Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)

What do you think of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid?

Myself I thought It was great movie, with some great scenes. My favorite scene has to be where the man gets shot and their playing " knocking on heavens door " I couldn’t think of a better song to go along with that scene.

You even get to see Sam Peckinpah in this movie.

i like it too… but peckinpah isn´t leone…
and i don t really like his style…
but coburn is great

music by bob dillon??? and he has a part in it too??? i don t remember

yeah the whole movie is they play bob dylan

And sam peckinpah is at the end of movie

Kristoferson was miscast as Billy the Kid he was too old thats why they had him shave his beard

Michael J Pollard is my idea of BTK :wink:

Yea, he plays a knife throwing townsperson who teams up with Billy after his escape from jail.

I’ve also seen “Dirty Little Billy”, but it was many years ago on television. A pretty good western with a realistic feel to it, wasn’t it?

Michael J Pollard is also in the eurowestern Les Petroleuses[url]http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Pétroleuses%2C_Les[/url]!

Yea “Dirty Little Billy” has the SW influence muddy streets and that shanty town look.

Michael J. Pollard is in “4 For The Apocalypse” too.

“Dirty Little Billy” isn’t available on dvd, or is it?

I love Peckinpah, but with this movie, I’m never sure if I’m seeing his vision. Still, a great soundtrack by Dylan accompanies a fine, slowburning, somewhat surreal western. Not Peckinpah’s best, but certainly not his worst. Also, I tremendously enjoyed just listening to the voices of the two leads.

This is one of the greatest Westerns ever. Absolutely unique in it’s fatalistic atmosphere and very complex.
As one Critic says: The double self portrait of the filmmaker as loser. A very personal movie and together with The Wild Bunch (despite some minor flaws) Peckinpah’s masterpiece.

Yeah I was watching a Sam Peckinpah Documentary and some critic was saying, “Pat Garnett was like Billy The Kid and Pat Garnett kind of sold out because he was sent to kill Billy The Kid” I find that statement very true. I like the scene where Billy The Kid gets shot,the lighting and slow motion worked great(only like Sam Peckinpah can do it)but after he shoots him there are no bullet wounds(If I remember correctly)which kind of made me mad when I first watched it doesnt mean I dont like it through :slight_smile:

There is a wound, but no blood :smiley: Not typical for Sam.

I think, this is like a prophane Passion in the Old West. There’s a Christ-like bandit, some sons of bitches who want to see him dead, and a friend who betrays him.
Gov. Lew Wallace is Pontius Pilate, Chisum is Herodes, the Capitalists are the Priests. ;D Only a joke! ;D

Beautiful, poetic, and very sad. :’(

And I love James Coburn. :wink:

I must cofess that i hate this movie. I think it’s totally overrated, boring and its point is showing grittiness for the sake of showing grittiness. I don’t find buch of people riding around and telling that old days were good fascinating.

A point to remember with this film (like so many these days, and in particular by this director) is to remember there are quite a few versions to this film.

I recently watched the relatively new cut (2005) to this film, and was not to my liking.

My preferrred version is the 1988 TURNER PREVIEW VERSION.

As I prefer; the editing in the film, this version includes extra scenes cut from the 2005 version and a scene with JAMES COBURN chilling out with a few ladies is messed about with.

i’ve only ever seen this once but i din’t know what cut of the film i’ve seen!

Its not my favorite Peckinpah western or Peckinpah film for that matter. The Wild Bunch and The Ballad of Cable Hogue are way better films IMO.
Other great Peckinpah films are The Getaway, Straw Dogs, Cross of Iron, Convoy and my favorite Peckinpah film Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia.

There are 3 versions of this masterpiece, and I would say that the film works in every of the 3 versions.

The theatrical version from 1973 runs about 106 min. ,but loses some of the complexity by the omited scenes.
The Turner preview version was a rough cut which was prepared in 1988 and runs 122 min. (but should run 124, because 1 scene was still missing, another one from the theatrical version was also missing).

For the DVD release the acknowledged Peckinpah expert Paul Seydor, who is also an experienced Hollywood cutter, was allowed to cut a new version out of these 2, and became so the rare chance to fine cut this film like he always had described it in his book.
It’s basically the 1st version with adding most, not all, of the scenes the 2nd version contains, and it runs now about 115 min.

The problem is that everybody who knows both versions would have made different decisions by preparing a fine cut, and so has also different expectations which shape such a final version should have.

I think that the new version is clearly superior to the Turner version, but I would be happy if some of the cut out footage would return in it. There is only one scene which is now completely missing (for good reasons), but it contains the 2 scenes which were not in the Turner one.
Happily the DVD contains both versions.

Maybe in the near future everybody will be able to prepare their personal versions of their favourite movies.

Peckinpah is slower and more poetic in this film. I think this one could have used tighter editing, but by the time this one came out, no one messed with his films. Later was a different story. I still give it 4, it’s Sam’s OUTIW.

This is one of my top-ten westerns. I like James Coburn so much in this. It’s a poetic masterpiece. The one who said it was Peckinpah’s Once Upon a Time in the West is totally right.

I agree with stanton and Earl McGraw on this one! It doesn’t matter which of the many versions you see…this is still one of the best Western movies ever made, in my opinion. I like it just as much as THE WILD BUNCH! Both of them are outright classics. But, my most favorite Peckinpah film is RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY.