Fans of Sam Peckinpah and Fans of the Movie Western seem to give this Meandering Semi-Incoherent Film a Pass because it is a Sam Peckinpah Western. There are Moments in this Troubled Production that are Poignant and Beautifully Gritty. There are just as Many Others that are Clunky and Awkward.Much Controversy Arises Concerning this Movie the Least of Which is the Casting and Utilization of Bob Dylan as an Actor and His Songs. At Times the Inclusion of the Musical Numbers can be Heartfelt and Effective and at Other Stages not so much. But Using the Dylan (Lyrics or not) Material doesn't do too much to Diminish the Overall Effectiveness. As an Actor in a Smallish Role Mildly Detracts but Again not to the Detriment of the Whole.James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson as the Title Characters, it can be Argued, are Good Enough and along with the Slew of Familiar Faces and Odd Ball Stalwarts the same can be Said. So just what is the Major Malfunction that Keeps this from Becoming a Great Peckinpah, like say The Wild Bunch (1969) or Ride the High Country (1962) or to a Lesser Extent, Fine Films like Straw Dogs (1972) or the Getaway (1974)?The Answer My Friend is the Gloomy, Sombre, Lethargic, Motionless Pace and the Stumbling Editing. Add to that a Few Scenes of some Stiff and Unnecessary Nudity and a Couple of Other Ill-Advised Excesses and Underdeveloped Important Characters. The Studio Interference and the Director's Personal Detachment from Alcohol Abuse and General Belligerence around the Set are most Likely Contributions.Overall it is Worth a Watch and which Version is not that Important because as a Complete Peckinpah Picture it Works more than it Doesn't and is not one of His Worst and not one of His Best.

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!

PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID - (1973) - TCM - Well, I must admit Sam Peckinpah can make one humdinger of a western. That said, this certainly isn't a favorite of mine, but it's worth a watch for serious western fans. It's infinitely more realistic than a John Ford western...to a fault. However, I much prefer to be in a semi-make-believe John Ford world versus this one mainly because I prefer the Hays Code westerns any day over this style. The unkempt and kept women with bare breasts displayed at any possible chance turned my stomach. It was all a bit too realistic.Conversely, I was pleasantly surprised by the Bob Dylan soundtrack. I absolutely love the song "Knocking on Heaven's Door" and the bittersweet scene where it was playing was very profound. It's my favorite part of the movie...period. Also, I loved seeing a fresh-faced Kris Kristofferson who has such a great speaking voic and excelled in this role. James Coburn is even cooler than Kristofferson. Frankly, who is cooler than James Coburn in that era? In the final scene with Billy (Kristofferson), Coburn actually loses his cool. I saw his raw vulnerability wonderfully shot in the mirror...great acting and directing. This scene is very telling as to the relationship between Garrett and Billy and to Peckinpah's vision as a filmmaker. Additionally, the cinematography was stunning. In one scene in particular, Billy rides along the shore of a lake. The pinks of the sky were reflected with the shadow of horse and rider on land and water. That was a beautiful and memorable shot and it's this attention to detail that makes it worth a watch. This film has a diverse supporting cast and the same great story of the Old West tale told in a unique way. It was very gritty, but these guys were meant to play grit. I doubt I'll ever watch it again, but I do recommend it to anyone who appreciates the stark reality of the revisionist western told in Peckinpah's unique style. It's just not to my taste.

In a decade when grown white men wore Afros, purple bell-bottom trousers, and beads, women opened conversations with "What's your sign, Man?", and decor was dominated by dark, faux wood grain on every surface, even phonographs and air conditioners, would you really expect the public to have good taste in movies? They didn't, as Pat Garret And Billy The Kid, directed by the grossly over-rated Sam Peckinpah, demonstrates. Too much profanity, too much posturing, too much gratuitous nudity, too much violence, too much socio-political drum beating, too many shots of the sunset, just too aimless and slow moving. Too little character development, too little story, too little discipline of the director. A general mess, saved only by good cinematography and a good performance by leading man James Coburn. And what I hate to tell you, if you're new to watching movies from the 'seventies, is that it was one of the better ones of that dreary era.With all the characters this ambling picture had, any depth of character development would have been neigh impossible, unless it was twice as long as the 122 minutes of the so-called director's cut. It may be that this bloated oat-burner has more characters than War And Peace. And what a waste of a sterling cast of old Western-identified character actors, including Slim Pickens, Chill Wills, R. G. Amstrong, Jack Elam, Paul Fix, and Katy Jurado. Most of these fine players are given only a few minutes or even a few seconds of screen time before being shot down or simply forgotten. Far too much time is given to Kris Kristofferson, as Billy the Kid, and Bob Dylan, as his nameless and useless-to-the-plot pal. Some people obviously liked their singing, but neither could out-act a wooden cigar store Indian with a microphone implant. Another singer who should have stuck to the disks and stayed off the film was Rita Coolidge, as Billy's main squeeze. As much of an empty envelope as Kristofferson, but at least she has few lines with which to be boring.If you are the decadent type who likes looking at nude babes in movies, this picture, like most 'seventies flicks, will give them to you. This was the first generation to give in to voyeurism. But I must warn you that most of the average to homely dames they rounded up to take 'em off in this turkey aren't much worth looking at -- though the "some kind of an octoroon from Texas" (as described by her pimp) wasn't bad. For Pete's sake, if you're going to make a point of having women take their laundry off in a movie, at least get some that look good in the buff! Forty-nine year-old Katy Jurado, even in a floppy cowboy hat, was the best-looking female in the picture. Though be assured she stayed dressed. Only the hat came off.To yours truly Bob Dylan's country-rock music and singing, passed off as the score, is simply grating. This dull hay-burner could have been considerably improved by a rousing, old time, grand operatic score, folded into the editing in a way to enhance the dramatic and psychological impact. Such as Dimitri Tiomkin or Max Steiner could churn out in Hollywood's Golden Era. But those balmy days were gone by 1973. The lack of movie-makers' and their public's taste in music engendered generally awful scores, which was one of the signs that Hollywood had sunk into the pits.Still Pat Garret And Billy The Kid has some good points. A big plus is John Coquillon's soft focus, wide-screen cinematography in Metrocolor (MGM's name for the German Agfacolor), the sepia-drenched, low-key tones of which set a nostalgic mood for this tale of 19th century gunmen. Sets and costumes were likewise well turned out. The key interest is in Coburn's performance as an introspective Pat Garrett, probably the best of his not particularly distinguished career. Peckinpah handles actions scenes well as always, though as always, the violence is grossly overdone, and there is so much of it you get numb to it after a while. Peckinpah continually railed against the studio system, and his groupies continue the rant today. But unfortunately for him, the old studio systems were actually moribund by his time. He was exactly the kind of talented but sloppy, self-indulgent director who would have benefited by having a tough, old time big studio producer such as Hal B. Wallis ride herd on him.As it is, Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid is a typical Peckinpah picture, well filmed with many interesting scenes, but ultimately pretentious, empty, and unsatisfying. Neither the worst nor the best of the umpteen movies on the Billy the Kid story. Better than Left-Handed Gun (1958) but not as good as the Audi Murphy version, The Kid From Texas (1950), which surprisingly may be the best of a not very inspired bunch. At least it is not pretentious, which was one of Peckinpah's repeat sins, and a chronic infection of 1970's cinema.Nevertheless, Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid is a watchable Western. And some of us will watch any of that genre above the Hoot Gibson level and not encrusted with spaghetti.P.S. (July 2016) Since posting this review, oldblackandwhite has decided he is not too good for Hoot Gibson westerns, and apologizes for insulting the memory of Hoot and his various producers and directors by implying that their neat little oaters were in any way inferior to this mess of a movie Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid.