In his violent 1969 western epic THE WILD BUNCH, director Sam Peckinpah looked at the decline of the Old West through the eyes of outlaws living out their last days in 1913, as World War I loomed on the horizon. But PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID takes an even more cynical view, saying that the decline of the Old West began even sooner than that.
Peckinpah's final western movie, shot on location in miserable conditions in Durango, Mexico in late 1972/early 1973, looks at the legend of Pat Garrett and William Bonney (a.k.a. Billy The Kid) as a Greek tragedy of sorts. James Coburn is superb as Garrett, the former outlaw who has been hired on by the so-called "Santa Fe ring" of business tycoons as sheriff to track down his old friend Billy (Kris Kristofferson, also quite good). Coburn takes no pleasure out of having to do this, or killing former friends who have now become enemies. As he tells Billy, "It feels like times have changed" (and not for the better). Kristofferson, however, retains the same attitude he's always had--"Times maybe. Not me." The result is a cynical, dust-choked odyssey across New Mexico between the two former friends, one reluctantly running and the other one very reluctantly pursuing, resulting in the killing of Billy at Fort Sumner that, twenty-eight years later, will also seal Garrett's doom.
Though originally mangled to pieces by the MGM studio brass back in 1973, in its Restored Directors Cut, PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID can now be seen as one of the greatest westerns of all times. Surrounding Coburn and Kristofferson are such luminaries as Jason Robards, Barry Sullivan, Matt Clark, Luke Askew, Jack Elam, Harry Dean Stanton, Katy Jurado, and Richard Jaeckel. And even with all the troubles he had making this film, Peckinpah wisely included his cast of Usual Suspects: Emilio Fernandez, Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones, John Davis Chandler, Dub Taylor, and Jorge Russek. Bob Dylan, who did the acoustic folk/country score, has a role as the cynical drifter Alias, who sides with Billy but knows all too well what Billy's fate will be.
Bleak, cynical, and tragic, and with Peckinpah's traditional slow-motion violence and montage (though not on the extreme level of THE WILD BUNCH), PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID is one of the most memorable films of his career, one that was all too short and, sadly enough, made so by his own excesses.
NOTE: The 2005 Special Edition, paired on DVD with the so-called "Restored Director's Cut", while it is five minutes shorter, does contain a crucial scene (left out in the other version) between Garrett and his Mexican-born wife (played by Aurora Clavel) that shows how Garrett is progressively alienating himself from the general populace by aligning himself with the business interests in Santa Fe. The basic structure and spirit of the film, however, are all wisely maintained.
Peckinpah's final western movie, shot on location in miserable conditions in Durango, Mexico in late 1972/early 1973, looks at the legend of Pat Garrett and William Bonney (a.k.a. Billy The Kid) as a Greek tragedy of sorts. James Coburn is superb as Garrett, the former outlaw who has been hired on by the so-called "Santa Fe ring" of business tycoons as sheriff to track down his old friend Billy (Kris Kristofferson, also quite good). Coburn takes no pleasure out of having to do this, or killing former friends who have now become enemies. As he tells Billy, "It feels like times have changed" (and not for the better). Kristofferson, however, retains the same attitude he's always had--"Times maybe. Not me." The result is a cynical, dust-choked odyssey across New Mexico between the two former friends, one reluctantly running and the other one very reluctantly pursuing, resulting in the killing of Billy at Fort Sumner that, twenty-eight years later, will also seal Garrett's doom.
Though originally mangled to pieces by the MGM studio brass back in 1973, in its Restored Directors Cut, PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID can now be seen as one of the greatest westerns of all times. Surrounding Coburn and Kristofferson are such luminaries as Jason Robards, Barry Sullivan, Matt Clark, Luke Askew, Jack Elam, Harry Dean Stanton, Katy Jurado, and Richard Jaeckel. And even with all the troubles he had making this film, Peckinpah wisely included his cast of Usual Suspects: Emilio Fernandez, Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones, John Davis Chandler, Dub Taylor, and Jorge Russek. Bob Dylan, who did the acoustic folk/country score, has a role as the cynical drifter Alias, who sides with Billy but knows all too well what Billy's fate will be.
Bleak, cynical, and tragic, and with Peckinpah's traditional slow-motion violence and montage (though not on the extreme level of THE WILD BUNCH), PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID is one of the most memorable films of his career, one that was all too short and, sadly enough, made so by his own excesses.
NOTE: The 2005 Special Edition, paired on DVD with the so-called "Restored Director's Cut", while it is five minutes shorter, does contain a crucial scene (left out in the other version) between Garrett and his Mexican-born wife (played by Aurora Clavel) that shows how Garrett is progressively alienating himself from the general populace by aligning himself with the business interests in Santa Fe. The basic structure and spirit of the film, however, are all wisely maintained.