Movie thoughts and fiction updates.
#12 in my ranking of Sam Peckinpah's filmography. The incoherence of late Peckinpah continues with this new effort to find a commercial hit. Based on the popular song and in an effort to replicate the financial success of Smokey and the Bandit, did eventually become financially successful, the most successful of Peckinpah's career. However, the… Continue reading Convoy
#9 in my ranking of Sam Peckinpah's filmography. With The Killer Elite, it felt like Sam Peckinpah had simply lost the ability to make a movie, not just a good movie, but a movie period. Unfocused, lethargic, and pretty uniformly unentertaining or enlightening, it was a once talented director simply lost in material he didn't… Continue reading Cross of Iron
#13 in my ranking of Sam Peckinpah's filmography. Having trashed his reputation across all of Hollywood, Sam Peckinpah could only return to Martin Baum and United Artists, this time on a much shorter leash than with Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, and work with a story based on an unremarkable novel (Monkey in… Continue reading The Killer Elite
#1 in my ranking of Sam Peckinpah's filmography. What an exploitative, trashy title, and what a sad, beautiful film behind it. Working with independent producer Martin Baum and his connections at United Artists, Sam Peckinpah was able to find funding for the script he had written with Gordon Dawson. Leaving Hollywood behind and filming in… Continue reading Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
#2 in my ranking of Sam Peckinpah's filmography. Roughly mangled in editing by then president of MGM, James Aubrey, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid was dismissed at the time as a lesser work of a filmmaker whose best days were well behind him. Sam Peckinpah's newest western was supposed to be another The Wild… Continue reading Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
David Vining, Author 