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Customer Review
A Unique Masterpiece
Movies, especially genre pieces, are rarely unique; so one has to look at this film as a magnificent achievement, if only for its extraordinary originality and the manner in which it achieves that originality without demolishing the Western genre. Unlike Sergio Leone, who signaled his love of the genre even as he deconstructed it; PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID seems to spontaneously erupt out of Peckinpah's unconcious. I don't think he ever made a film before or after which speaks so effortlessly and so beautifully in the voice of its author. The result is a Western which is not only unlike any other Western ever made, but completely unlike any other film ever made, including Peckinpah's own.Firstly, this film moves in an entirely unique manner, avoiding the three-act structure of the conventional film in favor of a cyclical arc which inexorably propels the film towards its violent climax. The film, quite literally, ends where it begins, both chronologically and...
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September 13, 2004
(israel) | Helpful Votes: 143 | Rating: 5
Nobody does 'em like Peckinpah!
This is the Director's Cut, which they tell me is far better than the movie which was released. I don't know, because I never saw the version that was released theatrically. But, this one is very good!They say that 16 minutes of the Director's Cut was taken out of the released version. I'll take their word for it..Kris Kristofferson plays Billy, James Coburn plays sheriff Pat Garrett, and, in the best role I've ever seen him in (in fact, I've never seen him in anything else, come to think of it), Bob Dylan plays a character who recurs throughout the movie, called 'Alias,' who is very handy with a knife.The theme is that the West is changing, and there is no room anymore for the wild, carefree violence and the gunslinging cattle wars. Law and order have taken over at last. Garrett sees the trend of the future, and changes, becoming the sheriff. Billy refuses, maintaining his old ways, with the predictable result.History aside (any...
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June 7, 2000
| Helpful Votes: 21 | Rating: 5
Product Description
Sam Peckinpah's brutal, mythic western saga focuses on the pursuit of outlaw Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) by mentor-turned-lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) in 1880s New Mexico. With Barry Sullivan, Jason Robards, and Bob Dylan (who also wrote the music). 1988 restored version; 122 min./2005 special edition; 115 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital mono, French Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish; audio commentary; featurettes; theatrical trailers. Two-disc set. Top to learn more
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid may be the most beautiful and ambitious film that Sam Peckinpah ever made. The time is 1881. Powerful interests want New Mexico tamed for their brand of progress, and Sheriff Pat Garrett (James Coburn) is commissioned to rid the territory of his old gunfighting comrades. He serves fair notice to William Bonney--Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson)--and his Fort Sumter cronies, but it's not in their nature, or his, to go quietly. Peckinpah's theme, more than ever, is the closing of the frontier and the nature of the loss that that entails. But this time his vision takes him beyond genre convention, beyond history and legend, to the bleeding heart of myth--and surely of himself.
This is one strange and original movie. In 1973 most American reviewers responded by panning it and deriding its director, whom they saw as having betrayed the promise of Ride the High Country, been swept up in his own cult of violence, and become incoherent as a storyteller. Coherence wasn't helped by MGM's cutting at least a quarter-of-an-hour out of the finished film and removing a bitter, retrospective prelude. Subsequent releases have restored a lot of material, and now there's more widespread appreciation of the depth and power of Peckinpah's achievement.
The cast, teeming with fine character actors, is extraordinary, making the gallery of frontier denizens vivid and resonant. Coburn's Garrett, a man who comes to loathe himself for his mission yet cannot abandon it, is the high-water mark of the actor's career. L.Q. Jones, Luke Askew, Harry Dean Stanton, Jack Elam, and Richard Bright create indelible moments, and Slim Pickens becomes the center of an unforgettably moving scene. The presence of Kristofferson (just starting out as an actor) and Bob Dylan (whose enigmatic role is nearly wordless) nudges us toward recognizing Old West outlawry as an early form of rock stardom--flesh-and-blood gods for a primitive society to feed on. --Richard T. Jameson Top to learn more
Turner version 5 stars. The rest of this is a pain though.
There seems to be a lasting discussion, or even a consensus, about why this movie is flawed in one way or the other and worse than the Wild Bunch, especially amongst US audience. A discussion I frankly can't quite follow even though it is belabored at considerable length in the commentary tracks. The issue apparently also motivated Mr. Seydor to throw together a so called 'special edition' with scenes taken from either the Turner version or the theatrical release, in an attempt to produce a version he feels Sam Peckinpah might had been striving for, given the troubled production circumstances. This 'special edition' is the one version coming with this package, and if you are like me you might consider this wasted space, as at least I'm not at all interested in what Mr. Seydor feels might be great. The idleness of this whole attempt is mirrored in the commentary tracks, where most of the time is wasted with repeated explanations about what a directors cut and a fine cut are, why the...
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June 8, 2006
(Salem, OR USA) | Helpful Votes: 39 | Rating: 3
Dylan plays Dylan