Kris Kristofferson and James Coburn get involved in a violent bromance in Sam Peckinpah Western
PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
Metrograph
7 Ludlow St. between Canal & Hester Sts.
Tuesday, December 27, 2:45, 8:30
212-660-0312
metrograph.com
The “Welcome to Metrograph: A to Z” series continues December 27 with the 122-minute “preview” director’s cut of Sam Peckinpah’s convoluted but compellingly curious Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The film is based on the real-life story of the two gunslingers; the former a sheriff who dedicates his life to tracking down and killing the latter, a kind of folk hero to the locals. Written by Rudy Wurlitzer (Two-Lane Blacktop, Walker), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a strange bromance flavored with colonialism, misogyny, and patriarchy, featuring lots of bloody violence. Unsurprisingly and disturbingly, nearly every female character is either a prostitute or a potential rape victim (or both). The relationship between the clean-shaven Kristofferson (Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea) and Coburn (The Magnificent Seven, The President’s Analyst) is never properly established, somewhere between friends and enemies — the respect they have for each other is confusing — and the plot jumps around way too much. Meanwhile, among the films it evokes today is Brokeback Mountain, although that might not have quite been the director’s point.
Peckinpah (The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs) casts the film with myriad cameos and small roles played by familiar faces, if not necessarily familiar names, and they’re worth pointing out here: Jason Robards, Harry Dean Stanton, Slim Pickens, Jack Elam, Chill Wills, John Beck, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Bright, Barry Sullivan, Richard Jaeckel, R. G. Armstrong, Katy Jurado, Matt Clark, Paul Fix, Luke Askew, Rutanya Alda, L. Q. Jones, Jack Dodson, Emilio Fernández, and Rita Coolidge, who married Kristofferson in 1973. However, the best casting is Bob Dylan as the smirking Alias, an oddball who says very little while remaining close to the action. Dylan also wrote the Grammy-winning soundtrack, which is anchored by the classic Western dirge “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.” Dylan sums up the mood of the film in “Billy 1,” singing, “They say that Pat Garrett’s got your number / So sleep with one eye open when you slumber / Every little sound just might be thunder / Thunder from the barrel of his gun.” In addition, Dylan is involved in the best exchange of dialogue in the picture. After getting his hair done, Garrett asks Alias, “Who are you?” to which Alias replies, “That’s a good question.” If you’ve only seen the studio-butchered 106-minute version, you’re in for a treat, as this cut is much better, though it’s still far from Peckinpah’s best. A 35mm print is screening at Metrograph on December 27 at 2:45 and 8:30; the alphabetical “Welcome to Metrograph” series continues this month with such other “P” flicks as Paper Moon, Performance, Point Blank, Punch-Drunk Love, and Pandora and the Flying Dutchman.