Pat Garret & Billy the Kid [VHS] (1973)

 

 

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This is the finest Western ever made, and gets better with each viewing. As in all Peckinpah films the theme centres round the notion of men living beyond their time. The mexican setting, superb Dylan soundtrack, an amazing performance from Coburn as Garrett, great supporting cast involving Harry Dean stanton, Slim Pickens and an extremely bizarre Dylan as "Alias" make this a film you can't miss. Look out for Peckinpah in a small cameo towards the end. BUY IT!

Is Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid the best depiction of a western ever made?
No, that lies in the stunning soundtrack by Bob Dylan, which is underused in the film.
The movie is still very good though. It's important to have the directors cut which I think most versions available today are.
All of the acting is great, particularly that of James Coburn (Pat Garrett). From what I've read the making of this film went through a traumatic process and very nearly didn't happen. Maybe this would explain the slight disjointed feel to the film, somehow it still (even the directors cut) feels unfinished. It lacks a strong enough sense of the friendship and betrayal between Billy and Pat.
It's still an amazing piece of film making with some classic scenes and almost as many famous western actors you could dream to have all in one movie.
Sam Peckinpah (director) has come very close to making the greatest western of all time. Maybe if it hadn't been for the problems throughout the process he would've done it.

Definitely worth buying, but I'd recommend you get the soundtrack beforehand. More for the title theme 'billy' than the more famous knocking on heavens door.

As a film teacher and Peckinpah scholar, I had put together my own cut of this film in the early 90's compiled from several video versions (and the TV version), and showed it in a special class devoted to the film. As someone who is probably somewhat an expert on this film, I'd like to make a few important points about the two versions included here in this set.

First, the Turner cut (mislabeled "director's cut") seemed to be merely a sort of workprint Peckinpah had assembled at one point but was missing several sequences (including the scene with Garrett's wife), seemingly cut out to include in the television print. I say SEVERAL scenes -- no one, not even the experts (e.g., Seydor, Weddle, Simmons et al) mention the other omitted scenes, not even in their respective studies. One is a short sequence with Billy bringing a blanket to Maria and then wrestling with the kids (as it cuts right into the chickens continuing the kids' movements). It is in NO print of the film released (beyond the early television showing) -- but I do still have a (poorly dubbed) copy of that scene. It must still exist someplace. There are other minor tiny sequences (Poe walking down the hall, etc.) that are still missing from these two versions.

My second point, the newly restored 2005 version has an UNFORGIVABLE editing blunder: a wrong shot is inserted when R.G. Armstrong cocks his gun --!!! What happened??? Some editor obviously tripped up and messed up the shot sequence. This totally destroys this great scene which is so electrifying with Armstrong's dialogue and the shocking cocking of his gun. This NEEDS to be fixed and a newly mastered DVD should replace this edition!

Also, I believe some of the choices the experts made in reediting the film in the 2005 version (which seems to favor the theatrical print over the "Turner" cut) is really debatable. I would tend to favor including some of what they omitted (like Dub Taylor's sequences) even though they play a little clumsy -- after all, they still reflect elements of Peckinpah's conception. I don't like second-guessing what he "might have" cut out later. And, although I do personally prefer the ending to the "2005" version (with the kid throwing stones at Garrett and ending on that shot), even that may be all-too-much "rethinking" the film by others instead of respecting Peckinpah's own vision that I can't help but think to be reflected more accurately in the return to the framing story and Garrett's dying (as in the Turner print). Even if perhaps "less polished", it does seem very much like Peckinpah.

So it's hard not to come to the conclusion that neither version is completely satisfactory. To me perhaps the most ideal version would be to try to include most of the shot footage as in Turner's version, but to insert the Garrett-Wife scene AND the Billy-bringing-Maria-the-blanket sequences in their proper places (as well as the long prostitute sequence including the Ruthie Lee beginning which is an important sequence). I would also honor Peckinpah's own adamant decision to leave "Knocking on Heaven's Door" OUT of the Baker death scene as he was not ambiguous about his wishes here. (Who cares if the experts like the song?) If I were still teaching the Peckinpah class that would be the version I would prefer to screen for the attendees -- in spite of some of the good arguments the expert scholars make in their commentaries for their own cuts and "rethinkings".

All in all, it must be said, however, that this motion picture, in any version, is one of Peckinpah's greatest triumphs and a masterpiece (albeit truncated). It deserves a wide audience and a future recognition of it as a brilliant classic western for the ages.

(One additional note: The Garrett-and-his-wife sequence, the blanket sequence, the Ruthie Lee segment and the few other short pieces were NOT removed from the Turner "workprint" until the film's national television showing to pad it out in time. These scenes were literally clipped out and never re-inserted -- probably nobody cared to take the trouble. My point is that whenever Peckinpah screened this print for his friends in his home those scenes WERE in the print. There is NO WAY Peckinpah would have accepted a showing of this film, even as a workprint-in-progress, without those scenes. On this point alone the Turner "workprint" cannot be considered a "director's cut" by any standard. It would have been great if Seydor & company had themselves taken the trouble to reinsert these scenes back into the Turner cut before making the DVD master of this DVD. And now, especially with the terrific editing blunder on the 2005 version, fans of the film as I am must STILL wait for a proper release of this Peckinpah masterpiece.)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Great stuff
As a western fan i thought this was a pretty good western. put over very realistic. good camera work, the pace was good, and great actors that fitted a western to a tee. Read more

Published on 14 May 2009 by Leroy Weaver

4.0 out of 5 stars Needs to be made available on DVD!
This is surely Sam Peckinpah's all-time masterpiece, showing James Coburn at his best as the reluctant outlaw-turned-lawman who slowly tracks down former friend William H. Read more

Published on 1 July 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars A superb film with violence, tension, humour, and pathos.
This Sam Peckinpah masterpiece is better the more times it is watched. It combines an old fashioned view of the wild west, as would be imagined by the American people, with a... Read more

Published on 14 April 2000

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