convertible. Jacy's cynical mother offers Sonny a drink from a flask of bourbon and admits her realistic view of Jacy's effect on men. She also admires Sonny for having had an affair with Ruth:
Once they arrive back in the barren town of Anarene, she shares small-town life's regrets with him. They both agree that the drift of their lives was dramatically changed after Sam, the patriarch of the town, passed away. In one of the film's most resonant scenes, she confesses that she was Sam's old flame and that she still clings to her recollection of that big moment at the tank with him. Both realize that they share a bond of love for Sam. She expresses her love for Sam - and a fleeting moment of feelings for Sonny himself (she is a 40 year old woman in an unfulfilled marriage, similar to Ruth Popper):
At a fall Anarene High School football game, where Sonny holds one end of the first-and-ten chain, he speaks to a middle-aged adult named Chester (Noble Willingham) holding the other end. They compare this year's football team with Sonny's failed team from a year earlier:
As the camera slowly pans to a closeup, Sonny only mouths (and then stops singing) the school song (about loyalty and love for the school) as it is sung before the game. Rumor has it that Duane has returned in uniform from the Army, so Sonny drives over to the shabby, unpainted Jackson home to be reconciled. He has decided to visit with Duane before he's off to Korea early the next day on the bus. They plan to spend his last night together, like old times - at the movies, where the business has gone bankrupt. Their attendance at the town's last picture show symbolizes their renewed (but ending) friendship:
They are almost the only ones in the audience for the final show (except for Billy in the balcony) - viewing Howard Hawks' classic and majestic western Red River (1948) - a film set in Texas at a time of promise and hope. [The paternal hero John Wayne appears in a starring role with Montgomery Clift as his 'adopted' son, Matt. They watch the early dawn scene in which the cowboys yelp while herding the cattle onto the great prairie trail for the long drive from Texas to market. Wayne tells his son, "Take 'em to Missouri, Matt." In contrast, the only cattle seen in this film are crowded into the back of a lorry passing through town. In McMurtry's novel, the picture show closes with Universal's lesser western film The Kid From Texas (1950) starring Audie Murphy in his debut film role as outlaw Billy the Kid.] Once the western film is over (it's not a first-run feature), they decide to go to Wichita Falls for a few beers, but not before expressing their regrets to Miss Mosey about the closing of the show. She responds:
As dawn approaches, the two pals are listening to the radio in Duane's car and drinking beer. Sonny rolls a cigarette (something Sam had taught him). Duane presumes that "the next piece of ass I get'll be yella," and loans his Mercury to Sonny during his absence. He departs on the Trailways bus after they exchange a few words about Jacy who has moved to the big city of Dallas ("She don't get home much. Ain't been back to town since August. I guess she just stays in Dallas all the time"). Duane turns sentimental - and like Sam (with Lois) - still hasn't gotten over Jacy. But they are reconciled as strong friends, partly because they both experienced failed, unrequited love with the shallow and disruptive Jacy (and ultimately were reclaimed after escaping from her maneuverings):
They shake hands as Duane climbs the bus stairs and calls out with an un-nerving final goodbye: "See you in a year or two, if I don't get shot." Shivering from the early morning cold and wind, Sonny enters the poolhall to light a fire, but then hears the horn, and the screeching noise of the brakes and tires of a big cattle truck out on the main road. As he walks toward the square, he sees people standing by the side of the truck - and Billy's broom lying on the pavement. The camera assumes his point-of-view as he runs toward the scene of the accident, where he hears hereford yearlings bellowing in the filled-to-capacity truck. Cowboys, the trucker, and other townsfolk are gathered around Billy's body after he has been struck dead. Although Sonny reacts with numb horror to his friend's death, the men are indifferent and callous:
Devastated by the tragedy, Sonny screams and yells at the apathetic onlookers, with the moving line: "He was sweepin', ya sons of bitches. He was sweepin'." He scoops up Billy's limp body, now silenced forever, and drags it over to the sidewalk in front of the picture show. He removes his letter jacket and lovingly covers Billy with it, and then picks up Billy's cap and places it next to him. He is numbed by the shock of grief. [This scene pays homage to the final one in Nicholas Ray's Rebel Without a Cause (1955).] Everything is empty, wretched and cold in Sonny's life and in the disintegrated community, now that Duane has left to fight in Korea, Billy has been killed, and Jacy (after their elopement and annulled marriage) has moved to the big city. And the poolhall is only a sorry reminder of its past splendor under the leadership of Sam the Lion. He drives his pickup as fast as he can to pass the town's enclosing barrier - the city limit's sign. Sonny attempts to leave behind the boundaries of the town (with a population of 1,131) and all its tragic memories. But he is overcome by the pull of the town and cannot break its connection to him. He slows down, makes a U-turn, and drives back - to Ruth's house for consolation, and to make amends. Hurt, grief-stricken and shocked, he knocks on the door, finding the long-suffering, abandoned and anguished Ruth reluctant and unprepared to see him in a bathrobe (she has been watching TV in her lonely living room). She has a haggard, faded and pale appearance, but lets him in to her kitchen when he asks for a cup of coffee. They have difficulty looking at each other - it has been months since they have spoken together. Suddenly, she turns angry and bitter, and turns against him for rejecting and discarding her. She flings a half-poured cup of coffee (and the full coffee pot) against the cabinet on the wall - dark coffee grounds drip down onto the refrigerator. With a shrill and virulent voice, she lashes out at him for neglecting her in favor of the younger and prettier Jacy, but after her explosive tirade has been delivered - realizes how hurt he is too:
[In the background, one can hear a top 40 comedy song -- an early 1952 hit by Johnny Standley titled It's In the Book -- a comedy/parody on fundamentalist preachers. The song told of a revival preacher whose sermon topic was "Little Bo Peep". At the conclusion of his sermon, the preacher instructed his congregation to sing a cleansing "hymn" -- "Grandma's Lye Soap".
The scene paid homage to 'lost' footage of the cut scene from the original ending of The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), when Eugene visits Fanny in the Amberson mansion -- now a boarding house. In that somber scene, a phonograph record played in the background as an ironic counterpoint to the setting. The record was a legendary vaudeville duet, No News, or, What Killed the Dog?, played in weirdly-distorted voices by Cotten and by Norman Foster -- who wrote it together. It was a newer version of a vaudeville sketch in the late 1920s, once made popular by George Moran and Charles Black - known as the Two Black Crows, in which a wealthy master returned after a six-week journey taken for rest, and was met by his servant. He asked if there was any news and was told that his dog had died. When he learned the cause of the dog's death, he gradually realized that many other catastrophes had occurred.] Without a single word, Sonny extends his left hand and places it over Ruth's clasped hands that rest on the table, to beg for forgiveness. Although she is slightly startled by his gesture, she cautiously permits him to gently touch her. He separates her hands, takes her right hand in his left, and weaves his fingers between hers. She cradles their two hands in her left hand and then comforts him. She forgivingly takes his hand (as tears wet her eyes and cheeks) and presses it to her neck and to both sides of her face. As she squeezes his hand, she guides him to caress her face with his hand, and then straightens his shirt collar after noticing that it is rumpled. Finally she finds words to say to him - and bravely (and hopefully) takes him back (although a void remains and their relationship is ultimately over), as the camera pulls away from them:
A dissolve returns to a view of the deserted, dust-streaked and empty town, panning from left to right (the film is framed in its opening and closing by this view). It begins with a long shot of the distant Texaco gas station and ends with a slow fade-out at the now-closed Royal Theater. The wind mournfully howls as leaves blow through the cold wintry air. Has Sonny come to terms with the present, and will he be able to carry on in Sam's shoes as the town's conscience? The credits begin with individual portraits of each actor/actress in their character roles within the film:
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Back in town, Jacy drives up in her convertible and
befriends Sonny, flirting with him for a car date: "I felt lonesome.
Thought you might wanna drive around a while." She knows that
he has been secretly infatuated with her for quite a while, so she
squeezes his hand to entice and lure him, and to prevent him from
keeping his scheduled visit at the Popper house with Ruth. With alluring, femme
fatale eyes, she asks: "I'm still a little scared (about
the Clarg kidnapping). Please take me ridin'." They drive out
to the tank where Jacy closes her eyes, leans forward, and expectantly
extends her lips for a kiss - a truly effective moment of seduction.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Popper is just finishing re-wallpapering her bedroom
walls (literally re-making her life), but appears anxious that Sonny
may be late. In the front seat of Jacy's car, Sonny is passionately
fondling Jacy's breasts under her two-piece top, but she postpones
love-making in the car - knowing that she has captured Sonny in her
opportunistic web: