The Bottom Line: Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is an Eerie Yet Powerful Western from Sam Peckinpah led by the Fantastic Performances of James Coburn & Kris Kristofferson. (4.5 out of 5)
thevoid99's Full Review: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie''s plot.
***Note: The Following is a Review of the 2005 Special Edition Version of Sam Peckinpah's Director's Cut of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid***
Following the success of 1969's nihilistic yet chaotic western The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah finally achieved the breakthrough he needed after years of moderate success. Though he received some harsh criticism for stylistic yet violent take on the western genre, he did help reinvent the genre. In 1970, Peckinpah released The Ballad of Cable Hogue which was a more plaintive yet humorous tale set in the West. Though it wasn't a box office release, the film is considered to be one of his essential films, years after it was released. Especially another film set in the west was 1972's Junior Bonner that also was commercially overlooked though critics did like the film many years after its initial release. Though Peckinpah moved back and forth from the western to other genres, he felt trapped for years after 1971's Straw Dogs and 1972's The Getaway that both featured Peckinpah's trademark penchant for violence. In 1973, Peckinpah returns to his beloved western genre for his revisionist take on the story about the infamous Billy the Kid and his murderer, Pat Garrett.
Directed by Sam Peckinpah, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was the story about two friends who turn to enemies in the west. Based on Rudolph Wurlitzer's screenplay that was later re-written by Peckinpah, the film explores the changing times of the west and how an old man like Pat Garrett is trying to deal with the free spirit and outlaw ways of his former friend in Billy the Kid. Playing these famous characters are James Coburn as Pat Garrett and in his acting debut, country singer Kris Kristofferson as Billy the Kid. With an all-star supporting cast that includes such luminaries of the genre as L.Q. Jones, Jason Robards, R.G. Armstrong, Richard Jaeckel, Jack Elam, Chill Wills, Katy Jurado, Slim Pickens, Harry Dean Stanton, and legendary musician Bob Dylan, who also created the film's soundtrack. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is a poignant yet eerie portrayal of the west and how two legends deal with changing times.
It's 1881 in Fort Sumner, New Mexico as Billy the Kid along with several members of his gang are playing around when Billy's old friend Pat Garrett makes a visit. The two old friends go into a cantina where Garrett reveals that he's now a sheriff while telling Billy that times are changing. Billy disputes the ideas of changing times as he and Garrett part ways. Months later, Billy along with a couple of members in his gang are in the middle of a shootout led by Garrett. Billy surrenders to Garrett as he's about to be hanged though Billy along with Garrett and deputy sheriff J.W. Bell (Matt Clark) play cards to kill time much to deputy sheriff Ollinger's (R.G. Armstrong) hatred for the Kid. When Garrett has to run an errand, Billy makes an escape and kills the deputies as he leaves town with a young man named Alias (Bob Dylan) looking on.
After the Kid's escape, Garrett returns to town as he recruits a ragged ex-criminal named Alamosa Bill (Jack Elam) to help go after the Kid. Garrett receives a message to meet with Governor Lew Wallace (Jason Robards) to capture the Kid as his associates Norris (John Davis Chandler) and Denver (Michael T. Mikler) ask another sheriff named Kip McKinney (Ricahrd Jaeckel) to help Garrett. Returning to Fort Sumner, the Kid takes Alias as his new sidekick while other members like Eno (Luke Askew), Luke (Harry Dean Stanton), and Silva (Jorge Russek) stay in Fort Sumner. Wondering where to go, the Kid and his small gang wonder if they should go to Mexico. Even as they try to evade the land of Garrett's old boss Chisum (Barry Sullivan), they're now on the run from Garrett.
Garrett meanwhile, decides to recruit an old sheriff in Colin Baker (Slim Pickens) and his wife (Katy Jurado) on the whereabouts of the kid. They find the home of a criminal named Black Harris (L.Q. Jones) where a shootout turns fatal where Garrett is aware of the Kid's stance on changing time as Garrett tries to deal with what's happening. Even as he sees Alamosa Bill deciding to go on his own. With McKinney now helping out Garrett, they turn to Chisum for help. Chisum eventually attacks an old friend of the Kid named Paco (Emilio Fernandez) as the Kid and his gang go into a shootout with Chisum's old friends. Deciding to return to Fort Sumner, Garrett finally finds the Kid's whereabouts with the help of a barkeep named Lemuel (Chill Wills) as he and McKinney enter Fort Sumner to nab the Kid as Garrett wonders if he's doing the right thing.
Part of Peckinpah's themes with his love for the west is about changing times. In 1969's The Wild Bunch, the film is about a group of men trying to deal with changing times as the modern world is starting to emerge with cars and such. In Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, the film is about how an aging man is trying to deal with conforming to the times while trying to capture his friend, a free-spirit who refuses to change when the world is changing around him. Screenwriter Rudolph Wurlitzer and Sam Peckinpah create a story that's true to these themes while the film also deals with death. One notable sequence involves a shootout with Garrett and an old sheriff that proves to be fatal as Garrett, who seems to know this man well, is saddened by the loss. Another scene involving a shootout involving the Kid and his opponent shows that, even though the Kid may not play fair, he at least has respect for those he's dueling.
Peckinpah's direction, in its director's cut versions, presents the film is a lyrical yet haunting tone that has a sense of foreshadowing. Particularly in its theme of death. Despite the film's slow, sluggish pacing in a few scenes, the approach Peckinpah took into studying the characters, their motives, and their reaction to changing times works to convey the film's melancholic tone. The compositions and intimacy Peckinpah sets up are exquisite, notably some of the exterior shots where it features a lot of great scenery of the West including some beautiful skylines. Peckinpah's love for the West seems to convey his own problems with the changing times as the result is Peckinpah at his most solid at a time when he was starting to fall apart through alcoholism.
Cinematographer John Coquillon does a wonderful job with the film's eerie photography of its dream-like exteriors in the daytime, evening, and nighttime to the more intimate yet broad lighting in the interior sequences including darker ones for the film's climatic third act. A team of six editors including Robert L. Wolfe and Roger Spottiswoode plus, on the 2005 cut, Paul Seydor take a stylish yet laconic approach to the editing though the pacing at times gets a bit sluggish. With its slow-motion style of some of the film's violence, it works to convey that Peckinpah style of violence and despair. Art director Ted Haworth and set decorator Ray Moyer both do a great job in capturing the look and feel of the west on the deserts of Durango, Mexico with its look of the saloons to the ruins of Fort Sumner. Sound editor Bill Wistrom does a fantastic job in capturing that chaotic tone of the west with the sounds of gunshots, horses, and the desert itself.
The film's soundtrack written and composed by Bob Dylan is truly majestic. Though not up to par with Dylan's classic albums of the 1960s or in the mid-70s, Dylan's understated, country-driven score is wonderful for its sense of innocence and dread while its themes on several cuts work to convey the range of emotions in that film. In some of the songs, Dylan sings about Billy and his doomed fate while the album's most famous song, Knockin' On Heaven's Door is the true standout in one of the film's most memorable and certainly emotional scenes.
The cast assembled by Patricia Mock is wonderful for its mix of unknowns, famed character actors, and cameos from Peckinpah's own regular acting company. Cameos include screenwriter Rudolph Wurlitzer as a friend of Alamosa Bill and Sam Peckinpah makes a cameo as a man at Fort Sumner just as Pat Garrett is about to do his deed. Small performances from the likes of Rita Coolidge as one of Billy's young women, Rutanya Alda as a prostitute Garrett sleeps with, Aurora Clavel as Garrett's wife, and in the roles of Billy's gang members, Harry Dean Stanton, Charles Martin Smith, Luke Askew, and Peckinpah regular Jorge Russek, each having a standout moment. Other small roles from John Davis Chandler and Michael T. Mikler are memorable for their one scene in Governor Wallace's meeting while Barry Sullivan is great as cattle ranch owner Chisum. Matt Clark is memorable as deputy Bell who is the likeable deputy only to fall into the hands of the Kid while Richard Bright is great as Garrett's deputy Holly in one of the film's final scenes.
The Wild Bunch star Emilio Fernandez is great as Billy's Mexican friend Paco who tries to convince Billy to go to Mexico to attain his freedom while L.Q. Jones, from that same movie, is great as the outlaw Black Harris. The slew of great character actors from classic Westerns appear in this film and they're used in great scenes. Notably Slim Pickens and Katy Jurado as a decent couple who hunt a couple of criminals that is followed by one of the film's most emotional scenes. Jack Elam is comical yet great as Alamosa Bill, a ragged deputy whose betrayal gets him in trouble with the Kid. R.G. Armstrong is excellent as deputy sheriff Ollinger who hates the Kid only gets himself into trouble while Chill Wills is great as Lemuel, a bartender who is loyal to the Kid. Richard Jaeckel is wonderful as Garrett’s young deputy McKinney who seems to want to kill the Kid himself without remorse.
Jason Robards is in brilliant form as Governor Wallace in his one-scene performance that displays the kind of prestige and authority the late actor has had. In his acting debut, Bob Dylan is great in his understated, laconic performance as Alias while adding a lot of fun in throwing knives making the music legend, cooler than he is. Another famed musician in his acting debut is Kris Kristofferson in a brilliant performance as Billy the Kid. Kristofferson's charming, laid-back performance as the Kid is truly fun to watch as he gives the infamous outlaw a sense of depth, humor, and honor to a killer, who has more respect for his opponents except for those who have no moral code. Kristofferson's performance is truly superb.
The late James Coburn is amazing in his role as Pat Garrett, a man filled with conflict as he has trouble dealing with loyalty as well as changing times. Coburn's performance is wonderful in the way he deals with his anguish with such subtlety and humor when it comes to be bathed by topless women. It's a magnificent performance from Coburn while his scenes with Kristofferson are spectacular to watch.
When the film was being produced in 1972, problems emerged as Peckinpah fought with the studio heads at MGM over final cut and such. Around that time, Peckinpah who was notorious for drinking on set, increased his alcohol intake and during a moment when he and his crew are watching dailies. Peckinpah was so infuriated over the day's shooting footage that he urinated at the screen. Things worsened during post-production when the studio took over to cut the film to 104 minute running time as once it was released, reviews ranged from mixed to negative with some critics knowing that the film had been butchered.
Then in the 1980s, plans to restore Peckinpah's version of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid were planned as a director's cut was rarely seen in its initial release in 1973. In 1988, a few years after Peckinpah's death, a restored version of the film in a running time of 122-minutes was released as some considered it definitive until 2005 when a new, remastered cut of 115 minutes supervised by Peckinpah expert Paul Seydor was released on DVD along with the 122-minute Turner cut.
While it's clear that there will probably never be a definitive version of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, the film is still one of Sam Peckinpah's most enduring and haunting films that is true to the genre he loved, the Western. While the film may be considered to be essential Peckinpah thanks to his thematic tone of the film plus the lead performances of James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson, and Bob Dylan's enchanting score. It's a film, despite its flaws, that is truly timeless while being true to the west. In the end, for a film that deals with changing times, strong themes, and death of the West, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is the film to seek out.
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