Review of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973) by Owen P — 23 Oct 2009

By the time Sam Peckinpah filmed Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, history says that he was deep in alcoholism and arguing with most everybody. This film stands as proof that Peckinpah still had some of his directing talent on a micro level but lacked his usual macro vision. I?ve seen quite a few westerns in my day and I reckon Garrett has some of the finest sets and elaborate locations ever to grace the genre. Peckinpah still shows the ability to grab our attention with screen shots that tell as much of the story as the acting. The film however only contains a solitary ?chase? story arc that cannot hold up the entire film for its duration. Peckinpah writes himself a screenplay that at least for the first half of this single act film doesn?t build much character development or momentum and should have contained a plot twist or side story or something. James Coburn is fantastic as Pat Garrett and Bob Dylan?s score stitches the film together marvelously with ?Knockin? on Heaven?s Door? going down as one of the great western songs.

On the whole, Garrett most definitely succeeds, carried in large part by an improved second half, but I can?t help but think what might have been.