MovieChat Forums > The Last Picture Show (1971) Discussion > I grew up in a small town.

I grew up in a small town.

posted 13 years ago by PlaceboOverdose
16 replies | jump to latest

I grew up in a small town and moved away to attend university. After graduating, the economy bottomed out and I've had to return back to my hometown. This film does a fantastic job of portraying how completely meaningless, boring, and depressing living in a small town can be. It's no secret why such places give birth to such broken, depressed people that dream of moving away but usually end up rotting in unison with the very place they hate.

I was very fortunate to grow up when the Internet was really starting to come into its own. As a result, the Internet provided me with a social outlet on top of allowing me to culturally enrich myself by making books, movies, and music available to order. You see, my town didn't (and still doesn't) have a movie theatre. Nor does it have a video store of any sort. So I'm thankful that the Internet made complete tedium a little more bearable.

I've returned home to a town that is devoid of any sort of culture. There is a complete lack of anything to do. It's no surprise that a lot of people drink themselves stupid to try to liven things up a little. To top things off, there are no major businesses and the town constantly suffers economically. One gets the feeling that things will never improve. Most of the people that live here are geriatric. Once people turn 18, they generally go to college or flee from here in some other fashion. The few people that willingly stay usually end up in a funk and constantly ponder how things could have ended up differently. So yes, this film nails all of this. If you never grew up or have lived in a town like this then consider yourself fortunate. Dreams die, people become irretrievably broken, and the few interesting or good people that live in the town are viewed as outsiders. It all sounds like hyperbole until you've actually seen it and lived it.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] PurpleProseOfCairo 13 years ago

So all the sex and naked swimming...they LIED to us???

Awight we're The Daamned we're a punk baand and this is called Carn't Be Appy T'day!

[–] skiddoo 13 years ago

Sounds like you'd be better off living in a flophouse in NYC! I can't understand people who have advantages like yours living where they are unutterably miserable. You are surely making everyone you meet there unutterably miserable, too.

[–] drystyx 13 years ago

You're either making that up, or you just see what you want to see.

I lived in a city until I was 9 years old, and then lived in a town of about 3000 people until I was 17, so that possibly counts as "growing up in a small town".

And this movie was nothing like real life. We're speaking about 1966 until 1974, when almost every town, and even some cities, shut down completely in the evening. No 24 hour food marts, nothing open, few events.

First of all, everyone in the movie was the same character, except for a couple of "slow" characters. Unusually human towards one another for the most part, like one big family. That's a pipe dream if ever there was one.

It was a complete Hollywood version of small town life. Everyone in the movie had the same motivation. It's like a writer decided to write every character as himself, except for the few he decided to make "slow". Talk about self righteous.

If people changed that much in 25 years, it is a ridiculous idea that they changed into people even less modern. This movie fails on all levels.

I was very disappointed in this movie. I expected too much, perhaps, but honestly, this was not only disappointing, but poor story telling. Don't forget that the first half of the movie, we have no idea who is who, and what is going on, unless you have a "scorecard" in advance. That's poor story telling. If it's supposed to be "mysterious" it fails, because we really don't care. Had it not been give great reviews, who would have finished watching it? Right, no one.

Poor writing and poor directing, but what is worse is the money spent on garabage like this. Not the biggest budget, but still a waste of a budget.

Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time

[–] Eightythreeyearoldguy 13 years ago

Small towns differ from each other depending on their geographical area. I was raised in a small town in California and in the late 1950's visited the Oklahoma town my dad was raised in...that town definitely had similarities to the town portrayed in this movie.

Life, every now and then, behaves as though it had seen too many bad movies

[–] corsi71inc 12 years ago

Considering that Larry McMurtry grew up in the town of Archer City Texas, 25 miles from Wichita Falls, I would say he had a pretty solid grasp of small town life. I would suggest that your experience may differ from his. He is not making a blanket statement about every small town, or even every small town in Texas. He is telling this story about these people. And frankly, I think he has a better understanding of that small Texas town in 1951 than you do.

For you to say that all the characters were "the same character" and that they all had "the same motivation" shows that you were either not paying attention or invested no thought whatsoever into watching this movie. For you to need a "scorecard" for the movie to know who was who solidifies my opinion of you. This wasn't meant to be "mysterious"; you just weren't getting it. Not to suggest that you aren't smart enough to understand the plot, mind you. Just that you chose not to.

Many of us do not want or need our entertainment spoon-fed to us like toddlers. When we do, we watch movies made for that very purpose. For you to expect such pablum from Peter Bogdanovich is an error on your part. For you to suggest that "no one" would have watched it except for its great reviews once again suggests that you A) are content to be counted among the sheep and B) just weren't paying any attention to this movie. You wasted those 2 hours of your life, kid, Bogdanovich didn't.

1. Being moody.
2. Being bad at maths.
3. Being sad.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] la_ceiba_man 12 years ago

A lot of this movie resonates with me. What struck me is in the movie they didn’t know what they were doing and me and my friends we didn’t know what we were doing.

I grew up in a small New England town. We didn’t even have a stop light in our town. My mother setup her life so we were not in it and my dad was either drinking or chasing skirts. So basically I had no parents in my life.

A lot of my friends were in the same boat so we were boys raising each other and man oh man did we get into trouble. Summers were spent either fishing or hanging out at the local lake. Nights were hanging out at the street corner and avoiding the police.

As in jobs you could work for the large hotel chain or the school supply warehouse. Economically there really wasn’t much in my town. If you had the money you could go to college or you could join the military. Otherwise you are going to be trapped.

Some of the girls I went out with didn’t even French kiss. The ones that did French kiss that was about all I could do. I might get some boob action but not much. There was one gal I went out with who said oh gee when we make out I forget everything. Ya I know I could have bonked her but I kept thinking if I knocked her up my life would be over. Some people were having sex it just wasnt me.

I knew of some Jacy type of girls but I could never go out with them. I didn’t have the nice car so that killed that.

When I go back and run into some people I knew and well most of them are losers. A lot of them are drinkers, drug addicts or never do well. As in getting out of the town, some went to Disney land for a vacation but that’s it. Funny thing some of the people I thought would do well didn’t and others who I thought would never make it did really well. The bullies they are either missing or in jail. When I say missing what I mean is they were doing drug deals and all of a sudden they disappeared.

I ran into Jacy at my high school reunion and she is still hot. Funny thing when we were talking she said she felt sorry for me, seeing all the crap I went through. Sam the lion is still there but is getting old. I wished I could have spent more time with Sam. Billy is still wandering around the town. Actually we had a few Billie’s. Everyone knows who the Billy is. The only people who make fun of them are out of towners.

All my good friends have moved away and are scattered to the wind. There are a few characters like Sam the lion and Jacy that stayed and they are decent people but are in the minority.

I go to that town now and then and reminisce about old times and go to the cemetery and visit old friends that never left or came back to be buried. I have lost count how many of my old friends drank them self’s to death.

As soon as I could I moved away to the big city. Well that job ended and the next job I had was a hour commute on a good day. So I moved to a small cow town to be closer to work. Smaller then the town I came from. I actually like it. Everyone is friendly and everyone knows everyone else. At this moment I am thinking of moving to some place radically different.

Would I ever move back? No as someone once said you can never go home again.

[–] bd74 11 years ago

This film does a fantastic job of portraying how completely meaningless, boring, and depressing living in a small town can be. It's no secret why such places give birth to such broken, depressed people that dream of moving away but usually end up rotting in unison with the very place they hate.

OMG, this whole thread sounds so depressing. To think I felt I had it bad growing up in a suburban wasteland.

[–] balancegurly 11 years ago

I think most people who lived or grew up in a small rural town can relate to this film in some way. I definitely can, and I haven't even seen it yet (only read the plot, reviews, and comments,etc.) I'm sure when I do view it wil hit close to home for me also.

I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass... and I'm all out of bubblegum. - They Live

[–] ed-pilling 11 years ago

Bd74 this thread and the movie only shows us that many people alone think OMG my life is so screwed up and its just me. Well the truth be known pretty much everybody that grew up in a small town had a screwed up life. But looking back on it as bad as I had it I knew others who had it a lot worse.

[–] belaglik 11 years ago

When I was about 12, my parents decided to move to the country and we lived near a town about 30 miles from where Larry McMurtry grew up (I knew his brother, Charlie, but that's a story for another time). Because we had lived in the 'burbs up until that point, adjusting to small town life was difficult. The weird thing is that my parents grew up in small towns in Colorado and always griped about how narrow-minded the people were, etc. and then they decide to go back to that life? Dafuq?

It wasn't all bad, though. I made friends and we entertained ourselves--which often involved driving to the city! Mostly, we just hung out at each other's houses. I'm sure there's more cultural opportunities for kids growing up in East LA or Detroit, but all things considered, I'm glad I didn't grow up there.

[–] lobotomyboy63 10 years ago

I grew up in a small town, too. To each his own, but people do know a little too much about your business, they can be pretty narrow-minded, and things kinda stay the same for long periods of time. But I know people who love living there. I moved to a major metro area and...there's heavy traffic, it's noisy, and there are long lines. Overall I'd still rather live here than back home but I'm thinking maybe a medium-sized college town would be the best answer. I'll come back and complain about that if/when I move to one.

So let's see...Sam the Lion's gone. Jacy's gone. Duane left. Billy won't be sweeping the street any more. The theater closed. It's only getting bleaker. It makes me wonder whether it's true if you can heat a pot of water slowly enough, the frog won't jump out before dying.