Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade

The westerns of filmmaker Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984) are discussed by movie critics, relatives, friends, former employees and actors. As directed by Tom Thurman for the Encore channel, and narrated by "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid" co-star Kris Kristofferson (in his grizzled, early morning whiskey voice), this special never quite gets at what was eating at Peckinpah for the twenty years he spent behind the camera. He had his biggest commercial success with his most brutal film, 1969's "The Wild Bunch", though he preferred to quickly put that picture behind him and focus on more elegiac stories (such as "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" from 1970). Footage from a rare "Cable Hogue" documentary is used to give us a glimpse of Peckinpah in action, but this rather backfires (mostly it's footage of star Stella Stevens in various seductive poses). Peckinpah was dismayed that when he removed himself from violent on-screen action (such as with "Junior Bonner"), viewers abandoned him. He couldn't find success telling straight stories, and so eventually went back to supplying the bloodshed audiences seemed to want but critics crucified him for. Yet Peckinpah understood this helpless dichotomy better than anyone...whether or not he was able to work out his demons on film is a matter only the artist could ever answer.

This lengthy documentary about Sam Peckinpah and his movies is included on the bonus disc for "The Wild Bunch". It is narrated by Kris Kristofferson and includes lots of interviews with folks who knew and worked with him.

I must admit up front that I am not a huge fan of Sam Peckinpah's films. A few (such as "Ride the High Country") are classics--a few are just gross ("Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia") and so I am probably not the best person to review this documentary. However, for the most part, I did enjoy the film. It featured lots of interviews and didn't flinch when it came to discussing Peckinpah's self-destructiveness. My only serious problem with the film was when it came to the latter part of his career where instead of an in-depth look like there'd been on his other films, it was just glossed over too quickly. So, while the film went on and on about "The Ballad of Cable Hogue", Peckinpah's later films like "Cross of Iron", "Convoy" and "The Osterman Weekend" (arguably pretty bad films) are ignored. So, in this sense, it's not a complete look at his movies. Overall, it is quite good--but also woefully incomplete.

By the way, one part of the film irritated me a bit. When discussing his film "The Wild Bunch", the film talked about how groundbreaking it was in style. I would argue that this is NOT completely the case, but the film was an American copy of an Italian western. So, the violence and antihero elements of the film were NOT created by Peckinpah--folks like Sergio Leone and Sergio Carbucci had been making films like this for a few years before "The Wild Bunch" debuted.

Debuted on the Westerns Channel on 25 July, and features interviews with those who worked with him, and sometimes played with him. Short on the E!-type scandal-approach, although little is spared about Peckinpah's often depraved life. It focuses on the Westerns he made, a genre he (and although not mentioned, Sergio Leone) reinvented. Much is made of his problematic employability due to an unwillingness to submit to studio authority. (Wonder what his USMC service was like?!?) Lots of behind the scenes stills and footage from "Deadly Companions," "Ride the High Country," "Major Dundee," "The Wild Bunch," "The Ballad of Cable Hogue," "Junior Bonner," "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid," and the love-it-or-revile-it "Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia." Narrated by Kris Kristofferson, with contributions from, among others, the late James Coburn and the late Ben Johnson, as well as Billy Bob Thornton and, inexplicably, the mumbling Michael Madsen, whose sole connection to anything involving Peckinpah was his participation in the unnecessary 1994 re-make of "The Getaway," a Peckinpah non-Western. In all, this touching tribute should do much to spur DVD sales of the man's work, particularly "Director's Cut" editions.

An original documentary produced by Encore's Western Channel, this is probably the most evenly-balanced and moving examination of the life of one of Hollywood's most notorious "outlaws". A womanizer, cokehead, drunkard, casual sadist and probably manic depressive to boot, Sam Peckinpah danced on the fine line between divinity and depravity, simultaneously embracing and rejecting both. And in the process, he made a handful of films, most of them beautiful disasters, but the few great ones delivering a startling, shocking and often sobering kind of vision offered by no other director who ever sat behind a camera.

Though it hardly takes the nose dive into tabloid sensationalism that one might expect, (and in Peckinpah's case, it would've been all too easy), the doc recounts the life of the Western genre's most profane and poetic artist through a remarkable series of interviews with those who knew and loved him best, all of whom have fond remembrances of the director and the man, but who definitely don't shy away from the "warts and all" approach of their individual strolls down Memory Lane. Included are clips from great actors who have passed on, like legends Ben Johnson and James Coburn, to those who are still with us, like L.Q. Jones, still compellingly charismatic even at his advanced age, and of course Kris Kristofferson, who also provides the narration. On the artistic side of the examination, some surprising insights are also offered by film critics David Thomson, Elvis Mitchell and Roger Ebert, who happily prove that their particular crowd are good for a lot more than just panning films you love and extolling those you're most likely to despise.

Worth viewing alone for rare behind-the-scenes footage and scenes from rarely shown gems like RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, MAJOR DUNDEE, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE and THE DEADLY COMPANIONS, SAM PECKINPAH'S WEST is must-see viewing for his fans, Western lovers and movie aficionados in general.

A great tribute and a cautionary tale about tortured genius, and the way in which Hollywood has always regarded (or disregarded) its greatest artists.

I wanted to say something meaningful, and although usually not want for abundant verbiage, I cannot add much to the four very accurate, candid and totally perceptive reviews already written here.

Kudos to the writers.

The review comments about Michael Madsen's appearance in the Peckinpaugh documentary amused me. I thought I might be the only person who felt this way, and wrote it off to Madsen's appearance in so many totally violent films himself, albeit only one (irrelevant) movie (the remake of "The Getaway") that even remotely involved Peckinpah.

The Peckinpah documentary periodically runs on the Western Channel; set your DVR. . . . . it's, indeed, worth it just to hear Kris Kristofferson's morning after drinking voice.