And this week's Friday night movie has been.....Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid!
Original image located here. Accessed 16th February 2018
Call it a holdover from my University days but I'm always up for a decent western. And this was one I have been eager to see largely because it was one from director Sam Peckinpah: A volatile drunk with a hair-trigger temper that went one to make some of the greatest westerns ever made - one of which being The Wild Bunch (a personal favorite).
Needless to say, this movie was something unexpected. Sure there is the trademark Peckinpah violence but this is something more slower paced than what I'm used to. If anything, this is the most unique western I've seen: The plot is a string of set-pieces and the mood is very grim and drab, as if this was intended to be a eulogy to an entire genre of film-making.
Much has alreayd been said of the performances of the two leads (James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson) and the presence of a whole laundry list of veteran western actors/actresses. It's a credit to Peckinpah that he attracted such names and got superb performances out of them (including one Bob Dylan) but the ultimately, the thought that this is the endpoint of the western is an inescapable one. Everyone seems to remarkably accepting towards their end (which frequently happens) and are really living anachronisms in a time long gone (a familiar theme in Peckinpah's work).
All in all, a very different western and honestly? For a film signalling the end of a genre it adds much to it.
