#ruth popper

[1000-year-old-virgin]

"She could think of no reason why anyone should desire her or want to know her or touch her, and she did not expect to touch or make love to anyone she cared about as long as she lived. It was a terrible feeling, knowing she would never really touch anyone again."

- Ruth Popper, The Last Picture Show. McMurtry, Larry. 1966.

[introvertguide]

How to Support Your Lead Actors 101: A Lesson from the Supporting Cast of The Last Picture Show

SPOILER ALERT! I don’t know if this is even necessary, but I got some harsh words about ruining something so I am throwing this in just in case.

The first time that I saw The Last Picture Show (1971), I was not a fan. I thought it seemed liked a midnight movie because it was a bunch of teens in a small town living out their senior year with goals like losing their virginity. I thought it was a coming of age “boner comedy” along the lines of Porky’s, Private School, or American Pie. Just a bunch of unrealistic situations that are used to get nudity in the movie. The mistake for me was that I was watching the lead characters of Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and Jacy Farrow (Cybill Shepherd). Sonny was such a pushover non-entity and Jacy was a callous harpy who used her appearance to get what she wanted. So why do I enjoy it now? What happened? That answer is simple: it is not the leads that make this movie great, but the massive supporting cast.

I cannot say more than opinion as to the acting ability of Timothy Bottoms and Cybill Shepherd, but, for me, they did nothing to stand out in their respective roles in this film (they were the only main actors not nominated for an Oscar). I forgot that Sonny was the lead and Duane was his buddy since I saw the film last, he leaves so little of an impression on me. What makes the movie are the adults around the character of Sonny that try to guide him and he is just too dumb to listen. He is impressed by these adults, he hears what they say, he knows he should take their advice...but he does that mid adolescent thing of just doing whatever he wants anyway.

There are three characters that made this movie for me and I want to go through each role and acknowledge what a strong part the actors played in the film:

Cloris Leachman as Ruth Popper: This was the role of a down trodden woman in her 40s that was in a loveless and sexless marriage with a closeted gay man. She is not the prettiest woman in town now, nor was she in her youth and she considered herself lucky to get any kind of husband at all. She has an affair with Sonny and for once she is the focal point of lusting from a young man, something that she might never have been in her life. He eventually stops seeing her and gets tangled up with Jacy Farrow, but he is eventually dumped and he goes back to see Ruth for consoling. She hates him for what he did, the only light of hope for her life of depressing loneliness, and he just decided to stop calling on her to chase after some pretty face that had no interest in him. Sonny is so mean and so stupid, but Ruth realizes that he is just like a puppy and doesn’t realize what he has done. She forgives him because he knows not the pain he causes. Leachman plays the part of the woman scorned who never did anything wrong except be born and stay in a dying town. She picked the wrong man and lived a wasted life. Cloris Leachman won the best supporting actress award for her part and she defined the idea of “supporting” the lead as well as I have ever seen...her best competition being these next two actors.

Ellen Burstyn as Lois Farrow: The actress was actually given the choice of characters and she chose this one as the most interesting. Ironically, she lost the Best Supporting Actress to the actress who ended up playing Ruth Popper, the same way the character thinks she is getting the best situation available and still ends up falling short. Lois Farrow was the best looking girl in town in her generation and she now watches as her daughter uses that same power to wreak havoc on the local boys. Lois knows what it is like to play with the emotions of others and turn everyone against each other. She knows what her daughter is (basically a succubus) and what kind of carnage will be left behind, and Lois feels regret. She did the same things without caring about the suffering of others and now she sees these nice boys being hurt. She also suffered the death of the one good man that actually understood her and that she loved. She left him behind for some modicum of wealth and the promise of an easy life and always regretted it. Burstyn does such a great job playing a woman with such mixed motivations: she hates the town and wants it to disappear (although she is in it so that would hurt her as well), she wants her daughter to run over men for vengeance against all the men that have hurt her (although she regrets that the good men in both of their lives are the ones that seem to get hurt most of all), and she is bored and wants something interesting to happen (although all the things that happen seem to negatively affect her). What a confused and wonderful character.

Ben Johnson as Sam the Lion: To me, this is far and away the best character and actor in the film. Not even close. This is the man that owns most of the businesses in town and watches over the kids to keep them out of trouble. He is the most valuable asset in the entire town. He has spent his whole life there and has learned from watching the residents. He is almost like the omniscient narrator of the story. He is the understanding father figure that all of the kids (heck, all of the adults) need. He is the Atticus Finch of this story and Ben Johnson, the veteran actor since the 40s, is perfect for the part. He is the cool grizzled cowboy that has seen a lot of things and passes on his wisdom to the next generation (both as a character and as an actor). Ben Johnson won the Best Supporting Actor award that year and he earned it.

There is the old acting saying that “there are no small parts, only small actors.” This is the case of highly experienced, talented, professional actors taking roles with fewer lines and screen time for the sake of being in a good movie. Admittedly, they all had a scene in which they were given a chance to shine (Leachman and the coffee scene, Burstyn and the drive home, and Johnson by the lake), but all three took their chance and it made the movie.

Takeaway from all this, I was wrong about the movie and I am glad I gave it a 2nd, 3rd, and 4th chance. I was watching the lead characters when I should have been watching what was going on around them. I don’t know how connected these things are, but I did not like the movie when I was closer to the age of the main characters and today I love the movie now that I am closer to the age of the supporting actors. I get what it is like to watch children blindly make the same mistakes that you did and there is really nothing you can do about it. Bravo to these actors for bravely portraying a quintessential “has-been” right at the age when that is a great concern.