SAM PECKINPAH LEGENDARY WESTERN COLLECTION

The contents of the DVD box set are identical across all regions, both titles and extra features.

First up is Ride the High Country (1962) - a truly classic western starring Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea as aged cowboys hired to protect a gold shipment. The extra features are headed up by a new featurette entitled A justified Life which looks at Peckinpah and the making of the film. There is also a commentary by Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddie.
Although not the popular opinion Ride the High Country is to my mind, Peckinpah's best western.

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid follows (the film is reviewed elsewhere on the Archive) and it's another classic western. There are two version of the film on the discs - the 2005 special edition with all the extra footage and the Turner 1988 Preview Version which is closer to the original theatrical version. There are a stack of special features including commentaries and several featurettes.

The Wild Bunch gets the lion's share of special features with the Oscar nominated 1996 documentary. A Montage in Blood included as well as two other quite weighty documentaries and a commentary. The cut of the movie here is 139 minutes which is, I think, the longest yet released version of this magnificent movie.

Finally The Ballad of Cable Hogue is a strange gentle comedy western which shares a similar "end of days" theme with The Wild Bunch but a little less blood. Jason Robards plays Cable Hogue who discovers a water hole in the desert and turns it into a stop off point for thirsty travellers. He remains there waiting for two men to show up who robbed him and left him to die in the baking Arizona desert. Stella Stevens supplies a dizzy love interest for the grizzled old Hogue. Again the disc is packed with special features which include a commentary and a great documentary about this little seen, but brilliant, movie.


This is a box set that no western lover will want to be without - each film is excellent and represents Peckinpah's best work in the genre and that's some great work indeed- Peckinpah was, after all, one of the genre's most important visionaries and one of only a few western directors who created masterpieces outside of the genre as well as within its confines.

PECKINPAH'S OVERLOOKED CLASSIC

DEADLY COMPANIONS






1961

When TV's highly rated show The Westerner was cancelled it's star Brian Keith was offered the starring role in the western, The Deadly Companions. It was the star who suggested Sam Peckinpah for director as they had worked so well together on the TV series.

Maureen O'hara has been cast as the female lead and she was horrified that the producers had indeed signed Peckinpah to direct, but she had no way of getting out of her contract, she was also executive producer, and so she had to grin and bare it. She would complain about the directors drinking and claimed he wasted most of the day in a stupor and then wanted to film a days shooting in a few frantic hours. The rest of the main cast were made up of the excellent Chill Willis as Turk and Steve Cochran as the gunfighter, Billy.

Deadly Companions is a tauht psychological western with a strange plot and a bizarre selection of characters - Yellowlegs (Brian Keith) has spent the last five years searching for the rebel deserter (Chill Willis) who attempted to scalp him while he lay wounded on a battlefield. When he does catch up with him he realises that the man doesn't remember him and so he decides to bide his time. However when Yellowlegs accidentally shoots a kid while returning fire to a gang of bank robbers he is distraught. Yellowlegs, Turk and a young gunslinger called Billy accompany the boys mother (Maureen O'hara) across hostile Apache country to bury the boy in a ghost town alongside his father.

Yellowlegs is a complex character - he won't remove his hat because he carries the scars of his near scalping, his gun arm is ruined because he's carrying a slug around close to his shoulder bone and even though he is falling in love with O'hara he remains focused in killing Turk when the time is right. It's all about redemption at the end of the day and the understated climax is beautifully staged with solid performances from O'hara and Keith.

There are several DVD issues of the film (it is in the public domain because of a mistake when the renewal was passed over) but the Optimum Western Classics issue looks superb with crips clear colours and no blockiness at all in the many dark scenes.

10 westerns you must watch- nine

Peckinpah used The Inyo National Park in the same way John Ford would use Monument Valley. And never was the location used so well as in this excellent character western that is never tiresome...no matter how many times it's viewed.

Casting western legends Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea in their twilight years was a stroke of genius - the two men play off each other wonderfully in this parable where the thin line between good and bad is obscured.

The two leads play a pair of former lawmen who are transporting gold bullion at a time when the frontier was vanishing and their aches and pains of aging are all too evident. Together they must face up to the only future awaiting them - that of a frugal and miserable old age.

An excellent film and to my mind Peckinpah's best western - and that's saying something.


TRIVIA:
With only a budget of $800.000 Peckinpah broke into the Mutiny on the Bounty Set and stole most of the sail canvas he used to construct the tents for his mining camp.

Randolph Scott rode off into the sunset at the end of this movie - believing it was the perfect way to end his long career.

Peckinpah tossed a coin to decide who would get star billing Scott or McCrea.