MovieChat Forums > The Last Picture Show (1971) Discussion > Were People Really Like This in 1951 ?

Were People Really Like This in 1951 ?

posted 10 years ago by mistermycroft
21 replies | jump to latest

Seems more like 1971 than people in 1951:

Teenage boy sleeping with the coach's wife;

A mother encouraging her daughter to sleep around;

Teenage girl having sex with an adult man on a pool table;

Very promiscuous teenage girls;

Teenagers (and younger kids) having no qualms about walking around totally nude in front of each other;

A woman agreeing to deflower a young boy in a car for $ 1

I question whether this was realistic for 1951. Most of these people would be thrown in jail, run out of town, and the women branded as "whores" for this behavior

[–] lubin-freddy 10 years ago

Yes, it was realistic. The period was less like the popular image, and more like the novel/movie. The 60s didn't change anything, just brought things more into the open.

Don't lend your hand to raise no flag atop no ship of fools.

[–] freebird1987 8 years ago

^^This

[–] gizmomogwai 10 years ago

Always impresses me how people ask questions about the past like this, then answer it themselves, wrongly.

[–] cheapfrill 9 years ago

In small boring towns people have always had sex with the neighbors and always will. And those not having sex are the ones having fun talking about it. It's not defined by any obscure period of time or culture either.

[–] ed-pilling 9 years ago

These things did happen but people didnt talk openly about it. Surprised gays were not the movie

[–] Jason-Y 9 years ago

I come from a place similar to this Texas town (an East Tennessee town). It wouldn't surprise me if people were doing this back in the 50s or even earlier. The fact it was taboo and the place was so religious, would have made it even more exciting.

[–] flackjacket 9 years ago

No. No they didn't. This film was the typical hyper rich, detached left wing Hollywood attempt at portraying middle America as a bunch of horn dogs and immoral bastards in order to be "cutting edge" and trendy. It failed miserably in my opinion.

[–] thomasam32 9 years ago

There's nothing political about it, people have been having sex for a long, long time. There's a reason "thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife" is one of the ten commandments. It's not a warning about something that never happened. It was in there because it was common. Girls used to get married at the age of 15...and guess what? They had sex. Anyone who thinks otherwise is kidding themselves.

[–] Prismark10 9 years ago

'No. No they didn't. This film was the typical hyper rich, detached left wing Hollywood attempt at portraying middle America as a bunch of horn dogs and immoral bastards in order to be "cutting edge" and trendy. It failed miserably in my opinion.'

So cutting edge it was filmed in black and white and won two Oscars.

It's that man again!!

[–] jim_85258 9 years ago

The teen pregnancy rate was much higher in the 1950s then it is today. If you don't think these kinds of things happened in the 1950s all you need to do is research all the pregnant teens who had their babies taken from them and given up for adoption in the 1950s.

[–] mistermycroft 8 years ago

My parents were teenagers in the mid to late 1950s, and as was common back then, if a woman became pregnant she quickly married or she was sent away to a home for unwed mothers (out of town) to have the baby, and to hide the shame

I even recall an incident in my city, an old classmate of mine, who became pregnant in her teens (this was in the very early 1990s) and she mysteriously was sent away to Kansas to "take college courses." In actuality, she went to stay with relatives to have the baby

So, yes, in the 1950s when one engaged in socially unacceptable behavior, you and your family could be shamed into leaving town. They didn't come with torches and pitchforks, but you would be ostracized.

[–] JohnM_99 9 years ago

I can't argue that some people were doing stuff in the movie, but people won't talk about them openly anyway, so we won't know.

The overall extremely depressing mood of the town is, however, a very predictable knock on the middle-America by Hollywood and NYCer director. Coen brothers do that all the time too, along with countless other Hollywood movies makers. Very cliche, tired, boring and unrealistic.

[–] mistermycroft 9 years ago

Check out the 1966 film THE CHASE starring Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Robert Duvall. Small town down south, and it seems like everybody (despite being married) is sleeping with everyone else

Still, I don't think that your average teenager in 1951, especially girls, had no qualms about walking around nude in front of other teens, especially boys. That is just someone's fantasy

And back then if you did these things, you'd be branded a whore and run out of town. No one would stand for this behavior

[–] InherentlyYours 8 years ago

"Back then" is still modern times, relatively speaking. They did not "run a women out of town and brand her a whore", like it was the 1700's.