Saturday, January 24, 2026

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (2006)

 


Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair is a 2006 American martial arts film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino. It combines the films Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004), which were conceived and produced as a single film, but split in two. Uma Thurman stars as the Bride, who swears revenge on a group of assassins after they try to kill her and her unborn child.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2006 and screened at Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema in 2011. Tarantino said he had waited until he owned the rights before giving the film a full release and thought that asking audiences to come to his theater gave it more meaning. It was theatrically released in the United States by Lionsgate on December 5, 2025, to critical acclaim.

Plot

Note: This plot summary has been combined and shortened. For further details, see Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Kill Bill: Volume 2. In addition, the film is presented in a nonlinear narrative. The following is a linear summary of the plot.

In 1999, the Bride, a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, is rehearsing her marriage at a chapel in El Paso, Texas. The Deadly Vipers, led by Bill, attack the chapel, shooting everyone. As the Bride lies wounded, she tells Bill he is the father of her unborn child just as he shoots her in the head.

The Bride falls into a coma. In the hospital, Elle Driver, one of the Deadly Vipers, prepares to assassinate her via lethal injection. Bill calls Elle and aborts the mission, considering it dishonorable to kill her while she is defenseless. The Bride awakens four years later and is horrified to discover she is no longer pregnant. She vows to kill Bill and the other Deadly Vipers.

The Bride obtains a sword from the legendary swordsmith Hattori Hanzō in Okinawa. In Tokyo, she defeats a squad of yakuza fighters, the Crazy 88, and assassinates their leader, the former Deadly Viper O-Ren Ishii. In Pasadena, California, the Bride kills Vernita Green, a former Deadly Viper, at her suburban home.

In Barstow, California, Bill's brother Budd, another Deadly Viper, incapacitates the Bride, sedates her, and buries her alive in a coffin. The Bride uses techniques taught to her by the martial arts master Pai Mei to escape. Elle Driver arranges to buy the Bride's sword from Budd and kills him with a black mamba hidden within a case full of money at his trailer. As Elle exits, the Bride, now addressed by her real name Beatrix Kiddo, ambushes her and they fight. Beatrix plucks out Elle's remaining eye and leaves her screaming in the trailer with the black mamba.

Beatrix tracks Bill to his home in Mexico and discovers that their daughter, B.B., is still alive, now four years old. Beatrix spends the evening with them. After she puts B.B. to bed, Bill shoots Beatrix with a dart containing truth serum and interrogates her. She explains that she left the Deadly Vipers when she discovered she was pregnant, in order to give B.B. a better life. Bill explains that he assumed she was dead and had ordered her assassination when he discovered she was alive and engaged to a "jerk" he assumed was the father of her child. The two begin to fight, but Beatrix traps Bill's sword in her scabbard and strikes him with the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique, an attack learned from Pai Mei. Bill reconciles with her, then falls dead as he walks away. Beatrix leaves with B.B. to start a new life.

Cast

  • Uma Thurman as Beatrix "the Bride" Kiddo (code name Black Mamba), a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, described as "the deadliest woman in the world".
  • Lucy Liu as O-Ren Ishii (code name Cottonmouth), a former Deadly Viper who has become the leader of the yakuza in Tokyo.
    • Ai Maeda as O-Ren Ishii (The Origin of O-Ren sequence) (voice)
  • Vivica A. Fox as Vernita Green (code name Copperhead), a former Deadly Viper and now a mother and homemaker living under the name Jeannie Bell.
  • Daryl Hannah as Elle Driver (code name California Mountain Snake), a former Deadly Viper, Bill's lover and the Bride's fourth target.
  • Michael Madsen as Budd (code name Sidewinder), a former Deadly Viper and Bill's brother, working as a strip club bouncer. He is the Bride's third target.
  • Sonny Chiba as Hattori Hanzō, a sushi chef and long-retired master swordsmith.
  • Julie Dreyfus as Sofie Fatale, O-Ren's lawyer, confidante, and second lieutenant. She is also a former protégée of Bill's and is present at the wedding chapel massacre.
  • Chiaki Kuriyama as Gogo Yubari, O-Ren's sadistic Japanese schoolgirl bodyguard.
  • Gordon Liu as Pai Mei: An immensely powerful and extremely old martial arts master. Beatrix, Bill, and Elle all train under him. Liu also appears as a separate character, Johnny Mo, leader of the Yakuza gang The Crazy 88's.
  • Michael Parks as Ranger Earl McGraw, a Texas Ranger who investigates the wedding chapel massacre. Parks originated McGraw in the Robert Rodriguez film From Dusk till Dawn, which Tarantino wrote and acted in. He reprised the role in both segments of the Rodriguez/Tarantino collaboration Grindhouse. Parks also appears as a separate character, Esteban Vihaio, a retired pimp and the first of Bill's "father figures".
  • David Carradine as Bill (code name Snake Charmer), the former leader of the Deadly Vipers, the Bride's former lover, and the father of her daughter.
  • Michael Bowen as Buck, an orderly at the hospital who has been raping and prostituting the Bride while she lay comatose.
  • Jun Kunimura as Boss Tanaka, a yakuza whom O-Ren executes after he ridicules her ethnicity and gender.
  • Kenji Ohba as Shiro, Hattori Hanzo's employee.
  • Yuki Kazamatsuri as the Proprietress of the House of Blue Leaves.
  • James Parks as Ranger Edgar McGraw, a Texas Ranger and son of Earl McGraw.
  • Goro Daimon as Boss Honda
  • Shun Sugata as Boss Genta
  • Akaji Maro as Boss Ozawah
  • Kazuki Kitamura as Boss Koji, a yakuza working for O-Ren. He also appeared as Bodyguard #2 in O-Ren's army, the Crazy 88.
  • The 5.6.7.8's (Sachiko Fuji, Yoshiko Yamaguchi and Ronnie Yoshiko Fujiyama) as themselves, performing at the House of Blue Leaves.
  • Jonathan Loughran as Buck's trucker client, killed by the Bride after he attempts to rape her.
  • Sakichi Sato as "Charlie Brown", a House of Blue Leaves employee who wears a kimono similar to the shirt worn by the Peanuts character.
  • Ambrosia Kelley as Nakia "Nikki" Bell, Vernita's four-year-old daughter.
  • Yōji Tanaka as Crazy 88 #3
  • Issey Takahashi as Crazy 88 #4
  • Juri Manase as Crazy 88 #6
  • Naomi Kusumi as Boss Matsumoto (The Origin of O-Ren sequence) (voice)
  • Hikaru Midorikawa as Pretty Riki (The Origin of O-Ren sequence) (voice)
  • Stephanie L. Moore, Shana Stein, and Caitlin Keats as Joleen, Erica, and Janeen: Beatrix's best friends who are present at the wedding rehearsal.
  • Bo Svenson as Reverend Harmony: The minister who was to officiate at Beatrix and Tommy's wedding.
  • Jeannie Epper as Mrs. Harmony: Reverend Harmony's wife.
  • Chris Nelson as Tommy Plympton: Beatrix's fiancé who is killed in the wedding chapel massacre.
  • Samuel L. Jackson as Rufus: The organist who was to perform at Beatrix and Tommy's wedding.
  • Larry Bishop as Larry Gomez: The abusive manager of the strip club at which Budd works.
  • Sid Haig as Jay: An employee at the strip club where Budd works.
  • Laura Cayouette as Rocket: A stripper who works at the strip club where Budd works.
  • Clark Middleton as Ernie: A friend of Budd's who helps him bury Beatrix alive.
  • Perla Haney-Jardine as B. B.: The daughter of Beatrix and Bill. She is raised by her father while her mother is comatose.
  • Lawrence Bender as Hotel Worker (Uncredited cameo)
  • Helen Kim as Karen Kim: An assassin sent to kill Beatrix, ultimately sparing her, after Beatrix informs her that she is pregnant.

Development

Kill Bill was produced as a single film.[5] After editing began, executive producer Harvey Weinstein, who was known for pressuring filmmakers to shorten their films, suggested that Tarantino split the film in two.[5] This meant Tarantino did not have to cut scenes, such as the anime sequence. Tarantino told IGN: "I'm talking about scenes that are some of the best scenes in the movie, but in this hurdling pace where you're trying to tell only one story, that would have been the stuff that would have had to go. But to me, that's kind of what the movie was, are these little detours and these little grace notes."[6] The decision was announced in July 2003.[5]

Changes

The film makes some changes that differentiate it from the separately released films, including:

  • Alternate shots and takes.
  • The Origin of O-Ren anime sequence that was initially produced by Production I.G includes an additional scene showing the character vengefully killing the second lieutenant of Boss Matsumoto named Pretty Riki in an elevator and its surrounding shaft.
  • The House of Blue Leaves fight scene, which was partially in black-and-white to avoid an NC-17 rating in the U.S., is now in full color throughout with added scenes of violence.
  • The cliffhanger at the end of Volume 1 that reveals the survival of Beatrix's child is also omitted alongside the black-and-white recap at the beginning of Volume 2.[7][8]

Release

The film was screened at Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema on March 27, 2011.

Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, out of competition, in May 2006.[9] At the 2008 Provincetown International Film Festival, Tarantino announced that it would be theatrically released in May 2009, before being delayed.[10] The film was screened on March 27, 2011, at Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema.[11]

In July 2014, Tarantino said that he and the Weinstein Company planned for The Whole Bloody Affair to have a limited theatrical release within the following year. This version was set to include an extended anime sequence, which had been commissioned, financed, and produced by Production I.G based on the original script without Tarantino's request. The film had a limited theatrical release in July 2025, at Tarantino's Vista Theater. Tarantino said he had waited until he owned the rights before giving it a full release and thought that asking audiences to come to his theater gave it more meaning.[12] The Whole Bloody Affair was given a nationwide theatrical release by Lionsgate on December 5, 2025.[13]

Tarantino said he may never release the film on home video as he prefers to keep it exclusive to theaters.[14]

The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge

In 2025, a short animation made by Tarantino and Epic Games, in collaboration with The Third Floor, titled The Lost Chapter: Yuki's Revenge was announced, first debuting in Fortnite. Yuki's Revenge is based on an early draft that included a chapter after the confrontation with Vernita, in which the Bride has a gunfight with Gogo Yubari's vengeful sister Yuki, voiced by Miyu Ishidate Roberts. It was originally cut because it would have made the film overlong and added $1 million to the budget.[15]

The entirety of the animation was built in Unreal Engine 5 using Fortnite models with Thurman reprising her role in voice acting/motion-capture, Zoë Bell performing the stunts in motion-capture, and Bill being voiced by Tarantino, replacing Carradine, who died in 2009. The short premiered in game on November 30, 2025, and later uploaded on Fortnite's official YouTube channel on December 4, a day before the theatrical release of Tarantino's film. The Lost Chapter was also shown as part of the theatrical run of Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair after the closing credits.[16][17]

Box office

As of December 18, 2025, it grossed a total of $6 million in the United States and $310,694 in other territories for a worldwide total of $6.3 million.[4] In the United States, the film made $1.6 million from 1,198 theaters on its opening day, and was expected to make $4 million in its 3-day opening weekend.[18] The film ended up grossing $3.4 million in its opening weekend.[4]

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of 29 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Merging both Kill Bill volumes together into a whole that's as seamless as a slice from a Hattori Honzō sword, this Bloody Affair finally realizes the full grandeur of Quentin Tarantino's gonzo vision."[19] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 95 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" on an A+ to F scale.[21]

Richard Whittaker of The Austin Chronicle gave the film four and a half out of five, writing, "With Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, Tarantino finally gets to complete his own work of cinematic archeology, and what he exhumes springs to life like the first time it was projected."[22] Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com gave it four out of four and wrote, "Whatever your feelings about Tarantino and his work, this is a tremendous visceral experience, with radiant colors, slate-somber black-and-white, and geysers of crimson blood. To quote the end of another Tarantino film, it just might be his masterpiece."[23]


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Tousi TV:Trump Orders UK To Join WAR Against IRGC In Iran - Khamenei Moves To New Bunker

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Texasville (1990)

 


Texasville is a 1990 American drama film written and directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Based on the 1987 novel Texasville by Larry McMurtry, it is a sequel to The Last Picture Show (1971), and features Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Timothy Bottoms, Randy Quaid, and Eileen Brennan reprising their roles from the original film.

Texasville is in color, while The Last Picture Show was filmed in black and white. The film received mixed reviews from critics, holding a 59% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[3] and did not do well at the box office, grossing just $2 million against its $18 million budget.

Plot

In 1984, 33 years after the events depicted in The Last Picture Show, 50-year-old Duane Jackson (Bridges) is a wealthy tycoon of a near-bankrupt oil company. His relationship with his family is not prospering. His wife, Karla (Annie Potts), believes that Duane is cheating on her, and his son, Dickie (William McNamara), seems to be following in his father's libidinous footsteps.

Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman) works as Duane's secretary, and despondent Lester Marlow (Quaid), now a businessman, seems a prime candidate for a business crisis, a heart attack, or both.

Sonny Crawford's (Bottoms) increasingly erratic behaviour causes Duane concern over his mental health.

Jacy Farrow (Shepherd) has travelled the world and experienced its pleasures. A painful tragedy brings her back to her hometown and once again into Duane's life.

Cast

Production

Development

The novel was published in 1987. Cybill Shepherd was attached to the project as early as late 1986. She was then starring in the popular TV series Moonlighting.[4] Peter Bogdanovich expressed interest in directing in January 1987.[5]

"I guess what decided it for me is that it's rare in one's career to be given the opportunity to go back in time and recapture something that's important in your career, and in your life," he said. "And to approach it from another angle, to find a new way of looking at the same thing."[6]

"It seemed to me impossible to turn my back on something that was in a way personal to me," he said, "because certainly Larry had to have been influenced in the writing of Texasville by the movie. I mean, the book is dedicated to Cybill Shepherd. It just seemed that it would be ungrateful, or in some way churlish, not to attempt to deal with these people and these themes."[7]

In April 1987, Dino De Laurentiis who was making a film with Bogdanovich, Illegally Yours, paid a reported $750,000 for the film rights. The movie would be made with Bogdanovich, Shepherd and Jeff Bridges.[8]

In July 1987, Bogdanovich said they were discussing the film with several studios and planned to make the movie during a Moonlighting hiatus.[9] However, by September, de Laurentiis was in financial trouble. The director said he and Shepherd "both want to make the movie, but everything is now up in the air... We have no idea when we'll make the movie - or where. Everything could get straightened out, but right now it's in limbo."[10] In November 1987, it was reported that De Laurentiis did not want to make the movie with Bogdanovich but Shepherd insisted he be director, so the producer sold the rights to Bogdanovich.[11]

In October 1988, Bogdanovich was discussing the project with the original stars of Picture Show and said he was hopeful for the sequel to go ahead.[12]

Bogdanovich said he asked McMurtry to help him with the script "but he was too busy writing novels. "And anyway, Larry tends to get bored with his books once he's written them; he really doesn't like to go back and work on a book." So the director did the adaptation. "The big problem was to figure out how to cut it down and what to emphasize," he said. "You could strip it of the comedy and have the very serious picture. The problem with the first draft was that it was a little bit too serious."[13](McMurtry claimed Bogdanovich's assistant Iris Chester wrote most of the script.[14] The author said he and Bogdanovich had "various loud fallings-out" during the making of the movie and they did not talk again until the premiere of The Evening Star.[15]

Bogdanovich said that a few companies, including Carolco Pictures, had expressed interest in the movie but "There certainly was some reluctance in this town about this project. I don't know that it was specifically me, but it was a difficult project."[16]

"The studios thought there wasn't enough of a narrative thread to the book," he added. "I thought there was a plot, and it was what happened to Jeff Bridges' character! Duane and everyone around him as he prepares for the town's centennial."[17]

Finance eventually came from Nelson Entertainmenet and Cine Source. It would be Cine Source's first production.[18] The company arranged finance from various investors for $24 million, which covered production, promotion and advertising costs; in exchange, Cine Source took 25.5% of the gross after distribution fees and certain other costs are deducted. "How it will do critically and how it will do at the box office, no one can guess," said Cine-Source President Robert Whitmore. "But it's a great motion picture and we have every reason to believe it's going to be an enormous success."[16]

Filming was meant to begin in February 1989 but was pushed back.[19]

It was decided to make the movie in Archer City again. "The bad taste that the movie left for some folks, that's gone now," said the high-school principal, Nat Lunn. "Especially with money being short in town, they're ready for another dose of Hollywood."[20]

"Texasville is about certain aspects of my life," said Bogdanovich. "But those characters are really Larry's characters. And I feel empathy and sympathy and interest in them as human beings."[21]

He added the film was "more chaotic, less structured, more fragmented, more insane, more desperate [than Picture Show]. There's something intrinsically tragic about coming-of-age. But there's something inherently funny about a mid-life crisis. It can be sad, but not tragic. I think Texasville will be lighter on the surface, but down below even sadder."[6]

The original movie cost $1.3 million. For the sequel, Shepherd's fee was $1.5 million and Bridges was paid $1.75 million. Timothy Bottoms only agreed to make the film once Nelson Entertainment financed a $100,000 documentary of his about the making of the film. "I didn't want to do this movie, because I don't like any of the people in it," said Bottoms. "I didn't like The Last Picture Show. I didn't like the script. I didn't like the people I was working with. I didn't like the way they treated each other - without compassion or care. I felt like I saw Hollywood at its worst."[6]

Shooting

Filming began August 1989.[22]

Bridges put on 35 pounds to play his role. "I usually approach a role by figuring out what the guy I'm playing looks like physically," he said. "Then I try to mold my body along those lines. Duane, after all, was 10 years older than I am. I needed weight for the age factor and for the shape he would be in after the kind of food he must have been eating. I put on 35 pounds, getting my weight up to about 210. The weight was uncomfortable. I didn't feel well, which is enough reason to keep my weight down. But it was worth it because it helped me believe in Duane."[23]

Annie Potts was filming episodes of Designing Women during the shoot and had to commute from Los Angeles to the location every week.[24]

While making the movie, a documentary was being made about The Last Picture Show called Picture This directed by George Hickenlooper.

"The most difficult thing about filming Texasville was confronting everything that has happened in my own life," Bogdanovich said. "I expected my own ghost to walk around the corner and say, 'Hey, things have changed since you were 31, haven't they, bub?'"[25] "Everything was totally different," Bogdanovich said. "And yet the essential things remained. We all liked and respected one another."[25]

Release and reception

Box office

Texasville performed poorly at the box office. It opened at number eleven making $900,000.,[26] generating only $2.2 million its first 38 days; the budget was reportedly $20 million.

One exhibitor said he felt the film "was destined to die. It was a picture, from the word go, that all the reports we heard were negative. It didn't screen well, there were problems with the story, problems with Bogdanovich. Originally there were reports they couldn't sign Timothy Bottoms. I just don't think that there was anything more that they could have done. It just was not a good motion picture."[27]

The film's poor box office performance could have also been compounded by the fact that The Last Picture Show was one of the few major films of the last two decades not available on VHS; it was only released after Texasville. "It took a great deal of trouble to get the video rights for the 28 songs that are in The Last Picture Show," Bogdanovich said. "During the time that Columbia was owned by Coca-Cola, they didn't want to reissue it because it contains so many references to Dr Pepper. But the current Columbia hierarchy is very supportive of the video release."[25]

Critical

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 59% from 27 reviews with the critic consensus: "An impressive array of talent on either side of the camera helps compensate for Texasville's inability to live up to its classic predecessor, but it isn't quite enough."[28] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "C+" on scale of A+ to F.[29]

Filmink magazine called it a "bad film", although they blamed Larry McMurtry's source material. "Aimless. Cartoony. No soul. Excellent acting from Cybill Shepherd (whose part should have been bigger), Tim Bottoms, Jeff Bridges and Annie Potts. But no nuance." The magazine felt Picture This, the documentary about the making of the movie, was "everything Texasville is not—brilliantly evocative of a place (love those whining cowboys who want to be in the movie), memorable characters (Larry McMurtry’s worried mother, the original inspiration for Jacy, cuckolded Polly Platt, tormented Bogdanovich, awkward Tim Bottoms), and true drama (returning to the scene of a film where so much happened)."[30]

Recut

In 1992, Bogdanovich recut the film for The Movie Channel so it ran 28 minutes longer. "This is the way Texasville should have been seen when it was originally released," he said. "We had to take out a lot of the dramatic scenes between Jeff (Bridges) and Cybill and between Jeff and Timothy Bottoms. There was also a wonderful scene at the Centennial when Cybill sings a hymn. The balance between comedy and drama was off, so when the movie turned out to be a drama, people were thrown. Whereas the correct version, the longer version, has a better balance." Bogdanovoch said the film was originally cut "under a lot of pressure. It didn't turn out like we wanted—at all. It was rather sad. So now we're glad to have this second chance."[21]

In 2023, both the original theatrical version and a black-and-white version of the director's cut, produced in collaboration with cinematographer Nicholas von Sternberg, were included in a two-disc set of The Last Picture Show from The Criterion Collection.[31]

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The Last Picture Show (1971)

 


The Last Picture Show is a 1971 American coming-of-age drama film directed by Peter Bogdanovich and co-written by Bogdanovich and Larry McMurtry, adapted from the 1966 semi-autobiographical novel by McMurtry. The film's ensemble cast includes Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Cybill Shepherd, Eileen Brennan, and Randy Quaid. Set in a small town in northern Texas from November 1951 to October 1952, it is a story of two high school seniors and longtime best friends, Sonny Crawford (Bottoms) and Duane Jackson (Bridges).

The Last Picture Show was theatrically released on October 22, 1971, by Columbia Pictures. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $29 million on a $1.3 million budget, and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Johnson and Bridges, and Best Supporting Actress for Burstyn and Leachman, with Johnson and Leachman winning.

Bogdanovich directed a 1990 sequel, Texasville, based on McMurtry's 1987 novel of the same name and featuring much of the original film's cast reprising their roles; Texasville failed to match the critical or commercial success of its predecessor. In 1998, the Library of Congress selected The Last Picture Show for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".[2][3]

Plot

In 1951, Sonny Crawford and Duane Jackson are high school seniors and best friends in the small oil town of Anarene, Texas. Duane is dating Jacy Farrow, the most popular girl in town, with the richest parents. Sonny breaks up with his girlfriend due to his secret crush on Jacy.

At a Christmas dance, Jacy is invited by Lester Marlow to a skinny-dipping pool party at Bobby Sheen's, a wealthy young man and seemingly better prospect than Duane. At the dance, Sonny kisses Ruth Popper, the depressed middle-aged wife of his high school coach.

Duane, Sonny and others take their young, mentally disabled friend, Billy, to a prostitute to lose his virginity. Returning him home, local businessman Sam "The Lion" is angered by their treatment of Billy, who habitually sweeps Anarene's main street. He forbids the group from entering any of his businesses, the only entertainment in town: the pool hall, movie theater, and café. Later, when Sam catches Sonny visiting Billy and Genevieve the waitress at the café, Sonny apologizes and Sam lifts the ban on him.

Bobby makes an advance on Jacy, but refuses to have sex with her because she is a virgin. On New Year's Eve weekend, Duane and Sonny impulsively drive to Mexico. Before leaving, the nostalgic Sam gives them some extra money to enjoy themselves. When the boys return hungover and tired on Monday morning, they learn that Sam died suddenly of a stroke the day before. Sam leaves Sonny the pool hall in his will.

Jacy invites Duane to a motel room for sex, as she wants to be accepted into Bobby's libertine circle. He is unable to get an erection, so she scolds him. Later, they try again and Duane performs briefly, just enough for Jacy to lose her virginity. She breaks up with him by phone, hoping to become involved with Bobby.

However, Jacy learns that Bobby has already married another girl. Out of boredom and feeling rejected, she has sex with Abilene, her father Gene's roughneck foreman and her mother's lover. When he drops Jacy off he is brutally cold. Upon entering the house, Jacy's mother Lois catches her and Jacy begins to cry. They discuss the double bind they are trapped in—reduced to objects of sexuality, but punished if they express or enjoy their sexuality.

Upset over the breakup, Duane enlists in the Army and is scheduled to serve in the Korean War after basic training. In his absence, Jacy goes for Sonny, who abruptly drops Ruth and dreams of marrying her. Duane returns home on leave, driving a new Mercury. He fights with Sonny over Jacy, smashing a beer bottle into Sonny's eye, sending him to the hospital. During his recovery, he refuses to see Ruth when she visits.

Jacy and Sonny elope to Oklahoma. While driving to their honeymoon, Jacy reveals she left a letter to her parents, telling them of their entire plan. Jacy and Sonny are stopped by a state trooper who takes them to the Farrows’. Gene angrily berates Sonny and drives Jacy home. Sonny rides back with Lois, who reveals Sam was her first true love. She suggests Sonny would be much better off with Ruth than with Jacy. The marriage is annulled and a short time passes.

On Duane's last night of leave, Sonny makes amends with him and reveals that Jacy has left for college in Dallas. They go to the theater on its final night. The last picture show is Red River.

The next morning, when Sonny sees Duane off, Duane asks Sonny to take care of his Mercury after Sonny admits that he and Jacy "never made it to the motel." As Sonny opens the pool hall, he hears brakes squealing outside. Billy was struck and killed by a truck when he was sweeping the road. The local townsmen surround Billy's body and coldly blame the dead boy for being stupid and careless. Grief-stricken, Sonny yells at them for their behavior and carefully carries Billy's body away, covering his face with his letterman jacket.

Angry and depressed with his life, Sonny drives to the city limits. He slowly changes his mind and returns, parking near Ruth's. He shyly asks to come in for a cup of coffee. Depressed, she has shuttered herself inside.

Ruth lets him in, then explodes in hurt and anger. She notices that Sonny is completely devastated. Demanding he look at her, he does and gently touches her hand. Ruth's anger melts away and she comforts him. Her last words are “Never you mind, honey. Never you mind” as the film ends.

Cast

Production

Going into The Last Picture Show Peter Bogdanovich was a 31-year-old stage actor, film essayist, and critic. Bogdanovich had directed one film, Targets (also known as Before I Die), working with his wife and collaborator, Polly Platt. As Bogdanovich later explained to The Hollywood Reporter, while waiting in a cashier's line in a drugstore, he happened to look at the rack of paperbacks and his eye fell on an interesting title, The Last Picture Show. The back of the book said it was about "kids growing up in Texas" and Bogdanovich decided that it did not interest him and put it back. A few weeks later, actor Sal Mineo handed Platt a copy of the book.[4] "I always wanted to be in this", he said, "but I'm a little too old now", said Mineo, who recommended that Platt and Bogdanovich make it into a film.[4] According to Bogdanovich, Platt said, "I don't know how you make it into a picture, but it's a good book."[5] According to Platt, at a dinner with her and Bogdanovich, producer Bert Schneider "asked Peter what he wanted to direct next, and Peter didn't really have an answer, but I piped up about this great book, The Last Picture Show, and Bert showed some interest." Platt contended that after Schneider agreed to fund the picture through BBS Productions, she convinced Bogdanovich to overcome his hesitations about the source material and commit to the project.[6] Bogdanovich, McMurtry, and Platt adapted the novel into the film of the same name.[7]

Stephen Friedman was a lawyer with Columbia Pictures but keen to break into film production as he had bought the film rights to the book, so Bogdanovich hired him as producer.[8]

After discussing the proposed film with Orson Welles, his houseguest at the time, Bogdanovich agreed with him that shooting the film in black and white would work aesthetically, which by then was an unusual choice.[5]

The film was shot in Larry McMurtry's small hometown of Archer City located in north-central Texas near the Oklahoma state line. McMurtry had renamed the town Thalia in his book; Bogdanovich dubbed it Anarene (for a ghost town eight miles (13 km) south of Archer City). The similarity to famed cowtown Abilene, Kansas, in Howard Hawks' Red River (1948) was intentional.[9] Red River again is tied in as "the last picture show", which Sonny and Duane watch at the end of the film.[10]

After shooting wrapped, Bogdanovich went back to Los Angeles to edit the film footage on a Moviola. Bogdanovich has said that he edited the entire film himself, but refused to credit himself as editor, reasoning that director and co-writer were enough.[5] When informed that the Motion Picture Editors Guild required an editor credit, he suggested Donn Cambern, who had been editing another film, Drive, He Said (1971), in the next office and had helped Bogdanovich with some purchasing paperwork concerning the film's opticals.[5] Cambern disputes this, stating that Bogdanovich did do an edit of the film, which he screened for a selection of guests, including Jack Nicholson, Bob Rafelson and himself.[who?] The consensus was the film was going to be great, but needed further editing to achieve its full potential. Cambern claims Bogdanovich invited him to do so, during which he made significant contributions to the film's final form.

Bogdanovich obtained a rare waiver from the Directors Guild of America to have his name appear only at the end of the film, after the actors' credits, as he felt it was more meaningful for the audience to see their names after their performances.[11][12][who?]

Music

The film features entirely diegetic music, including many songs of Hank Williams Sr. and other country and western and 1950s popular music recording artists. In interviews, Bogdanovich emphasized that a lot of attention was paid to the music being accurate and contemporary to the narrated time span between November 1951 to October 1952, and that no songs were used that were released later than that.

Reception and legacy

Box office

The film earned $13.1 million in domestic rentals in North America.[13]

Critical reception

Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars in his original review and named it the best film of 1971. He later added it to his "Great Movies" list, writing that "the film is above all an evocation of mood. It is about a town with no reason to exist, and people with no reason to live there. The only hope is in transgression."[14] Vincent Canby of The New York Times called it a "lovely film" that "rediscovers a time, a place, a film form—and a small but important part of the American experience."[15] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film four stars out of four and wrote: "Like few films in recent years, Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show ends with us wanting to see more of the people who occupy the small town world that is Anarene, Tex. in 1951. This emotion is not easily achieved. It is a result of a thoro [sic] Peyton Place investigation into Anarene's bedrooms, parked cars, football games, movie theater, restaurant, and pool hall."[16] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film "the most considered, craftsmanlike and elaborate tribute we have yet had to what the movies were and how they figured in our lives."[17] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "an exceedingly well-made and involving narrative film with decent aims, encouraging us to understand and care about its characters, though not to emulate them."[18]

As of October 2023, review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes displays an approval rating of 98% based on 115 reviews, with an average rating of 9.1/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Making excellent use of its period and setting, Peter Bogdanovich's small town coming-of-age story is a sad but moving classic filled with impressive performances."[19] According to Metacritic, which assigned a weighted average score of 93 out of 100 based on 15 critics, the film received "universal acclaim".[20]

The film and its poster are referenced in the title of the 1975 album The Last Record Album by American rock band Little Feat and in the cover illustration by Neon Park.

Awards and nominations

Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
Academy Awards Best Picture Stephen J. Friedman Nominated [21]
Best Director Peter Bogdanovich Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Jeff Bridges Nominated
Ben Johnson Won
Best Supporting Actress Ellen Burstyn Nominated
Cloris Leachman Won
Best Screenplay – Based on Material from Another Medium Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich Nominated
Best Cinematography Robert Surtees Nominated
British Academy Film Awards Best Film Nominated [22]
Best Direction Peter Bogdanovich Nominated
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Ben Johnson Won
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Eileen Brennan Nominated
Cloris Leachman Won
Best Screenplay Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich Won[a]
Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Peter Bogdanovich Nominated [23]
Golden Globe Awards Best Motion Picture – Drama Nominated [24]
Best Director – Motion Picture Peter Bogdanovich Nominated
Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture Ben Johnson Won
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Ellen Burstyn Nominated
Cloris Leachman Nominated
New Star of the Year – Actress Cybill Shepherd Nominated
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards Best Supporting Actress Cloris Leachman Won [25]
Kinema Junpo Awards Best Foreign Language Film Peter Bogdanovich Won
National Board of Review Awards Top Ten Films 5th Place [26]
Best Supporting Actor Ben Johnson Won
Best Supporting Actress Cloris Leachman Won
National Film Preservation Board National Film Registry Inducted [27]
National Society of Film Critics Awards Best Supporting Actor Ben Johnson Nominated [28]
Best Supporting Actress Ellen Burstyn Won
Cloris Leachman Nominated
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Film Nominated [29]
Best Director Peter Bogdanovich Nominated
Best Supporting Actor Ben Johnson Won
Best Supporting Actress Ellen Burstyn Won
Cloris Leachman Runner-up
Best Screenplay Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich Won[b]
Online Film & Television Association Awards Film Hall of Fame: Productions Inducted [30]
São Paulo Association of Art Critics Awards Best Foreign Film Peter Bogdanovich Won
Texas Film Awards Frontier Award Cybill Shepherd Won
Writers Guild of America Awards Best Drama – Adapted from Another Medium Larry McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich Nominated [31]

It ranked No. 19 on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 50 Best High School Movies.[32] In 2007, the film was ranked No. 95 on the American Film Institute's 10th Anniversary Edition of the 100 greatest American films of all time.[33]

In April 2011, The Last Picture Show was re-released in UK and Irish cinemas, distributed by Park Circus. Total Film magazine gave the film a five-star review, stating: "Peter Bogdanovich's desolate Texan drama is still as stunning now as it was in 1971."[34]

The February 2020 issue of New York Magazine lists The Last Picture Show as among "The Best Movies That Lost Best Picture at the Oscars."[35]

Home media

The film was released by The Criterion Collection in November 2010 as part of its box set America Lost and Found: The BBS Story. It included a high-definition digital transfer of Peter Bogdanovich's director's cut, two audio commentaries, one from 1991, featuring Bogdanovich and actors Cybill Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Cloris Leachman, and Frank Marshall; the other from 2009, featuring Bogdanovich "The Last Picture Show": A Look Back, (1999) and Picture This (1990), documentaries about the making of the film, A Discussion with Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich, a 2009 Q&A, screen tests and location footage, and excerpts from a 1972 television interview with director François Truffaut about the New Hollywood.[36]

Director's cut

Bogdanovich re-edited the film in 1992 to create a "director's cut". This version restores seven minutes of footage that Bogdanovich trimmed from the 1971 release because Columbia had imposed a firm 119-minute limit.[5][clarification needed] With this requirement removed in the 1990s, Bogdanovich used the 127-minute cut on LaserDisc, VHS and DVD releases.[37] The original 1971 cut was never released on DVD or Blu-ray for years, though it was released on VHS and LaserDisc through Columbia Tristar Home Video. However, the theatrical cut, along with the more known director's cut, was included as a part of Sony's Columbia Classics Volume 3 4K Blu-ray box set.[38]

There are two substantial scenes restored in the director's cut. The first is a sex scene between Jacy and Abilene that plays in the poolhall after it has closed for the night; it precedes the exterior scene where he drops her off home and she says "What a night. I never thought this would happen." The other major insertion is a scene that plays in Sam's café, where Genevieve watches while an amiable Sonny and a revved-up Duane decide to take their road trip to Mexico; it precedes the exterior scene outside the pool hall when they tell Sam of their plans, the last time they will ever see him.

Several shorter scenes were also restored. One comes between basketball practice in the gym and the exterior at The Rig-Wam drive-in; it has Jacy, Duane and Sonny riding along in her convertible (and being chased by an enthusiastic little dog), singing an uptempo rendition of the more solemn school song sung later at the football game. Another finds Sonny cruising the town streets in the pick-up, gazing longingly into Sam's poolhall, café and theater, from which he has been banished. Finally, there is an exterior scene of the auto caravan on its way to the Senior Picnic; as it passes the fishing tank where he had fished with Sam and Billy, Sonny sheds a tear for his departed friend and his lost youth.

Two scenes got slightly longer treatments: Ruth's and Sonny's return from the doctor, and the boys' returning Billy to Sam after his encounter with Jemmie Sue—both had added dialogue. Also, a number of individual shots were put back in, most notably a Gregg Toland-style deep focus shot in front of the Royal Theatre as everyone gets into their cars.[5]

Sequel

Texasville, the 1990 sequel to The Last Picture Show, based on McMurtry's 1987 novel of the same name, was also directed by Bogdanovich, from his own screenplay, without McMurtry this time. The film reunites actors Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, Cloris Leachman, Eileen Brennan, Randy Quaid, Sharon Ullrick (née Taggart) and Barc Doyle.

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