'Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid': Sam Peckinpah's Final Valediction to the Old West.

Sam Peckinpah is the director who revolutionized violence—from both thematic and technical standpoints—in American cinema with one 1969 western: "The Wild Bunch." At the beginning of the film, children marvel at an ant colony killing two scorpions and eventually set fire to all. Toward the end of the film, the central character, played by an ornery and tough William Holden, kills enemy after enemy with a machine gun but is finally shot down by a child.

This unflinching portrayal of children as violent beings is groundbreaking enough. But I have not mentioned the slow motion gun battles staged by Peckinpah, scenes that undoubtedly inspired countless modern action directors, the most obvious example being Hong Kong filmmaker John Woo. We take slow motion for granted as a technical feature. In 1969 it was shocking. Akira Kurosawa and others had toyed with it but not to this extent.

Four years later, Peckinpah returned to the western with “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.” Unfortunately, Peckinpah and much of the film’s cast and crew disowned the theatrical version because of several edits that cut the running length from just more than two hours to 106 minutes. However, now on DVD you can see the version Peckinpah wanted: the 1988 director’s cut.

The sadness of the Old West’s passing is inherent in “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid” as it was in “The Wild Bunch” but on a more personal level. During the opening credits—restored for this version, heavily edited for the maligned theatrical cut—we see clips of Garrett shot down from his horse juxtaposed with clips of Billy the Kid firing at chickens for target practice (and yes, in mesmerizing slow motion). Subtitles tell us the former occurred during the early twentieth century and the latter during 1881. Essentially, the remainder of the film explains this strange juxtaposition.

The Kid and the lawman Garrett meet at the beginning of the film having been apart for years. They were fellow outlaws, and evidence suggests Garrett played a fatherly role to the Kid. We do not see this, however. We only see the relationship go from awkward, when Garrett tells the Kid to straighten up or else, to violent, when Garrett and the Kid are killing each other’s allies. The Kid is captured but escapes, sparking Garrett’s quest to take the Kid down for good.

The Kid’s goal is simple. He would continue his legendary parade and shooting up whatever he wants and taking whatever he wants and the Old West embodied in his belligerent spirit as if he rode with The Wild Bunch itself.

Garrett’s goal is complex. He would live old in a New West and stand for order but at the expense of his old friend, his unofficial son.

Throughout the film I wondered whether Garrett cared about killing the Kid. I wondered if maybe James Coburn or Peckinpah missed a dramatic opportunity for Garrett is ever determined to strike a new path for himself by destroying the path of another. Until the end. He learns where the Kid is hiding. He brings two men with him slipping up on the Kid like assassin dogs. He sees the woman the Kid has taken to bed and the empty space beside her. He knows the Kid is around and stops to contemplate his deed.

Garrett sits on a porch for a night at the conclusion. He walks from the porch to his destiny alone. The Kid is dead and Garrett is forlorn. And you discover the irony of the opening sequence—Garrett killed the Old West to be shot down in the New West.

An irrelevant but interesting note:

Slim Pickens has a small supporting role in “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.” His character speaks of abandoning the ground of the West to venture on water. When shot in the gut he walks and walks and walks finally reaching a river and dies. A heartbreaking moment from an actor we usually remember for a laugh.