The Last Picture Show
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman
Extras: Documentary, Featurette, Trailers, Talent Files
Rating:
This is a special edition of Peter Bogdanovich’s small-town drama, released by Columbia TriStar Home Video. Shot entirely in black and white, the DVD contains a widescreen presentation of the movie in its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1, in a transfer that is enhanced for 16×9 TV sets, although it is not noted as such on the packaging.
The transfer exhibits some noise and some slight speckles, but is otherwise free of defects. The transfer is generally very good, striking a good visual balance that ranges from deep blacks to well-defined highlights. The presentation is virtually free of compression artifacts, maintaining all the detail that can be found in the movie’s original film print.
“The Last Picture Show” contains a 2-channel Dolby Digital mono soundtrack that has been well transferred to the DVD without noise or notable distortion. It is natural sounding and always very understandable.
This DVD contains the Director’s cut of the movie which at 126 minutes runs 8 minutes longer than the original theatrical version of the film. It is a powerful movie and the supplements that come with the disc, add some additional weight to this release, making it easy to understand why this movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards.
