billboard:
I had a story posted today that I wrote based on Peter Bogdanovich's 1971 movie, "The Last Picture Show." The screenplay was co-written by Bogdanovich and Larry McMurtry, and was based on McMurtry's novel by the same name. The film launched the careers of Jeff Bridges and Cybil Shepherd, and featured superb performances by Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, and Timothy Bottoms, and Ben Johnson won the Academy Award for his performance as "Sam the Lion." Bridges and Shepherd were both terribly unsympathetic characters.
Shepherd, as "Jacy," was the narcissistic prettiest-girl-in-school shrew who many of us here would LOVE to set straight using our own preferred methods. In watching Jacy on the silver screen - in black-and-white as a throwback to 1955 - I couldn't stop imagining how she needed the daylights spanked out of her. That's why I wrote the story, by way of explanation. So, I'll admit - our Jacy is not my usual leading lady. She's nobody you'll want to hug and soothe after she's spanked. It wasn't a "happy" movie, but it's one of my all-time favorites.
Jacy was somewhat more sympathetic in TEXASVILLE, the first sequel (IIRC there were four) to THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, but she was still a touch self-centered. I didn't think that Duane (played by Jeff Bridges in the movie) was all that unsympathetic, he struck me as good-natured but rather shallow (in the way that many teenaged boys are), although of course he was manipulated and used by his supposed girlfriend (Jacy). While THE LAST PICTURE SHOW focused on Sonny (played by Timothy Bottoms) a bit more than Duane and Jacy, all the subsequent novels focused on Duane and his family.
My prime candidate to spank Jacy would be Ruth Popper (played by Cloris Leachman, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in that role), the football coach's wife who had a bittersweet sexual affair with Sonny until Jacy seduced him away--although she had no serious interest in him. I'll have to check out whom you figured to be Jacy's disciplinarian.
Of course, I'm figuring that Ruth should've tanned Sonny's bare behind good and proper before accepting him back when he returned to resume their relationship (she was shown as being quite angry with him initially) after Sam's death.
I agree that it was a terrific film, wistful and nostalgic with superior acting--IMHO it worked better in black-and-white than it would have in color... --C.K.
