Reassessing Sam Peckinpah*

I'm working my way through his films roughly chronogically, and am up to 'Killer Elite'. It seems his better movies get better with time: the clarity and rigor of his direction, his cyncial yet vaguely idealistic sensibility, the lyricism that often emerges (though is still underappreciated). The first hour of Major Dundee, Wild Bunch , even both version of Pat Garrett. His bad movies get worse. The first hour of 'Killer Elite' just apart falls apart, with no sense of pacing (and strangely little action for an action film) Unsure I am up to actually watching 'Convoy' again

 

I ordered Ride The High Country Music just today.

 

My favorite Peckinpah film has got to be Salad Days.

 

Major Dundee was unfinished, and an 'n' is an unfinished 'h'. The studio wouldn't pay for the top little stem.

 

Then just when you think he's totally washed up, we get Cross Of Iron.

 

From what I've read Sam was barely there for Convoy. Booze and blow ruined him.

 

Don't overlook The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), Straw Dogs (1971), Junior Bonner (1972) and The Getaway (1972) in that order.

The Getaway improves on its source novel. Walter Hill wrote the script that Jim Thompson's novel should have been.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) is Peckinpah's only film noir and perhaps his best film.

I wish he had lived long enough to make more westerns and more film noir's.

 

Get thee to your public library and watch Straw Dogs.

 

Read the revised and expanded edition of this superb career biography with the history of each film detailed:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/087910273...ails?_encoding=UTF8&me=&qid=1493347652&sr=1-1

 

I think Peckinpah was a great cold shower of realistically random violence to the Hollywood western. There were a lot of ridiculous crap westerns made, some of which are still beloved, but they were such awful fantasy it probably made him sick. His films will never age really, and probably always be needed. Even the worst still have that needed ugly cold shower aspect to them.

 

In my ten best of all-time. The Peckinpahist damn Peckinpah you might say? Some great extras on the DVD.

 

I'm glad to see Sam getting some discussion. The Wild Bunch receives its entirely justified praise, but the rest of his work is more than deserving of attention.

Violence may be a common aspect of his films, but the themes of loyalty and betrayal are also important. Sam may have been a realist, but he also had a romantic streak that was expressed in many lyrical scenes.

GARCIA is probably the purest essence of Sam to make it to the screen. He was not afraid to depict life and death in all its beauty and ugliness.

 

Straw Dogs still wallops a punch.

 

No reassessing from me: He did his best work before The Getaway.

 

That would be true if weren't for Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), his best film, which came two years after The Getaway (December 1972). Then Cross of Iron came in 1977, one of his best films.

 

Not funny. Not even remotely.

 

The Getaway is under appreciated these days when people look at Peckinpah's oeuvre. The cliché being that it wasn't as personal a project as some of his other films and, therefore, not as authentic. I don't buy into that view. Peckinpah was very much at the height of his directorial powers on this film. It's beautifully shot, and the editing is superb. The opening credit sequence is perhaps the finest of any of his films.

 

It is to me....always loved this bit.

 

Anybody want to discuss the merits and flaws of Major Dundee?

 

Agreed. The Getaway shows Peckinpah at the height of his directing and editing talent and is widely acknowledged as a classic. Nobody disputes that. Although I find myself looking away from the "poor Harold" humiliation scenes and wishing they'd end sooner.

 

jackson browne from 'sergio leone":

He worked for Walsh and Wyler with the chariot and sword
When he rode out in the desert he was quoting Hawks and Ford
He came to see the masters and he left with what he saw
What he stole from Kurosawa he bequeathed to Peckinpah

 

Don't get me started on Alfredo Garcia -- I've expressed my feelings on that one in other threads.

That's definitely a movie that's undergone reassessment. I don't buy into it, though.

 

I remember when that movie came out, and there was a lot of press about it because of Sally Struthers being in it. At the time I think that fact overshadowed critical assessment of the film. That of course, plus the violence. Even Life did a big piece on it, complete, IIRC, with a picture of Lettieri sitting in the bathroom next to the hanging Dodson. Still one of my favorite Peckinpah films.

 

Watched it just last night. Love the structure & pace of the movie. That scene at the beginning when Steve McQueen is in his cell breaking-up his wooden-match bridge...and then a freeze-frame. Perfect. Sam was the man! Many, many talented people worked on 'The Getaway' and it shows. A powerful & disturbing movie beautifully realized.