Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

Sam Peckinpah
1973
Second Viewing

This was a welcome revisit to one of my favorite Peckinpah films. Steely sad-sack Pat Garrett (a world-weary James Coburn) sets out to kill old pal Billy the Kid (barn-broad jughead Kris Kristofferson) at the behest of big ranching. Garrett's heart and soul may belong to yesterday's wild west but his tired body sides with the taming tide, making Billy an outlaw anachronism. Peckinpah will always be associated with screen violence and this is the apogee of his craft. In "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" violence is a hallowed undeniable fact - Billy is forced to duel an old acquaintance who's gone law in an accidental encounter, an unfortunate caveat of frontier life. Shootouts are given the lavish slo-mo treatment with tough-guy survivors glossing over the horror with a little humor or profanity. The thick gunsmoke is mercifully cut, and contrasted, with Billy's carefree attitude and lusty indulgences as he gorges on tortillas and mex women. A knife-wielding Bob Dylan appears as one of Billy's cohorts, appropriately named Alias. Apparently He and Peckinpah didn't get along too well on set, though his music for the film is pretty solid.