Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

1973 western

Rating: 16/20

Plot: The times they are a-changin'. Yeah, I realized I've already referenced that song this year on this blog. But it fits here because Bob Dylan is in this movie, and changin' times is exactly what this movie is about. Dylan's songs are in this movie, but that one isn't. It could have been though. Would have fit in nicely during the opening or closing credits. The first Bob Dylan album I heard in its entirety, by the way, was Desire which was released a few years after the soundtrack to this movie came out. It's got more instrumentation but a similar feel to Dylan's soundtrack. I didn't listen to Bob Dylan at all until I was eighteen, despite being named after him. I didn't see my first Peckinpah movie until I was in my early 20's. I hadn't really given Westerns a chance. I wonder what would have happened if I had started watching Westerns in high school. I bet I would have started sporting a cowboy hat and maybe even boots. My peers would have looked at me and wondered what was up. I would have probably shrugged and said, "The times they are a-changin'." But I digress. This movie is about the breakup of two legendary homosexuals.

I really like this movie although it should have ended up much better than it did. And I'm not completely sure which version I watched or whether it was the definitive version. I don't think Peckinpah ever got to see a version that matched his vision. This is a great story (obviously since it's been filmed fifty times) and I dig Peckinpah's retelling of it as a meditative elegy for the Old West. Very good cast. Sadly, the weakest link is none other than Dylan uneven performance as Alias, but he actually nails the mysterious, antsy character during most of his scenes. James Coburn is perfect as Garrett. There's despair with every gesture, even when he's engaging in coitus with five women at once, and every word he utters is accompanied with a heavy sigh. Kristofferson is also very good, and all the minor players (mostly, it seems, actors with experience as character actors in westerns) help fill in the details and bring an authenticity. As expected, Peckinpah's settings and period details have that authenticity already. I can imagine this movie would frustrate anybody looking for a solid narrative structure. It almost works more like an allegory. There's great scene after great scene, but the character's motivations don't always make a lot of sense and some of those great scenes don't really seem to belong. But the greatness of the character development is undeniable, and all of those scenes that the film's producers probably wanted on the cutting room floor are indispensable. On the surface, a scene with Coburn being shot at by a guy on a passing boat does nothing for the advancement of the plot, but without using any words at all, it manages to add so much thematically. That's only one of my three favorite scenes though. The scene where Garrett makes Dylan's character read the labels on cans is so wacky that it's good, and Slim Pickens' death scene with "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is touching stuff. And while I'm on the subject of Slim Pickens--it's quite possible that he's the greatest actor of all time.