<< September 7 - 13, 2006 >>>

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Director Sam Peckinpah (1925 – 1984) is one of the true legends of 20^th century Hollywood, a prodigious, no-nonsense filmmaker who honed his chops on television. Peckinpah got his break in feature films directing THE DEADLY COMPANIONS starring Maureen O’Hara and Brian Keith (TV’s "The Westerner"). His next film, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, was regarded as a masterpiece and served as a fitting swansong for its stars – Western cinema icons Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea. Sadly, the follow-up MAJOR DUNDEE emerged as a troubled production. The studio removed segments detailing much of Dundee’s disillusion and emotional rejuvenation in Mexico. To his lasting credit, DUNDEE star Charlton Heston offered to waive his considerable salary if Columbia Pictures would refrain from firing Peckinpah during production. This set a pattern of studio interference that would dog Peckinpah through the rest of his boisterous career, but he managed to maintain much of his vision with ensuing films. Prime evidence came in 1969 with Peckinpah’s epic THE WILD BUNCH, a brutally revisionist western that held audiences in a vise-like grip for 144 grueling, intoxicating minutes, and is often credited (rightly or wrongly) with pioneering a new era of graphic on-screen violence. More masterworks followed, including the savage STRAW DOGS, wistful and bawdy BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, heartbreakingly lyrical PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID and macabre tall-tale BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA. Peckinpah also made such exciting, action-packed paeans to rugged individualism as JUNIOR BONNER and THE GETAWAY and such trenchant examinations of institutionalized treachery as CROSS OF IRON and THE OSTERMAN WEEKEND. Sometimes hard-to-get-along-with, sometimes pigheaded and ornery-as-hell, Peckinpah still remains one of the most beloved and influential directors of the last fifty years, engendering affection and loyalty from virtually all who worked with him throughout his career.

BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA, 1974, MGM Repertory, 112 min. Director Sam Peckinpah’s macabre shaggy dog story rises to the status of existential masterpiece before the last frame unspools. A ruthless land baron (Emilio Fernandez) offers a huge bounty to find Alfredo Garcia, the father of his daughter’s unborn child. Piano-playing, expatriate loser Bennie (Warren Oates in one of his finest roles) shambles through the hellish backwater villages of rural Mexico on the hunt for "easy" money, a deadly pilgrimage that could jeopardize Bennie’s one real chance at happiness – the love of his loyal, prostitute girlfriend Elita (Isela Vega). Look for the incomparable Robert Webber and Gig Young as the pokerfaced killers tailing Bennie.

RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, 1962, Warner Bros., 94 min. Peckinpah’s first uncontested masterwork is this elegiac portrait of the end of the Wild West, embodied in the form of two aging friends (unforgettably played by Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea) with very different agendas, who are hired to guard a shipment of gold. Lucien Ballard’s cinematography was never better, capturing the untainted splendor of the high mountains and the bone-weary sadness of two men nearing the end of their lives’ trails. With Mariette Hartley. Discussion between films with Peckinpah biographer, David Weddle, actress Mariette Hartley, Gordon Dawson and moderator Nick Redman.

Friday, September 8 - 7:30 PM

Steve McQueen Double Feature:

THE GETAWAY, 1972, Warner Bros., 122 min. Director Sam Peckinpah adapts writer Jim Thompson’s savage pulp classic with tightly wound Steve McQueen as escaped bank robber Doc McCoy. To spring him from the joint, devoted wife Ali McGraw enlists the help of corrupt fat-cat Ben Johnson, who wants McCoy to execute a seemingly impossible robbery. Al Lettieri is the memorably sleazy killer who dogs the couple’s trail after thieves fall out. With Sally Struthers.

JUNIOR BONNER, 1972, Disney, 100 min. Dir. Sam Peckinpah. Steve McQueen is Junior Bonner, a restless rodeo star trying to deal with drifter/con man dad Robert Preston and outspoken, responsible mom Ida Lupino, as well as girlfriend Barbara Leigh – while he’s not getting his head busted on bucking broncs. A sometimes funny, sometimes melancholic meditation on Americans who’ve forsaken the 9-to-5 strait-jacket to thrive in a much more rugged lifestyle. With Ben Johnson and Joe Don Baker. Discussion between films with Peckinpah assistant, Katy Haber and author, Garner Simmons (Peckinpah - Portrait in Montage).

Saturday, September 9 - 7:30 PM

Brand New Print! PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID, 1973, Warner Bros., 122 min. Director Sam Peckinpah’s take on the famous outlaw’s rise and fall is nothing less than magnifcent – a sprawling, plaintive, exquisite reflection on loss of all kinds. Billy (Kris Kristofferson) and his loose-knit gang (amongst them Bob Dylan, who also supplied the beautiful score) butt heads with cattle industry interests devouring the countryside, something that steers them on a collision course with old comrade and new sheriff, Pat Garrett (James Coburn). Watch for the "Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door" sequence with Sheriff Baker (Slim Pickens) and his wife (Katy Jurado), one of the most heartbreakingly beautiful in the history of western cinema. With Harry Dean Stanton, R.G. Armstrong, Donnie Fritts, L.Q. Jones.

Brand New Print! THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, 1970, Warner Bros., 121 min. Dir. Sam Peckinpah. This whimsical, sweetly melancholy, ultimately uplifting fable stars Jason Robards as Cable, a prospector left in the desert to die by partners L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin. But in a classic turning-lemons-into-lemonade twist, Cable discovers a freshwater spring and establishes a stagecoach rest stop on the spot, the perfect occupation for a cantankerous loner. Things couldn’t be going better with prostitute love-of-his-life Hildy (Stella Stevens) moving in with him. But then a newfangled invention rears its ugly head – the automobile. David Warner is excellent as Cable’s con man preacher pal, Joshua. Discussion between films with Peckinpah assistant, Katy Haber and author, Paul Seydor (Peckinpah - The Western Films - A Reconsideration).

Sunday, September 10 - 6:30 PM

Double Feature:

THE WILD BUNCH, 1969, Warner Bros., 145 min. Saddle up for a screening of director Sam Peckinpah’s magnificent, ultra-violent western, starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates and Jaime Sanchez as a band of doomed outlaws trying to outrun history. Exceedingly controversial upon its initial release, THE WILD BUNCH forever changed the way violence was depicted and perceived in the movies. Co-starring Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, L.Q. Jones, Bo Hopkins and Strother Martin.

THE KILLER ELITE, 1975, MGM Repertory, 122 min. Dir. Sam Peckinpah. Independent covert operative Locken (James Caan) is betrayed and seriously wounded by best friend Hansen (Robert Duvall), who has decided to flip allegiances when the other side offers more money. Initially, Locken refuses to return to the freelance spy game, but cynical former bosses Gig Young and Arthur Hill lure him back with a promise of going up against his former comrade. With Bo Hopkins, Burt Young, Mako. Discussion between films with actor, Bo Hopkins and author, Garner Simmons.

STRAW DOGS, 1971, Disney, 118 min. Dir. Sam Peckinpah. Extremely controversial upon its initial release, this tale of an intellectual pacifist (Dustin Hoffman), pushed to the limit by a sadistic, hard-drinking family of hooligans, was cut by several minutes in the U.S., including graphic footage of spouse Susan George's rape and the bone-jarring, blood-drenched climax, which softened the ferocious impact of Peckinpah’s allegory of supposedly-civilized humans reverting to their most primitive state. This is the uncut version. Discussion following with authors, Paul Seydor and David Weddle.