A film company wraps up production on a Western in Peru, then heads back to Hollywood.
Dennis Hopper plays Kansas, a wrangler who stays behind with hopes of making a fortune as more and more films are made in the area.
Meanwhile, he lives in a mountaintop villa with his girlfriend Maria, a former prostitute who expects luxuries Kansas can’t afford.
That’s because Hollywood doesn’t return. Instead, Kansas heads off on a gold-finding expedition with buddy Neville Robey.
They find gold, only to discover it’s too far from civilization to be exploited profitably.
Back in the village where the Western was made, the Peruvian villagers have taken up film-making with bamboo cameras and real violence.
Kansas tries to explain that the violence in Hollywood films is make believe.
Instead, he finds himself in a starring role that could be the equivalent of a death sentence.
Dennis Hopper as Kansas, in search of a simple yet profitable life in Peru in The Last Movie (1971)
Stella Garcia as Maria, the Peruvian prostitute Kansas makes his live-in girlfriend in The Last Movie (1971)
Review:
A mess of a movie, filmed by Hopper after the amazing success of “Easy Rider” earned him a chance to make a $1 million film without Hollywood interference.
At some points, the plot is presented in a nearly incomprehensible fashion. Tangents abound, including an alcohol-induced visit to a whorehouse to watch a lesbian act, a piercing ritual in which men gather around in creepy masks, and images of a mother squirting breast milk across Kansas’s face.
Lurking within is commentary on Hollywood’s potential influence on a native culture. What’s missing is any reason to give a damn about what happens to any of the characters we meet.
And when title cards pop up more than once reading “Scene Missing,” it’s hard not to conclude you’ve been duped into watching a pretentious piece of crap.
About the only highlight is Kris Kristofferson singing “Me and Bobby Magee.” And you don’t have to watch nearly two hours of garbage to hear that.
Dennis Hopper as Kansas, flirting with Mrs. Anderson (Julie Adams) in front of his girlfriend and her husband in The Last Movie (1971)
Donna Baccala as Miss Anderson and Don Gordon as Neville Robey, discussing worehouse floor shows in The Last Movie (1971)
Directed by:
Dennis Hopper
Cast:
Dennis Hopper … Kansas
Stella Garcia … Maria
Julie Adams … Mrs. Anderson
Tomas Milian … Priest
Don Gordon … Neville Robey
Roy Engel … Harry Anderson
Donna Baccala … Miss Anderson
Samuel Fuller … Himself
Poupee Bocar … Nightclub singer
Also with: Toni Basil, Rod Cameron, Severn Darden, Peter Fonda, Kris Kristofferrson, John Phillip Law, Ted Markland, Sylvia Miles, James Mitchum, Michelle Phillips, Richard Rust, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn
Runtime: 108 min.
Roy Engel as Harry Anderson, a successful U.S. businessman living in Peru in The Last Movie (1971)
Dennis Hopper as Kansas, discussing a remote gold mine in The Last Movie (1971)
Memorable lines:
Priest: “They didn’t want to come to my church anymore. They got carried away by that game (movie-making). So I just wanted to show them that the moralities that exist in the real church can exist here, in the movie church. So the only thing I hope is that, after this game is over, morality can be born again. And that’s what we should pray for, Mr. Kansas.”
Kansas: “Boy, this is the life, isn’t it? This is the life. Just nice and simple. Give me a little adobe up there. Right up there in those rocks somewhere. I’d be a very happy man.”
Maria: “Can we have a swimming pool like they have in town?”
Kansas, pointing to the waterfall where they’d just made love: “What the hell do you want a swimming pool for with all that?”
Maria: “Because I like a swimming pool.”
Mrs. Anderson: “I have fantasies like that. About being beat up. Do you ever have fantasies about women hitting you? Or do cowboys have fantasies?”
Kris Kristofferson as a wrangler, one of several well-known actors to make a cameo in The Last Movie (1971)
Poupee Bocar as the nightclub singer Kansas and his friends recruit to entertain them in The Last Movie (1971)
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