Sam Peckinpah's final western "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" borders so many time on cinematic greatness that it's a real shame it never hits that chord of genius like "The Wild Bunch" or "The Ballad of Cable Hogue". It is a melancholic, moody, atmospheric Western with a constant sense of impending doom over the protagonists, we know it's a matter of time before fate finally strikes the Kid when he'll push his luck one time too many, but the question is: to which extent do we care enough to wish it happens as late as possible. Sometimes, I felt like betraying my own love for Peckinpah's movies by asking myself; "when will that be over"?I liked Kris Kristofferson's performance but I associate Billy the Kid with Emilio Estevez so much that I didn't care enough for this one, I can't figure why, maybe because he didn't seem to care much about himself as well. Ironically, the only one who seemed to care about him was the instrument of his death, I say 'instrument' because there's obviousness on Garrett's reluctance to kill his friend, but as the holder of the sheriff's badge, he must fulfill his duty. There's no getting away from it, and I guess this is the core of the story, it's about people killing each other because they stand on opposite sides of the law, men who, in other circumstances, (some that might have happened) would've been friends, would've played Poker together or shared a family meal.That would make life sound too arbitrary and meaningless, like ignoring what kind of people the outlaws and the lawmen were, but it seems to be the point. Indeed, in "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", the line drawn between these two worlds is so thin and imperceptible that we don't really make a difference. Politicians and bounty hunters also play theses buffer roles, but you can tell Peckinpah hold neither of them with sympathy. So it's all a succession of arrests, gunfights and escapes, but they feel oddly random, lacking this precision from Sam's previous works, and as a Bloody Sam fan, I wondered if it was intentional, for the film is never as interesting when they halt fire, when you have a taste on their feelings, when it stops being about killing.Reading the trivia, I learned that the film was infamous for constant internal battles, including Sam's alcoholism and the interference of MGM executives who assigned six editors to work on the finished film, a cutting of forty minutes that resulted with the film's ill-reception and Sam's disowning his own creation. I saw the longer version and I suspect there were more to see about these characters in order to avoid this vacuous or unfinished feeling. A film populated with such fine performances and cameos can't be anything other than a fascinating experience, its misfire can only be accidental. And if Sam's hart wasn't in it, it sure wasn't the case for the actors, starting with James Coburn.Coburn plays a man of serene force, who says a lot without saying much, without that exaggerated devotion to duty and with an extraordinary inclination for sorrow and resignation, he's got a genuine fondness for his pal, but the call of duty has one merit, it's clear, fair and square and makes decision easier to make, although pulling the trigger is another story. The film isn't short of ironies; one of them is that Garrett is never stingy on bullets, except when it comes to the most ruthless killer of them all. It's like some outlaws' blood pumping in his veins, and killing Billy is killing a part of himself. This is how much he cares.On the other hand, Billy, is a guy who moves forward, and doesn't let circumstances dictate his path, he and Pat complete each other, and it is only just that one of them would finally have the upper hand, the more reasonable one. Garrett wants to grow as old as America and knows the Old West's days are numbered. This is not a novelty in Peckinpah's movies to play like an Epitaph to the Western genre, but while the end of an era was glorious and operatic in "The Wild Bunch", ironic and whimsical in "The Ballad of Cable Hogue", it is incongruously melancholic in this film, and we'll never know whether this choice of tone was deliberate.But one can't deny that this film offers some great bits that are among Peckinpah's best, one of the highlights of the film doesn't ironically feature the two leads, but two classic Western icons, Slim Pickens and Katy Jurado, Pickens has been shot under the ribs and we know what that means. He stands still but he knows he's watching his last sunset, he knows and she knows. He is in disbelief, she's resigned but in tears. This is the film in a nutshell, things that must happen, we don't believe they do, but we know they will. I don't know if it's the eyes of Pickens, the tears of Jurado or Bob Dylan's "Knock on the Heaven's Door", but the magic of this one moment has the power to almost redeem the movie.I didn't much care for Dylan's presence, pretty understated given how much publicity he was given, but his contribution to the scores gives this film a strange modern lecture, it stops being a Western but a sort of character study, a "No Country for Old Men" with a friendlier bond between the two leads, and with this time, a country that can't allow a youth that wouldn't play their games. There's a lot to appreciate in "Pat Garret and the Billy the Kid" from our standpoint so maybe the best compliment this film can be given is that it aged quite well.

Nope. Can't say I have. However, I must have watched it some time ago, because I've discovered some notes I made at the time. Those were rather positive. I've changed my mind after watching it again last night.I then described it as being like a modernist poem; reminiscent of something like The Waste Land. Passages of resonance and power, one after another, with no obvious connection or narrative coherence, yet adding up to a sense of loss and sadness. The re-working of a myth, so remote from the reality of its origins that it is almost completely internalized; and works on some impenetrable psychic level set well apart from everyday experience. Who are these people from 1881? They might as well be Ancient Greeks, enacting their fated roles in accordance with incomprehensible forces, speaking an alien language, performing actions dictated by values that no longer apply in our society. What pretentious garbage !My revised thoughts are these. Why is the film titled Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid ? It could be about two completely different people, with different names. It seems hardly to have anything to do with the historical characters. Kristofferson, as repeatedly pointed out on this site, is no "kid" of any kind. He was actually a scholar of Oxford University, England ! I read that the studio forced Peckinpah to cast him. Coburn is OK, but he could be just any sheriff who has switched sides. Bob Dylan is totally extraneous, and I've never been able to appreciate his caterwauling.Who were all those bums who kept turning up in places I didn't recognize ? Some of them supported the self-styled Billy, others didn't. Hard to know which were which, or why, until they got shot. I'll give it five stars, since I admit it was watchable. Mainly thanks to Coburn. Frankly, though, I almost prefer The Outlaw, with Jane Russell. Two years before PGBK, Rudy Wurlitzer had written a brilliant film, called Two Lane Blacktop; worth seeing any number of times. Was there some connection ?

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)** 1/2 (out of 4)Pat Garrett (James Coburn) takes a job as a Sheriff and soon after wards he heads out to arrest his old friend Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson). Before they can hang him Billy makes an escape so Garrett sets out to finish the job.Sam Peckinpah's PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID was released to mostly negative reviews but the version released wasn't what the director wanted. The studio pretty much took over the film and released their own cut, which was the only version out there until the Z-Channel released a 121-minute cut in the late 80s. Most preferred that version but there were those who felt this wasn't what Peckinpah would have wanted so a third version called the "Special Edition" was released in 2005 and that's the version being reviewed here.There's a lot of great stuff in this movie. In fact, it's easy to see why so many people consider this to be one of the director's greatest films but for my money there are still plenty of flaws. For starters, the biggest flaw is that the film is just downright boring. I'm going to place the majority of the blame on the screenplay, which doesn't seem to know what it's trying to do. Or, perhaps the screenplay was okay and it was Peckinpah that just couldn't get a clear story onto film. I'm going to guess that the main attempt was to show these two men, former friends, and what their falling out was all about. For the most part we see both characters doing their own thing and the movie really doesn't seem all that interested in a clear narrative of having Garrett find Billy. Of course, it eventually happens because that's the only way the movie could end but everything leading up to it just doesn't add up to much.The film is a technical marvel as the director clearly still had an eye for style. The entire film contains some wonderful cinematography and there's no question that the slow motion is perfectly used throughout. Peckinpah certainly knew how to stage a scene and milk everything out of it that he could. Just take a look at the sequence where Billy escape from jail and the destruction that follows. Another great sequence involves the capture of Billy and the remarkable shoot out that happens. The editing is another marvel that really helps move the film along. Then there's the music score and soundtrack from Bob Dylan. The score and soundtrack on their own are excellent but I really think the songs take away from the action on the screen. This is especially true for the "Knockin' on Heaven's Door," which just doesn't have much of an impact.The performances are where the real fun stuff comes from. I thought Coburn was excellent in the role of Garrett and he perfectly captured a rather dark character. Kristopherson is extremely good in the role of Billy the Kid and manages to turn in a very memorable version of the character. Dylan, the actor, is okay in his part even though he isn't given too much dialogue. The supporting cast includes Richard Jaeckel, Cill Willis, Jason Robards, Barry Sullivan, Luke Askew, Jack Elam, Slim Pickens, Harry Dean Stanton and Charles Martin Smith among others.PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID is far from a horrible movie but I think a stronger story would have made the technical achievement a lot better.

From director Sam Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs), before seeing this film I saw the famous duo of the title played by Emilio Esteves and Patrick Wayne in The Young Guns, I was looking forward to this 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book recommended film. Basically it is 1881 in New Mexico, Pat Garrett (James Coburn) has become a town sheriff, he was formerly the travelling companion of outlaw Billy The Kid (BAFTA nominated Kris Kristofferson), and now his duties are stopping the stealing of cattle. Specifically he wants to catch Billy, abandoning whatever personal experiences they went through together and sticking to the law and path of righteousness. Billy manages to escape any attempts at capture, so Pat arranges a posses to chase him through the territory and bring justice to the town, and after some get together moments and the individual character situations the action culminates in a final confrontation at Fort Summer. Also starring singer Bob Dylan as Alias, Jason Robards as Governor Wallace, Richard Jaeckel as Sheriff Kip McKinney, Katy Jurado as Mrs. Baker, Slim Pickens as Sheriff Baker, singer Rita Coolidge as Maria, Harry Dean Stanton as Luke, Charles Martin Smith as Bowdre, Bruce Dern as Deputy and Sam Peckinpah as Will. Coburn is great as the famous former criminal turned law abiding citizen and lawmaker, Kristofferson is also very good as the famous gunman at the frontier of the crimes, the story was a little tricky for me to understand at times, but I will be honest and say that I was mainly watching to see the blood in the various gun fights, and there was terrific music by Bob Dylan, including the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", which I recognised for being sampled by singer Gabrielle in her number one song "Rise", anyway, the acting was good, the action was good and the violence was good, it was a terrific western film. It was nominated the BAFTA for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for Bob Dylan. Very good!