it sort of hard for me to say it and because i so greatly enjoyed both target and paper moon and but i think the last picture show be a somewhat fascinating but overly self indulgent film . it main positive and as far a i be concern and be the stunning photography . but for me the film have nothing to offer beyond surface beauty ( and a kind of hidden beauty and at that ) . the character be very hard to relate to or to care about . basically you have this very slow pace and this naturalistic style of act and but it be all there to prop up a very formulaic and predictable story and complete with all the trapping one would expect from any small town melodrama everything from the boy cheat with his teacher wife to the handicap kid who everyone pick on . it be like american graffiti without the joy of life . some might say this film be more realistic nowadays a lot of people seem to think that realism be the only virtue a film can possess . but for me the film be simply oppressive and and i want to see it again about as badly a i would like to spend a few hour in that miserable town the character live in . maybe this film really just belongs to it time perhaps if i would see it in 1971 i would have be impress by it novelty and just by see something different on the screen . but that would basically assume that i have never see anything like and say and godard breathless . maybe the overt reference to classic film would have appeal to the movie geek in me and help me to overlook some of the film weakness . but in the post tarantino world that hardly seem unique or special either . it be interest though how he use the film in the film to give his own film more depth . we see 3 film a i recall in the picture show . first we see vincente minnelli father of the bride liz taylor exquisite look provide a contrast to sonny girlfriend and minnelli study upper middle class milieu contrast to the character real life surroundings in a similar way . later and clip from howard hawk red river emphasize the theme of a broken friendship between a mentor and a protégé . it really just remind me that bogdanovich be kiss his own mentor butt and much a he do if i remember correctly by select a hawk film a part of his own on screen reverie with boris karloff in target . i guess in 1971 this kind of thing be new but look at it today it just seem self indulgent and like so much of the rest of this film . ultimately and i would rather see another film by hawk and ford or minnelli than to have bogdanovich film remind u of why they be so striking in such a less than subtle way . maybe he intend to remind u of the giant whose time have pass all he really do be remind u how small he and most of his contemporary be in relation .