IMDb RATING
6.1/10
2.7K
YOUR RATING
After a film production wraps in Peru, an American wrangler decides to stay behind to witness the ways that filmmaking affects the locals.After a film production wraps in Peru, an American wrangler decides to stay behind to witness the ways that filmmaking affects the locals.After a film production wraps in Peru, an American wrangler decides to stay behind to witness the ways that filmmaking affects the locals.
- Awards
- 1 win
Richmond L. Aguilar
- Gaffer
- (as Richmond Aguilar)
James Contrares
- Boom Man
- (as James Contreras)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAfter the success of Easy Rider (1969), Universal Studios created a youth division, making "semi-independent" films for low budgets in hopes of generating similar profits. The idea was to make five movies at $1 million or less, not interfere in the filmmaking process, and give the directors total control and a share in the profits.
- GoofsBoom mic reflected in photo on mantelpiece when Kansas is made to beg for the fur coat.
- Quotes
Mrs. Anderson: You know, I had fantasies like that, about being beat up. Did you ever have a fantasy about women beating you up? Or don't cowboys have fantasies?
- Crazy creditsThere is a nearly-15-minute gap between the first title card, "A FILM BY DENNIS HOPPER," and the other title card, "THE LAST MOVIE".
- ConnectionsFeatured in The American Dreamer (1971)
Featured review
Seeking A Movie in Dennis Hopper's 'The Last Movie'
Within Dennis Hopper's infamous post-EASY RIDER flop, THE LAST MOVIE, are several movies with great potential had they been more fleshed-out - or if at least one took center stage...
These include an American-made cowboy picture being filmed in the main location of Peru where a stuntman dies, leading Hopper's character, Kansas, an extra and stuntman, caterer and acquirer of horses, to deal with the conscious-brooding aftermath... A psychotic local, after witnessing the Western being made, filming his own makeshift movie with bamboo cameras, actual punches pulled and real gunshots fired without blanks... A melancholy priest dealing with how his small town is altered by the Ugly American production, having come and gone with all its bogus yet influential, shoot-em-up violence... A gold-seeking expedition-plan between Hooper and his scruffy (future OUT OF THE BLUE) sidekick Don Gordon... Or our moping American film-worker falling in love with a beautiful Peruvian prostitute, Maria, played by natural beauty Stella Garcia...
The latter holds the most value since it's the only subplot with actual layers. which includes a pretty, classy, uptight yet progressive wife and daughter of a broom factory owner: the first awkwardly seduced by Hooper's Kansas in THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON scream queen Julie Adams and TV actress Donna Baccala as this non-linear, documentary-style odyssey goes from the gorgeously green and/or canyon-backed Peru exterior to a grainy night on the town, as an unrefined love triangle ensues: Hopper's lady-friend, Maria, hired her workmate... future COLUMBO victim Poupée Bocar as a bisexual nightclub singer... to entertain the ragtag group. And the following daytime scene involves a seemingly important conversation about Don Gordon's supposed gold mine followed by a quick, unrealized trek to find it - lasting less than most scenes would need to begin...
And on the movie-within-a-movie's set, since Hopper's Kansas is merely a caterer, having to provide alcohol to the selfish and raucous cast and crew while brooding outside of both the real and fake film's perimeter, it could be this LAST MOVIE is Hopper's way of not only being a dissociated artist but playing one in his own disassociated motion picture...
One telling moment and perhaps the best scene overall has Kansas demonstrating to the insanely-inspired Peruvian "director" how a beaten-up actor should throw a punch instead of continuing to bloody each other up. After which this director/dictator informs Kansas that his picture isn't fake like the Western that Kansas worked on...
Perhaps the askew logic is: Since those bamboo camera's aren't actually filming anything, real life isn't being captured like the kind of trickery... or "game" as the priest calls it... that inspired this local violent mockery. In other words, anything being recorded for posterity is futile and worthless compared to the real thing: just as Maria is more of a real person than Kansas. The problem is that both the actual-fake and fake-fake movies are all being filmed, and have to seem real to the audience. So Hopper's attempt to make a distinction between the two are somewhat futile in the end...
Either way, the misplaced yet strangely intriguing bedlam leads to a rushed third act that ultimately implodes upon itself... Especially in one scene as Hopper sits with the two leading Peruvian/Spanish characters... the priest and the loco-local director... and says, with finality, "To Hell with it!"
In actuality, this irritated exodus - after Kansas becomes a bloody martyr/captive of the Peruvians violent "passion play" (taking on the same expressive guilt he did concerning Jack Nicholson's EASY RIDER death during the acid trip) - is entirely redundant: Symbolically, Hopper crashes and departs from his own party while drowning with a life-preserver on...
If he had had more fun and action within the chaos instead of so much art-house distraction, we, the viewer, could have shared in that pandemonium as if it were ours as well as the director's. Experiencing a voyeuristic catastrophe that only a genius could make is more of an addictive and bizarre, awkwardly intriguing journey than an insightful or overall effective one. Thankfully, the timeless, legendary and groundbreaking road classic EASY RIDER had an actual destination, which was, within the story, tragically unfulfilled. So maybe, just maybe, THE LAST MOVIE was Hopper's next step after having nowhere left to go.
These include an American-made cowboy picture being filmed in the main location of Peru where a stuntman dies, leading Hopper's character, Kansas, an extra and stuntman, caterer and acquirer of horses, to deal with the conscious-brooding aftermath... A psychotic local, after witnessing the Western being made, filming his own makeshift movie with bamboo cameras, actual punches pulled and real gunshots fired without blanks... A melancholy priest dealing with how his small town is altered by the Ugly American production, having come and gone with all its bogus yet influential, shoot-em-up violence... A gold-seeking expedition-plan between Hooper and his scruffy (future OUT OF THE BLUE) sidekick Don Gordon... Or our moping American film-worker falling in love with a beautiful Peruvian prostitute, Maria, played by natural beauty Stella Garcia...
The latter holds the most value since it's the only subplot with actual layers. which includes a pretty, classy, uptight yet progressive wife and daughter of a broom factory owner: the first awkwardly seduced by Hooper's Kansas in THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON scream queen Julie Adams and TV actress Donna Baccala as this non-linear, documentary-style odyssey goes from the gorgeously green and/or canyon-backed Peru exterior to a grainy night on the town, as an unrefined love triangle ensues: Hopper's lady-friend, Maria, hired her workmate... future COLUMBO victim Poupée Bocar as a bisexual nightclub singer... to entertain the ragtag group. And the following daytime scene involves a seemingly important conversation about Don Gordon's supposed gold mine followed by a quick, unrealized trek to find it - lasting less than most scenes would need to begin...
And on the movie-within-a-movie's set, since Hopper's Kansas is merely a caterer, having to provide alcohol to the selfish and raucous cast and crew while brooding outside of both the real and fake film's perimeter, it could be this LAST MOVIE is Hopper's way of not only being a dissociated artist but playing one in his own disassociated motion picture...
One telling moment and perhaps the best scene overall has Kansas demonstrating to the insanely-inspired Peruvian "director" how a beaten-up actor should throw a punch instead of continuing to bloody each other up. After which this director/dictator informs Kansas that his picture isn't fake like the Western that Kansas worked on...
Perhaps the askew logic is: Since those bamboo camera's aren't actually filming anything, real life isn't being captured like the kind of trickery... or "game" as the priest calls it... that inspired this local violent mockery. In other words, anything being recorded for posterity is futile and worthless compared to the real thing: just as Maria is more of a real person than Kansas. The problem is that both the actual-fake and fake-fake movies are all being filmed, and have to seem real to the audience. So Hopper's attempt to make a distinction between the two are somewhat futile in the end...
Either way, the misplaced yet strangely intriguing bedlam leads to a rushed third act that ultimately implodes upon itself... Especially in one scene as Hopper sits with the two leading Peruvian/Spanish characters... the priest and the loco-local director... and says, with finality, "To Hell with it!"
In actuality, this irritated exodus - after Kansas becomes a bloody martyr/captive of the Peruvians violent "passion play" (taking on the same expressive guilt he did concerning Jack Nicholson's EASY RIDER death during the acid trip) - is entirely redundant: Symbolically, Hopper crashes and departs from his own party while drowning with a life-preserver on...
If he had had more fun and action within the chaos instead of so much art-house distraction, we, the viewer, could have shared in that pandemonium as if it were ours as well as the director's. Experiencing a voyeuristic catastrophe that only a genius could make is more of an addictive and bizarre, awkwardly intriguing journey than an insightful or overall effective one. Thankfully, the timeless, legendary and groundbreaking road classic EASY RIDER had an actual destination, which was, within the story, tragically unfulfilled. So maybe, just maybe, THE LAST MOVIE was Hopper's next step after having nowhere left to go.
- TheFearmakers
- Jan 6, 2019
- Permalink
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Последний фильм
- Filming locations
- Chinchero, Peru(movie set on Plaza de Chinchero)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $1,000,000 (estimated)
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