The Last Movie *** (1971, Julie Adams, Dennis Hopper, Daniel Ades, Rod Cameron, Dean Stockwell) – Classic Movie Review 8094

A Hollywood film company arrives in a Peruvian village to shoot a Western about Billy the Kid (Dean Stockwell) in director Dennis Hopper’s 1971 The Last Movie, a high-flown allegorical fantasy drama in which he also plays a cowboy called Kansas.

Kansas, the film unit wrangler, decides to give up film-making and stay on in the village after production wraps, living with prostitute Maria (Stella Garcia). Then the priest asks him to help stop the simple villagers from killing each other by re-enacting scenes from the film for real.

The Last Movie looks striking shot in Technicolor by Laszlo Kovacs, and patient audiences are rewarded with the satire of a film within a film and the fascinating prospect of a now legendary cult crowd of actors. But it is easy to get bewildered at all the odd and obscure goings-on in the screenplay by Stewart Stern and even want to start to give up after about half an hour.

Kris Kristofferson makes his acting debut and co-writes the score. It also stars Julie Adams, Daniel Ades, Rod Cameron, Michael Anderson Jr, John Alderman, Peter Fonda, Toni Basil, Henry Jaglom, John Phillip Law, Sylvia Miles, Tomas Milian, James Mitchum, Richard Rust, Dean Stockwell, Russ Tamblyn, Roy Engel, Severn Darden, Don Gordon, Warren Finnerty and Sam Fuller, who plays Sam, the director of the film within the film.

It was the winner of the Best Film CIDALC Award at the Venice Film Festival in 1971.

The Last Movie [aka Chinchero] is directed by Dennis Hopper, runs 109 minutes, is made by Alta-Light, is released by Universal, is written by Stewart Stern, based on a story by Dennis Hopper and Stewart Stern, is shot in Technicolor by Laszlo Kovacs, is produced by Paul Lewis, is scored by Kris Kristofferson, John Buck Wilkin, Chabuca Granda and Severn Darden, with special effects by Milt Rice and production designs by Leon Ericksen.

Hopper was coming off as director of his first movie, Easy Rider. He made five other films as director: Out of the Blue, Colors, Catchfire, The Hot Spot and Chasers.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8094

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