I recently taped this movie off the TV, and I was wondering if it was one of Peckinpah’s best, up their with “The Wild Bunch”.
Nothing is up there with The Wild Bunch, but Cable Hogue is a charming change of pace for Peckinpah that wrong-footed a good number of critics and filmgoers at the time of its release.
It’s a clever, amusing melding of Western and allegory, with a bravura performance from Jason Robards, with a wistful tone similar to Junior Bonner (though it’s more bitter in places than that film). There are also shades of The Wild Bunch, in particular the venal villains who double-cross Cable and the anachronistic appearance of a motor car.
And I defy any red-blooded male not to fall in love with Stella Stevens’ whore with a heart of gold.
It has always been second on my Peckinpah list, maybe it will be first after rewatching both Bunch and Cable
It’s a wonderful western ballad. I love this movie. You can hardly compare it to the Bunch. The one thing, the two movies got in common is the fact they both are westerns…
Nice laid back type of film for me and the songs always stick in my head after viewing, so I guess I must like them.
Gave it 5 stars. I just love this film but I think I was 5 years old or something when I saw this first time so there’s always a little bit of nostalgic feel when I watch it.
You can’t go wrong with Robards!
I’ll be giving you a review of the movie as soon as I watch it (which will hopfully be soon!).
Okay, so here’s my reviw of “The Ballad of Cable Hogue”:
All I can say is that it’s one of the greatest anti-westerns of all time. Not that it tries to de-construct the western legand, but the director Sam Peckinpah makes a film that has no gunplay to speak of, no action really or shootouts or a fight in a bar. It could have been dull, but against all odds, he pulls it off, so by the end of the film you don’t want it to end. The script, direction and the acting are all sublime. Anyone who says Peckinpah can’t make a picture with out having gory shootouts, watch this.