They should have gone with a real score by someone who actually knows how to write music. Genres: Revisionist Western, New Hollywood. Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. | Comparatively, Kris Kristofferson just didn't hold up, I just plain didn't like him, and he didn't come across strongly enough as anything. "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," good and true friends from way back, find themselves on opposite sides of the law when Garrett becomes sheriff. Furthermore the secondary cast is frankly extraordinary: Chill Wills, Richard Jaeckel, Jack Elam,Rita Coolidge,Emilio Fernandez, L.Q. The story unfolds against a backdrop of a west that is moving forward, driven by businessmen (represented by Chisum) leaving behind the 'old ways'. From start to finish this western is an aimless mess. The movie shows signs of having been badly trimmed after Peckinpah finished. He always looks waxed and buffed, like he just stepped out of the make-up trailer. The movie tells a simple story, simple-mindedly. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid may be the most beautiful and ambitious film that Sam Peckinpah ever made. "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid," good and true friends from way back, find themselves on opposite sides of the law when Garrett becomes sheriff. And it is not only the restored 9 minutes that give the film added power, but a slight but important rearrangement of scenes that manages to convey the all-important development of Pat Garrett's character, which is the real heart of the film. It seems to me he's grown more expressive and nuanced as he's gotten older, though it may just be that against a giant like Coburn he seemed like little more than a distraction. Pat Garrett, erstwhile travelling companion of the outlaw Billy the Kid has become a sheriff, tasked by cattle interests with ridding the territory of Billy. And Bob Dylan's music really works here (which helps me to overlook his funky jittery performance.) One of the most over-rated westerns of all time, and definitely not one of Peckinpah's best. He's also too old for the part, can't act worth a damn, and always speaks in his famous patented monotone drawl that he uses for every movie he's ever been in. Look, first of all Bob Dylan was a huge distraction here, with his every appearance taking me out of the movie, and that's from a fan. James Coburns' masterful performance as wrinkly bandit Pat Garret was smouldering, his lawman bubbled with a mix of sadism, violence, and broken honour. Read full review The best and saddest moments in the film involve characters who know they are going to die and accept it. (Somerville Theatre) This article is more than 5 years old. He has a nice, understated charm about him. Sam Peckinpah might had been too drunk. Sam Peckinpah really is not the full problem or liability with Pat Garret & Billy the Kid, though he's not totally innocent in what shortcomings come with the film. The version I saw, the 2005 cut, doesn't seem like it would do any more or less better with fine tuning, and it does feel like a Peckinpah movie more often than not. As with some lives, there's the sacrifice of waste for value. "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" gives us a grainier, more realistic view of the Old West than we're used to seeing; it predated Clint Eastwood's "The Unforgiven" by twenty years in its unflinching portrait of frontier violence. I enjoyed the film very much, in part because Peckinpah continues his theme, as he did in "Ballad of Cable Hogue" and "The Wild Bunch", of the illusion of who is "good" and who is "evil." FAQ The short one is for giving- it reaches only to those nearest." The other four titles are new to the format, with Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid attracting the lion's share of attention by virtue of having two different versions of the movie, one … Metacritic Reviews. We're supposed to figure out everybody's motivation on our own, I guess; Pat's male-bonding with Billy is dime-story psychology, and he apparently admires the outlaw for acting out his fantasies. Otherwise, the movie fails to work up much excitement, and the title song by Bob Dylan is quite simply awful. And several cameos, Jason Robards, Jack Elam,Elisha Cook Jr and the same Peckinpah.Good cinematography by John Coquillon and emotive songs by Bob Dylan who sings classics as 'knocking on heaven's door's'; Dylan plays an anachronistic character and is pitifully miscast. An aging Pat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons--his sole purpose being to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid. Kris Kristofferson and James Coburn are cool as the title roles. Another alarming factor is that no less than six editors are credited. It's 1881 in New Mexico, and the times they are a'changing. Even without the interference of MGM, Sam Peckinpah would have to fight an uphill battle in making Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, if only because he was Sam Peckinpah.Long itching to break out of his action-maestro pigeonhole, the director found in the soured friendship of William Bonney and newly minted sheriff Pat Garrett an excuse to give the Western its proper eulogy. The dialogue, by Rudy Wurlitzer, occasionally has a nice gritty tone to it, but nothing moves; scenes just lay there; the ending isn't a surprise but neither is the story. For those wanting a different perspective on some of the same characters I recommend the 1970 John Wayne vehicle "Chisum," with Glenn Corbett as Pat Garrett and Geoffrey Deuel (Peter Deuel's younger brother) as a young William Bonney. A truly poetic, and quite elegiac film, one that I feel is underrated among Peckinpah's films. Parts of it are just brilliant, other moments are bungled, but it is composed and structured like no other movie from the genre. It suffers from bad casting, bad editing and dull pacing, and is often just plain boring. Directed by: Sam Peckinpah. | And the performances are all remarkable. Not assistant editors, but editors; this sets a modern-day record, I think. It clocks in at less than two hours, which is unusual for big Peckinpah productions; it's all most studios can do to hold him to 140 minutes. Bell), … Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a unique western. Why? However, Garrett feels that aligning himself with the ranchers is better for survival, but in the end the hand that fed him, so to speak, is the same hand that destroys him. Parts of it are just brilliant, other moments are bungled, but it is composed and structured like no other movie from the genre. View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 1989 CD release of "Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid" on Discogs. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. Shooting on Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid finished three weeks late. James Coburn is cool and reliable, as always, as Pat Garrett, and there's a rogues' gallery of character actors and a nice cameo by Katy Jurado. The excellent supporting cast includes such old pros as Jack Elam, Slim Pickens, Katy Jurado, Richard Jaekel and (in some prints) Elisha Cook Jr.; but the best performance comes from the late Jason Robards Jr. as the tragically muddle-headed Governor Lew Wallace (best known for writing "Ben Hur.") It's a shame that Peckinpah never lived to see the longer cut of the film finally released to a wider audience on VHS. He's totally out of place with all the famous characters like Jack Elam, Slim Pickens, and Dub Taylor. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) Mazintas’s review published on Letterboxd: The sun sets over the west. Editor’s Note: No doubt that Pat Garrett strayed from the truth at times in his 1882 biography of Billy the Kid, but should we discount the generally accepted fact that Garrett killed the Kid on July 14, 1881? There's an excellent cast, great music, stunning cinematography, terrific production design ... all the ingredients are there, but it never came alive for me. The dramatic tension in this movie could have been seriously improved by an intelligent soundtrack, and not amateur Dylan-whining. At the time it might have been hip, but decades later it's just plain bad. The story by Rudy Wurlizter provides a mix of extraordinary scenes and some all-too laid-back ones or scenes that don't feel like there is any real dramatic pull or total interest in the dialog. After director Sam Peckinpah handed in his final cut of PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, which he considered his finest film, the hierarchy at MGM saw fit to radically reedit it. "The government has two arms of varying length. Kris Kristofferson was too old to play Billy the Kid. This was almost great, but just missed the mark. Gone are the days of the free man -- his time in … Directed by Sam Peckinpah. Awards Especially the director's cut, this is one of the finest Westerns ever made. With two classic westerns under his belt (Ride the High Country and The Wild Bunch)and a reputation for being a rebellious non-conformist you would think Sam Peckinpah the ideal person to relate the story of the teen prodigy outlaw, Billy the Kid. Sam Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" has much in common with "One-Eyed Jacks"; Marlon Brando's take on the Billy the Kid story, which was based on Charles Neider's novel, "The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones". Scenes are poorly paced and disjointed. Yet “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” may very well be Peckinpah's best film. My guess is that there was an argument over the movie's final form, and that Peckinpah and M-G-M platooned editors at each other during the battle. The traditional account of the famous shooting has been reported in Wild West and elsewhere many times. The story is simple, and has been told more times than one could try to count unless in historical context of the genre: Billy the Kid is a murderous criminal out on the lam, and Pat Garret, the sheriff, is out to get him by hook or by crook. Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid [Soundtrack] - Bob Dylan, Blind Boy Grunt on AllMusic - 1973 - This album was unusual on several counts. Pat Garrett might have been the standup lawman who trailed Billy the Kid and brought him to justice, but, as Gardner takes pains to note, Garrett had issues of his own, managing to waste the good name he earned in his most famous venture in a series of bad business deals, excessive consumption of alcohol, and an affinity for gambling. SXSW 2021: Broadcast Signal Intrusion, Offseason, SXSW 2021: Clerk, Not Going Quietly, Tom Petty: Somewhere You Feel Free, SXSW 2021: Delia Derbyshire: The Myths and Legendary Tapes, Alien On Stage, The Spine of Night, SXSW 2021: Sound of Violence, Jakob's Wife, Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror. The album includes "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", which became a trans-Atlantic Top 20 hit. Casting Bob Dylan was definitely one of them. And this is a review of the 1988 Turner Preview version: *A FEW SPOILERS* When the world’s premier director of Westerns announced that he was making a movie about Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, it seemed the perfect marriage of artist and endeavour, but everything went wrong. What a disappointment. Jones, R.G. PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID (director: Sam Peckinpah; screenwriter: Rudolph Wurlitzer; cinematographer: John Coquillon; editors: David Berlatsky/Garth Craven/Tony de Zarraga/Richard Halsey/Roger Spottiswoode/Robert L. Wolfe; music: Bob Dylan; cast: James Coburn (Pat Garrett), Kris Kristofferson (Billy the Kid), Bob Dylan (Alias), Harry Dean Stanton (Luke), Matt Clark (J.W. Putting him beside James Coburn, who is a real actor and very believable, is a joke. James Coburn is appropriately gruff as Sheriff Pat Garrett, a man who just wants to settle down and who knows the time for guns is over; Kristofferson makes a charismatic Billy, the embodiment of lawless individualism. Where do I begin? This twilight look about Billy and Garrett was well directed by Sam Peckimpah , an expert filmmaker and writer. And even if it was, the less said the better. Peckinpah's final, haunting eulogy to the West and Westerns, Peckinpah and Brando: saddling the same horse, a laconic, sometimes-great take on iconic Western figures, Revisionist and exciting Western about the legendary gunmen, One of the best contemporary westerns made, Not quite the lost classic people would have you believe, Unfocused, Distant, Occasionally Brilliant Western. Everyone knows the western legend about these two central characters, who went from being friends to sworn adversaries. Jones, and Slim Pickens-Katy Jurado who form an intimate couple . The acting is terrific -- especially Coburn -- and features many great little (but memorable) character performances. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 1973, R, 122 min. There's the beautiful Bob Dylan score (especially "Knocking on Heaven's Door"), great performances by Kris Kristofferson and James Coburn, a supporting cast of western veterans, a literate script, and the direction of Sam Peckinpah in his last great film. Peckinaph is one of my all time favorite directors because most of his movies are great, and this one is no different. You'd think the executives would have figured out that their only chance was to release the movie as Peckinpah made it; audiences were more interested in the new Peckinpah film than in still another rehash of Billy the Kid. He was far and away the best actor in the film. Simply put, Sam Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" is one of the last great Westerns ever made. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid: Special Edition (Dbl DVD)]]> Amazon.com. Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid is some kind of miracle. If the story is true that Sam Peckinpah was so angry at the studio cut that he urinated on the screen, I can see why. Peckinpah's "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" is a rich, haunting, yet demanding work that, above everything else, sees Billy as a creature of his day and ageÂ. Sam Peckinpah’s last western is the story of Pat Garrett (James Coburn) as her pursues his old buddy Billy The Kid (Kris Kristopherson). Rated the #45 best film of 1973, and #2248 in the greatest all-time movies (according to RYM users). Armstrong, Matt Clark, Slim Pickens, Katy Jurado, Jack Elam, Harry Dean Stanton, Emilio Fernandez, Richard Jaeckel, Barry Sullivan, Dub Taylor, Elisha Cook Jr., and John Beck. | The other great scenes, which make up the most memorable bits of the film, provide Peckinpah with enough to put his distinctive visual style and subversive approach to character dynamics and conventions of the Western genre, but the parts end up becoming greater than the whole. Billy is played in the film by the singer and composer Kris Kristopherson, who here launched a career as a credible male lead. 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