Dan1863Sickles I love this film -- it has so much sadness, but there's nothing weak or self-pitying about any of the characters. They just carry on, even without a purpose in their lives. Larry McMurtry is a genius at taking stuff that would be unspeakably horrible if it weren't so funny, and then making it really funny. Peter Bogdanovich focuses more on the sadness than the laughter, but he also gets a glowing sensuality from Cybill Shepherd (as Jacy) and a warmth and humanity from Ben Johnson (as Sam the Lion) that are only hinted at in the book. One obvious issue no one else has mentioned is the irony that this book (and film) appeared long before the LONESOME DOVE mini-series, yet it deals with the Texas that rangers Call and McRae sacrificed so much to create. One of the themes of LONESEOME DOVE is Gus asking plaintively, "was it worth it?"And of course, the answer is contained in this film. Because these characters are living such stunted, joyless lives that it seems very hard to believe that the buffalo, the Comanche, and the Mexicans all had to be sacrificed to make way for the town of Thalia. And more than that, you feel that somewhere Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf are actually laughing at these people. And that if a war party of ghost Comanche could come back and destroy the whole town it would be more of a mercy killing than anything else. And none of that makes the book itself any less poignant. Just the opposite, in fact.

nilesswenson-12076 Amferene, TX is a dull town in 1950. The houses are spread out you may never see your neighbors at home. The main drag makes it look like the town is dying. Not much goes on there so the young and young at heart are obsessed with sex.Cybill Shepherd is the prettiest girl in town, manipulative and an opportunist, but she desires more despite being limited by her lack of passion. She finally gets deflowered by the town stud and who is also her mother's occasional lover and he turns out to be as passionless as she is. Jeff Bridges is the future town stud if survives Korea. Tim Bottoms is the dependable kid the coach sends to his lonely wife (Cloris Leachman) who seduces him and fears that he will outgrow her. Ben Johnson is the mentor to the boys and has a past with Ellen Burstyn, Sheppard's mother. His death signals the end.Filmed in glorious B & W the dusty streets are a metaphor that the town needs to modernize besides paving the streets. Great performances and Eileen Brennan could stand a young suitor as Amferene needs fresh blood.

GusF Based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Larry McMurtry, this is an excellent, often moving and occasionally depressing coming of age film. Taking place from November 1951 to October 1952, it concerns the bleak, desolate little town of Anarene, Texas which has been slowly dying for years and its inhabitants' sad, unfulfilled lives of wasted potential. What a great feel good film for the Christmas season! The film has an extremely strong script by McMurtry and Peter Bogdanovich while Bogdanovich's direction hits all of the right notes. The beautiful black-and-white cinematography of Robert Surtees captures the look and feel of an early 1950s film very effectively but the same could hardly be said of the content as even its milder aspects would have fallen foul of the Hays Code. The film is permeated by a heavy sense of regret. In some respects, it reminded me of "The Third Man" in that its grim setting reflected the damaged lives of its characters. The film is basically an elegy to a dying town.The film stars Timothy Bottoms in a great performance as Sonny Crawford, a high school senior and one of the better adjusted, comparatively speaking, characters. In the beginning, Sonny is listless and is simply going through the motions with his girlfriend of a year Charlene Duggs so he breaks up with her. Like many of the townspeople, he feels as if there is something missing from his life and that he has no reason to live in Anarene other than that he is already there. After his high school coach Coach Popper asks him to drive her to the hospital, he begins an affair with his wife Ruth, played in a wonderful performance by Cloris Leachman. Ruth is severely depressed because of her poor and unsatisfying relationship with her husband - who is hinted to be gay - and finds solace in the arms of the much younger Sonny. As Anarene is a town where everyone knows everyone else and, more to the point, everyone else's business, their affair becomes an open secret but it is left ambiguous whether Coach Popper knows or even cares. After six months, Sonny abandons Ruth for a girl his own age named Jacy Farrow, which leads to Ruth becomes even more depressed. At the end of the film, however, he returns to her. He does so because he is upset and has nowhere else to go but he does seem truly remorseful. Sonny makes some serious mistakes but I do think that he is a good person. In a rather upsetting scene, his friends hire a prostitute for a younger boy named Billy who suffers from intellectual disabilities, ostensibly so he can lose his virginity but really for their own amusement. Sonny initially goes along with the plan, which does not go well. However, he is the only one to take sympathy on Billy afterwards and to apologise as he is very fond and protective of him. Appropriately enough, Billy was played by Bottoms' younger brother Sam.For his ten minute role as the local institution Sam the Lion, Ben Johnson won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar and it is easy to see why. In one of the film's best scenes which won him the Oscar, Sam recalls his failed relationship with his one true love in a beautifully written and performed speech which is imbued with loss and regret. He comments that about 80% of marriages are miserable which would be very depressing but, by Anarene standards, he is probably being a little optimistic. Ellen Burstyn gives one of the best performances as Jacy's mother Lois Farrow, a rich but unhappy housewife who has numerous affairs, most notably with her husband's employee Abilene. She deserved the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. As her daughter, Cybill Shepherd is very good. Jacy is an interesting character as she is very manipulative. When a rich boy named Bobby Sheen refuses to have sex with her because she is a virgin, she finally agrees to have sex with her longtime boyfriend Duane Jackson, only to dump him almost immediately afterwards. Things do not go according to plan, however, as Bobby has gotten married in the meantime. Out of sheer boredom, she follows in her mother's footsteps and has sex with Abilene herself but that does not work out either. She then pursues a relationship with Sonny and, after a while, proposes that they get married. While Sonny certainly has feelings for her, he does not love her but nevertheless agrees. However, it turns out after she left a note to her parents telling them of their elopement and the marriage is not even consummated. She apparently only married Sonny for the thrill of disobeying her parents. Even her mother tells Sonny that he was better off with Ruth. Jeff Bridges is very good as Duane but I am surprised that he was likewise nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar as I don't think that his performance was on that level. The film also features nice appearances from Clu Glulager as Abilene, Eileen Brennan as the world weary waitress Genevieve and Randy Quaid as the rather creepy rich boy Lester Marlow.Overall, this is an excellent film which explores the sad lives of people in a town that has lost all reason to exist. It was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and deservedly so. One thing that I found very interesting about the numerous sex scenes is that they are all humiliating, either during the event or afterwards. In this sense, the characters' sex lives reflect every other aspect of their lives in Anarene. Towards the end of the film, the cinema shuts down and this marks the end of the town's cultural life. When Sam the Lion died, he took the town with him. It just took a few extra months to die.

jvance83 I saw this for the first time at least 15 years after its release quite by accident and was very pleasantly surprised. I've never seen a film that struck so many chords of reality.Sam's soliloquy at the tank ("Bein' a dried up old bag of bones, that's what's ridiculous - getting' old.") is as bittersweet an observation of the fruits and futilities of life as anything I have ever seen or read - from Sophocles to Shakespeare to Donne to Dickens - it doesn't get any better.The leads all perform with a subdued expressiveness that leaves one hanging on every word they say, expecting some profundity in every statement. There are a few scenes I could do without and some of the characters are inadequately fleshed out but this is a movie I can watch over and over again, thinking to myself "Man, I wish I had said that!"