It was the best of (movie) times... The Last Picture Show (pt 1)

I know that I am really late with this week's blogs.  But... I really wasn't sure how to start this one. (really, both the good and the bad are hard ones this week.)  So... I will just try to do this one justice.

The Last Picture Show is set in the early 50's in a small town in western Texas called Anarene.  The story focuses on Duane and Sonny, best friends in their senior year of high school.  Duane is dating the prettiest girl in the class, Jacy.  Sonny breaks up with his girl in one of the first scenes, so he spends most of his year single.  I say that the movie focuses on Duane and Sonny, and that is true, but the main character is actually Anarene.  The town is dying slowly as young people go away to college and don't return, the money is drying up, the social places are all run by one man (Sam the Lion), everyone has known each other their whole lives.  It is dying economically, socially, and (especially at the end) culturally.  Sam the Lion is a father figure to the boys, especially Sonny and a "simple boy" named Billy.  When he dies after a stroke, he leaves the pool hall to Sonny (who also takes care of Billy), the dinner to Genevieve (the waitress and cook there), and the movie house to Miss Mosey (the attendant there).  Without him, the social ties of the town start to ravel.

The PLOT actually follows Duane and Sonny through the tough transition of high school into adulthood.  During their growing pains, Sonny ends up having an affair with his coach's wife (yes, one man coaches all teams), Duane ends up getting played by Jacy, Duane moves away after she dumps him, Sonny hooks up with her, and when Duane hears that Sonny and Jacy have hooked up he comes home to confront his best friend. *deep breath*  Duane and Sonny fight, resulting in Sonny's eye getting injured with broken glass from a beer bottle.  This is when Sonny "breaks it off" with Ruth (the coaches wife) by just ignoring her for months.  In that time, he runs the pool hall, working days on a rig and runs off to marry Jacy.  The marriage is never consummated, however, and Jacy goes off to college in Dallas.  Duane joins the army and is shipped off to Korea.  The boys make up and attend the last movie to show at the movie house (the last picture show... Get it?)  and Sonny sees his friend off.  Minutes after Duane's bus leaves, Billy is sweeping in the street, and is hit by a cattle truck and dies.  The men of the town just stand over him talking about how he had no sense and wonder why he was just standing there with a broom.  In grief, Sonny pulls Billy's body away to cover him up.  Unable to face the pool hall, he drives off as if to leave town, but turns back to see Ruth.

The movie ends with a sweeping shot down an empty Main Street.

This is a really powerful movie, mostly in it's quietness.