Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

Colour, 35 mm
USA, 1973, 121 min
Section: Tribute to Sam Peckinpah

Synopsis

“This country is growing old and I wanna grow with it,” says Pat Garrett to friend Billy the Kid, soon to be his adversary on the other side of the law. Thus he justifies his decision to pin on a tin star, which simultaneously pushed him into a hateful mission -to capture Billy the Kid and bring him to justice. Another of Peckinpah’s movies to be drastically cut by the studio without the director’s consent, it returns to the model of two friends forced by their own or another’s will to point their revolvers at each other. But just as in The Wild Bunch and other ‘Bloody Sam’s’ melancholy westerns, their friendship lasts until death. That life ends violently is a thing wholly insignificant, since Peckinpah’s heroes administer and accept death with the same nonchalance. As Pat Garrett, James Coburn proves that even a decade after The Magnificent Seven he has lost none of his stoic calm or gun-slinging dexterity, although he has transferred his knife throwing talents to the somewhat surprisingly cast Bob Dylan, composer of the trademark musical score. Both of them, however, are overshadowed by newcomer Kris Kristofferson, until then “merely” a singer-songwriter. In his interpretation, the legendary William Bonney, alias Billy the Kid, is as disturbing, playful, dangerous, captivating and even charming as he could be after a three-day ride across the high planes.