Sam Peckinpah Legendary Westerns

[RevKarl]

As it is not part of this box set, can anyone recommend a R1 (or RO NTSC) release for Peckinpah's first feature The Deadly Companions?

There's this Japanese edition from late 2004, that has a gorgeous anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer, apparently: www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=DABA-82

$33 plus, what... $10 for postage, is it? Very, very expensive. I love his films and I'd love to finally see this film in its OAR, but I cannot justify paying more than $25 for this disc.

Gordon: Thanks for the info. on the Japanese pressing, but I'll probably wait for someone, sometime, to do a less-expensive OAR U.S. release.

[cafeman]

The current cheapo R1 of the Deadly Companions goes for $0.69 on DVDPacific, and is a watchable crappy fullscreen DVD, buyt in my opinion, the film really doesn`t deserve much better. I literally barely made it through the whole thing.

[analoguezombie]

Release Jan 10:

The Wild Bunch 2-Disc Special Edition
By any standard, director Sam Peckinpah's film The Wild Bunch, a powerful tale of hangdog desperados bound by a code of honor, rates as one of the all-time greatest Westerns. In 1994 it was restored to a complete, pristine condition unseen since its July 1969 theatrical debut - and this digitally remastered anamorphic transfer showcases it to renewed blood-and-thunder effect. William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien and Ben Johnson star.

Special Features Disc 1:
* Commentary by Peckinpah biographers/documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle
* New digital transfer (16x9 2.35:1)
* Peckinpah trailer gallery
* Languages: English and French
* Subtitles: English, French and Spanish

Special Features Disc 2:
* Never-before-seen The Wild Bunch outtakes
* Additional scenes
* 3 documentaries
o Sam Peckinpah's West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade-
A feature-length biography of the legendary director, featuring rare film clips, interviews with family and colleagues, and narration by Kris Kristofferson.
o 1996 Oscar" Nominee The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage
o A Simple Adventure Story: Sam Peckinpah, Mexico and The Wild Bunch

Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid Two Disc Special Edition
They are fast friends and worse foes. One is Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson), a law unto himself. The other is the law: Sheriff Pat Garrett (James Coburn), who once rode with Billy. Set to a bristling score by Bob Dylan (who also plays Billy's sidekick Alias) and with a 'Who's Who' of iconic Western players, Sam Peckinpah's saga of one of the West's great legends is now restored to its intended glory. For the first time since it left the cutting room, the film has the balance of action and character development Peckinpah wanted, a mix of fury and elegy based on the director's notes and the insights of colleagues.

Special Features Disc 1: 2005 Special Edition: (115 Mins.)
* Commentary by Special Edition Producer Nick Redman, Supervising Editor Paul Seydor and fellow Peckinpah biographers/documentarians Garner Simmons and David Weddle
* Peckinpah trailer gallery
* Languages: English and French
* Subtitles: English, French and Spanish (Feature Films Only)

Special Features Disc 2: 1988 Turner Preview Version: (122 Mins.)
* Commentary by Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle
* 2 new featurettes:
o One Foot in the Groove: Remembering Sam Peckinpah and Other Things
o Deconstructing Pat and Billy
* One for the Money: Sam's Song
* Languages: English and French
* Subtitles: English, French and Spanish (Feature Films Only)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue:
After the violence of The Wild Bunch, director Sam Peckinpah shifted moods with this memorable fable -- less a tale of revenge than it is a lyrical, touching tribute to the last days of the West's pioneering spirit. Jason Robards, Stella Stevens and David Warner lead an excellent supporting cast that also includes L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin as Hogue's old enemies.
Special Features:
* Commentary by Peckinpah biographers/documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle
* New featurette: The Ladiest Damn'd Lady with Stella Stevens
* Peckinpah Trailer Gallery
* Languages: English and Spanish
* Subtitles: English, French and Spanish

Ride The High Country:
Cowboy icons Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea find roles to match their leathery Western personas, playing aging lawmen hired to guard a gold shipment. They don't have much: a horse each, a couple of dollars. And they have everything: their independence. But the frontier is disappearing - and so is space wide open enough for independent men. With luck, the two will find space enough for this ride and one last payday. Mariette Hartley and Warren Oates are featured.

Special Features:
* Commentary by Peckinpah documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle
* New documentary: A Justified Life: Sam Peckinpah and the Hogue Country
* Peckinpah trailer gallery
* Languages: English and French
* Subtitles: English, French and Spanish

[pzman84]

Artwork here:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=58825

[GringoTex]

As I understand, Peckinpah's vision of the Wild West is very different from the likes of Huston

Huston made like two Westerns. He didn't have a vision of the Wild West. But yes, a lot of people don't like westerns like Peckinpah.

[Alonzo the Armless]

I don't care for the covers at all. For instance, the cover of THE WILD BUNCH wouldn't be too bad if there weren't those smaller boxes with the photos of the stars. Same with THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE.

Too bad since I love THE WILD BUNCH and RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY. THE WILD BUNCH was one of those movies a good friend got me to watch even though I didn't care for westerns. It changed my view of the whole genre.

[TedW]

SPOILERS

Regarding Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid:

The new cut debuted at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, and was supervised by Peckinpah scholars Nick Redman and Paul Seydor (based on Peckinpah's notes). According to this post:

The new cut contains additional scenes, including a scene between Pat Garrett and his wife, the Ruthie Lee scene, an extended sequence with the prostitutes, and Bob Dylan's song has been reinstated into [spolier ahead]

Spoiler

Slim Pickens very memorable death scene.

Nick Redman has posted some additional information:

Garner [Simmons], Paul [Seydor], David [Weddle] and I have done commentaries on all the Warner Peckinpahs, as well as the about-to-be released Major Dundee, and I have to say they are a lot of fun to do, and I hope they are fun and informative for the listeners. In fact, for the PAT GARRETT disc we did two commentaries, one on the old so-called "director's cut," and one on the new cut which Paul Seydor and I supervised, which specifically charts the differences between the two, and why the director's cut wasn't the director's cut at all.

I thought Peckinpah's cut had just the "ooh ooh" chorus over the death scene, not the lyrics... the lyrics are what make it, uh, not good.

[filmfan]

As it is not part of this box set, can anyone recommend a R1 (or RO NTSC) release for Peckinpah's first feature The Deadly Companions?

I just picked up the Platinum release and the picture and sound is superb for a $7.95 budget release.

[bcsparker]

I am ecstatic about this release. I have waited years to see a good version of Pat Garrett. I cannot wait until January!

[Elephant]

As it is not part of this box set, can anyone recommend a R1 (or RO NTSC) release for Peckinpah's first feature The Deadly Companions?

I just picked up the Platinum release and the picture and sound is superb for a $7.95 budget release.

Except it's cropped from 2.35 to 1.33.

[RevKarl]

On Peckinpah, but not the proposed box -- was reading that the Euro version of Cross of Iron is at least 4 minutes longer than the Hen's Tooth version in the U.S. Since this thread may be visited by some Peckinpah experts -- what is missing from the U.S. version?

I just purchased the Korean R0 NTSC DVD of Cross of Iron, which may/may not be a port of the European release (aside from the Korean subtitles & extras, that is.) The disc, released by MVCI, features a pretty good anamorphic transfer w/ Dolby Digital Mono sound. I've seen some "DVD collector" websites selling this disc for ~$30, but I picked it up on eBay for only $5 (which, I understand, is $4 more than the Hen's Tooth disc is worth.) Definitely something R1 Peckinpah fans should consider getting for their DVD collection.

By the by, thanks for all The Deadly Companions suggestions.

[Gordon]

We should see reviews for these discs next week, so eyes peeled!

[Lino]

Here's one:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1860peck.html?___rd=1

Warner DVD's Sam Peckinpah's Classic Westerns Collection is a terrific boxed set that represents an enormous amount of work by both the Turner/Warner DVD department and the Peckinpah experts assembled by Nick Redman. Every transfer is a vast improvement. The Wild Bunch strikes one as a renewed experience. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid's two versions will give the Peckinpah adepts fresh fodder for contemplation and debate.

The assembled authors provide full-length commentaries for all of the features. We get facts, opinions, analysis and personal perspectives from each of them, with the phrase most commonly heard being how Peckinpah and The Wild Bunch changed their lives. Their collective interpretation of the world of Sam Peckinpah is nigh-unimpeachable.

The assembled extras will be too much of a good thing for many fans, especially because of understandable overlaps in coverage and other redundancies between commentaries and featurettes. The collection comes to honor Peckinpah and not to criticize him, and some viewers are going to get the idea that he belongs in the company of other Hollywood casualties like Orson Welles and Erich von Stroheim. His story is a lot more complicated than that.

[Gordon]

Wow... excellent! You can always rely on Glenn for covering all the bases and slipping in personal anecdotes that add to the originality of the article.

Massive kudos to Warner. I can't believe that I only paid $51 for this. That's an airmail import to the UK, btw. Incredible.

Thanks, Annie.

[Gordon]

From Jefferson Morris at the Home Theater Forum:

Trimming seven minutes out of this film hardly gives it any additional narrative oomph, but instead loses some of the exhausted melancholy that suffuses the '88 cut. Plus some dialogue is lost, and I simply cannot accept that--this film has some of the best dialogue ever written for the screen. I also prefer the longer credit sequence from the '88 cut, with its characteristic Peckinpah credit freeze-frames.

Plus, we miss one of my favorite (if admittedly unrealistic) touches from the older cut--the card game that Billy and his buddies play while their hideout is being raided.

The 2005 cut is even a bit censored, it seems. The scuzzy character who gets thrown in jail by Slim Pickens' wife (can't recall his name) now says "What the hell!" when he's bumped by Garrett's horse, versus "Now what the fuck!?"

--Jefferson Morris

www.hometheaterforum.compostid=2901615&t=4999

As you can see, I'm unpleasantly surprised at the alterations, so kudos to Warner for including the 1988 cut, too. =D>

[Ste]

I just saw the new cut for the first time today, and I must admit to being slightly disappointed. The whole pace of the film now seemed rushed to me, and there are a number of jarring cuts. One in particular, I remember, about a third of the way in, involved Dylan's music coming in rather too abruptly. It was like, "Whoa, steady!"

It's been a few years since I've seen the Turner Preview version, but I'm going to run it tomorrow morning, as soon as the GF goes out to work. It'll be interesting to see the two side-by-side. I also want to hear Paul Seydor's reasoning for the new edit on the two commentary tracks.

Other than that I have only minor quibbles (slipcase artwork, menu design, etc.) with the boxed set. Overall, it's a wonderland for Peckinpah fans.

[oldsheperd]

I don't know, I guess I'm one of the few that really enjoys the melancholic tone of the film.

[Ste]

The colour-boosting in the 2005 version is way over the top, and much of the subtlety in Coquillon's photography has been lost, especially in the day-for-night scenes. At times it looks downright gaudy. A real shame, that.

I don't think the new version is any more coherent than the Turner version. It's just quicker in pace, that's all. Sure the scene with Garrett's wife makes for interesting character development, as does the extra dialogue with Ruthie Lee. But I'll take the slower, more lyrical pacing of the Turner version every time. The new version seems disjointed in comparison. And some of the cuts are plain jarring. As previously mentioned, there's one particular cut, about a third of the way in, where Dylan's music comes in far too abruptly. Being a huge Dylan fan I never thought I'd say this, but the music in the 2005 cut is obtrusive; again, the Turner version feels much more natural/subtle.

And some of the best, saltiest dialogue - "A warm pussy and a shit for $2", "Last time he had four to get it up, and five to get it down", even a chunk of Sam's cameo - has been cut! I can see no good reason for this other than good old 21st Century prudishness.

I'll stick with the Turner version, thanks. Kudos to Warner Bros. for including it.

[pzman84]

Just got the DVD set. FUCKING GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. One of Warner's best. Makes up for all the mistakes of the Film Noir Vol. 2 Box Set. Warner, you are no longer on notice (if Stephen Colbert can have an "on notice" list, why can't I?). Anyway, get this set. Awesome!!!! Can't say it any plainer.

[Gordon]

Ride the High Country is an amazing film. Steve Judd (Joel McCrea) is presented as a upright, 'moral' man - but he requires spectacles in order to read the contract that the money men hand to him! He has 'weaknesses' or in my parlance, he is 'human'. The whole film alludes to this 'fact'. Gil Westrum (Randolph Scott) tries to 'rip off' the Gold - rip off his Friend, no less, but why? At the end of the film, all Bullshit is flushed away and Steve faces - paradoxically faces - Fate, but not before the redemption of Gil.

Along the way, the trials of Life are played out in one of the greatest Westerns ever made by one of the most humane filmmakers - this may seems paradoxical, but I feel that it is true and that Sam was a one of the great Understanders of the Suffering of Humanity, who portrayed Life objectively, but with great compassion. Ride the High Country, like Boetticher's, The Tall T is teeming with unfortunate misunderstandings and Pain and is one of the great American films, I feel, beautifully shot by a master Cinematographer - Lucien Ballard - a film with great crane shots (especially at 31:45 minutes) and mise en scene in general and most of all profoundly moving performances - especially by R.G. Armstrong, whose character today would most likely be perceived as 'stupid' or 'controlling' and generally unsympathetic. Oh, and it's often a laugh-out-loud story with amazing dialogue - especially by the unbathed Warren Oates and Randolph Scott.

It's themes of Love, Compassion, Forgiveness and Redemption seep into the Heart and Soul and left me feeling sad and reflective. A wonderful, elegiac film.

[pemmican]

Re: PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID: my theory for the 2005 cut is that a whole bunch of people got acclimatized to the "theatrical version" and decided, rather than beginning with the "director's cut," to take the theatrical version as primary and just add the few things they liked better from the Turner version. To say that they're trying to restore Peckinpah's intentions seems very suspect to me; they make choices that seem to stem more from fidelity to the earlier release, which we assume they're more familiar with (and which Paul Seydor admits to preferring in one of the commentaries) than from what seems to be Peckinpah's intent of the film (based on what we can infer from the Turner Preview version, which they shy away from calling the "director's cut"). Though the 2005 version IS the tighter film -- I buy that the "Turner Preview" edition is not a fine cut of the film, and that there IS in fact no definitive take on the film -- I end up feeling like my fidelity should remain with 1988, as being as close as we can get... Tho' I'd've been much happier with 2005 if they'd included Garrett's line about "what you want and what you get..." -- the omission of it is shocking; and Dylan's score does seem to be more obtrusive, which one suspects has more to do with Dylan's saleability than faithfulness to Peckinpah.

Anyone have any good links handy to articles about the 2005 "restoration?"

[Richard--W]

Anyone have any good links handy to articles about the 2005 "restoration?"

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