The Last Picture Show mother, Lois, admits to Sonny that she was Sam the Lion's paramour and tells him that he was much better off with Ruth Popper than with Jacy. The marriage of Sonny and Jacy is annulled. Duane returns to town on leave from the Army before shipping out for Korea. He and Sonny are among the meager group attending the final screening at the movie house, which is closing that day (the "last picture show" is "Red River", a western set in Texas starring John Wayne). The next morning, Sonny sees Duane off on the bus. Billy is sweeping the street
The Last Picture Show encouraging us to understand and care about its characters, though not to emulate them." In 1973, largely because of the skinny-dipping party scene, the film was banned in Phoenix, Arizona, when the city attorney notified a drive-in theater manager that the film violated a state obscenity statute. Eventually, a federal court decided that the film was not obscene. Ed Ware, the district attorney of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, managed to block the showing of the film but only temporarily because the theater filed suit successfully to overturn Ware's directive. It ranked No. 19 on "Entertainment Weekly"'s list of the 50 Best