The Wild Story Behind the Film That Nearly Ended Dennis Hopper’s Career
I’ve always assumed it was a pile of self-indulgent crap. Curiosity finally got the better of me and I’m downloading a torrent. Here’s an off the net comment.
I honestly don’t even know what to say about this film. Dennis Hopper’s “The Last Movie” is basically a nonstop barrage of batshit ideas that are tossed around with such abandon that it’s almost impossible to reach any sort of coherent summation. It’s a film where people whose opinion I respect think it’s brilliant and other people whose opinion I respect will claim it is among the most self-indulgent nonsense ever committed to celluloid.
Personally I’m inclined to agree with the former opinion but I couldn’t argue with the latter. What I can say about the plot is that it’s basically a Peruvian western, with meta moments of films within films while also being a character study that is also a commentary on the Hollywood machine of the 60’s.
The cast includes Tomas Milian, Dean Stockwell, Peter Fonda, Toni Basil, Kris Kristofferson, Sam Fuller, Don Gordon, Julie Adams, John Alderman, John Phillip Law, Michelle Phillips, and Russ Tamblyn but most of these people are floating in and out of the narrative(s) and they’re lucky if they even get a line of dialogue. This is the Dennis Hopper show.
I just watched this recently after having it in my watchlist for ages so it’s funny to see a post about it here. It’s a really hard movie to rate or have a definite “take” on but it’s worth experiencing. While it’s hard to digest I certainly don’t regret watching it and will probably even revisit it someday because there’s a lot to take in. It’s an ugly, raw, and flawed work of art from a flawed person. To me that’s the most compelling type of film. And as far as experimental art films go, it certainly wasn’t boring.
idk, it was a good movie to watch stoned and alone in the middle of the afternoon