Product Details

• Actors: Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, Harvey Christiansen, Pearl Jones
• Directors: Peter Bogdanovich
• Writers: Peter Bogdanovich, Larry McMurtry
• Producers: Al Ruban, Barry Spikings, Henry T. Weinstein, Jake Eberts, Jonathan Burrows
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: January 5, 1999
• Run Time: 123 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0792840100
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #116,922 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Larry McMurtry's novel was a sequel to The Last Picture Show, picking up with the same characters in the 1980s, after the Texas oil boom had gone bust. Peter Bogdanovich, down on his luck, was tapped to direct and managed to reassemble much of the original cast: Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Timothy Bottoms, Cloris Leachman, and Randy Quaid. Where Picture Show focused on Bottoms's character, this episode centers on Bridges. Fending off creditors, dealing badly with middle age, and drinking too much, he reconnects with Shepherd when she returns to town. But there's not a lot of plot; rather, this is a meditation on the disappointments life can hand out. Bridges, as always, is solid; Bottoms, something of a lost soul in his acting career, seems typecast as the achiever who never recovered from the shell shock of the Korean War. Still, an interesting companion piece to the first film. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Underrated sequel to Bogdanovich's masterpiece connects well, January 4, 2004

By 

Brent A. Anthonisen "Johnny Sideburns" (Alpharetta, GA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Texasville (DVD)

"The Last Picture Show" had a lot going for it when it was adapted for the screen in 1971; a terrific book as source material, a talented young director poised to make a name for himself in Hollywood, and a solid cast of youthful actors (Jeff Bridges, Timothy Bottoms, and yes, Cybill Shepherd) braced with veterans who would be recognized for their own exceptional merits with Academy Award wins for Best Supporting Actor (Ben Johnson) and Best Supporting Actress (Cloris Leachman).

When Larry McMurtry wrote the sequel novel "Texasville" in the late 1980's, it took place thirty years later...and when screen rights were secured and the film production began and Bogdanovich was again asked to recreate the magic wrought almost two decades prior, he had at his disposal the same actors who shone so well two decades prior...who had aged sufficiently enough to be able to pick up precisely and absolutely believably where their characters had left off at the end of the first book/movie.

Expecting this sequel to be as important or ground-breaking as "The Last Picture Show" is not realistic...indeed "Texasville" seems far more influenced by MTV than John Ford, but considering the timeframe during which it is set, this is exactly as it should be. The joy of "Texasville" is not the "American Gothic" gloom prevalent throughout "The Last Picture Show"; there are some aspects of the movie that, although true to the novel, are pure schtick. Rather, the joy is in watching the characters whose youthful potential (or lack thereof) was only suggested in the first film in their present state, having weathered innumerable storms and not necessarily having come out the better for the wear.

It's a movie that, while at times depressing in its outlook, never ceases to cheer me up. It captures time's merciless march across our lives better than most movies ("Robin and Marian" being the most obvious favorable comparison that comes to mind, "Once Upon A Time In America" being another), and while not likely ever to occupy the rarefied ground in critical circles as "The Last Picture Show", "Texasville" DOES succeed brilliantly as a rather innovative sequel that is at the very least honest in its treatment of its stars' characters. Watch it if you're in the mood for light entertainment (and especially if you've already seen "The Last Picture Show" and enjoyed it), but don't expect Bogdanovich's lightning to strike EXACTLY in the same place twice.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cast of "Last Picture Show" (1971) return 19 years later., February 17, 2005

By 

James McDonald (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Texasville [VHS] (VHS Tape)

If you were drawn into The Last Picture Show: The Definitive Director's Cut (Special Edition) (1971), it's sequel, "Texasville (1990) will bring some closure.
Archer City, Texas is revisited nearly 20 years later. Returning is Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepard, Cloris Leachman, Eileen Brennan, Randy Quaid, Barc Doyle as "Joe Bob Blanton", Loyd Catlett as "Leroy" and Gordon Hurst who was "Sheriff Burns" now plays "Monroe".
Peter Bogdanovich is the director again and given some writing credit again. Larry McMurtry who wrote the novels is given writing credit as well. Ross Brown got to cast again.
The old downtown of Archer City, Texas is seen again and the old movie house now in disrepair.
Some people thought this storyline for a part 2 was a disappointment, but if you think about it, the town has grown and people have changed. It could have been more dramatic though. It was fun to see the original cast together again. I'm glad most of them agreed to return.
After this film, the old Royal movie house was rebuilt to be fully used again.
The late Sal Mineo is given thanks for giving Director Peter Bogdanovich a copy of the novel "The Last Picture Show" which Bogdanovich turned into a movie for 1971.

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars underrated, May 20, 2003

By 

Bryant Burnette "Bryant Burnette" (Tuscaloosa, AL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Texasville (DVD)

While not the monument that "The Last Picture Show" is, this is a thoroughly excellent film which proves, at least to me, that Peter Bogdanovich is anything but a has-been. The film captures the loosely-controlled chaos of the novel quite ably, and the performances are uniformly excellent. I was especially charmed that Bogdanovich kept the style he used in "Picture Show" of having the score composed entirely of source music; that's a fine way of linking the second film with the first one. My only complaint, really, is that the DVD doesn't have a lick of supplementary material. I'd have loved to have seen the deleted scenes, and also a documentary about the reunion of the cast. I'll echo an earlier reviewer's wish for a third Bogdanovich/McMurtry pairing with this cast in an adaptation of "Duane's Depressed," the final part of the trilogy.