He is one of the biggest westerners that has ever been made and 52 years ago, he crushed his studio

On July 14, 1881, the famous American law -out, Billy Baby, in New Mexico, fell under the balls of the Sheriff’s Balls in Lincoln. The execution that instantly forces him to enter the American Western legend and his myths.

This story is exactly the movie Pat Garrett & Billy Kid, which was released in 1973 and is directed by Sam Pekinka. A masterpiece that, like many other, in its filmography, as well as a filmmaker under an open war producer’s tail forks …

The charm of the values ​​of the border and its myths

The deep drama of Sam Pekinca is that he was born too late. The descendant of the famous pioneers, Pekinka, was born at the moment when his ancestors entered the legend of California: because they could not live their era, he must be happy to collect echoes. And again it is late, the ten -year delay that it came to the cinema, starting with the start of a terrible career, the lost battles, because it is dedicated to a permanent dwelling house “ Written by film historian Michael Henry Wilson in a wonderful book A La Porte du Paradis: 100 -year -old American Cinema, published by Armand Collin in 2014.

This reflection naturally refers to his masterpiece, which is a wild horde that was the Western Bid as the final response of Hollywood to the West Spaghetti Wave.

It is a dying Western Gangrene from modernity (we are in 1911, we find the first cars …) that the filmmaker depicts the head of this group, Pike Bishop (excited William Holden), seems to want to leave the world he no longer understands. Just like Pekinpa.

With the rough values ​​of the boundary border and the raw moral code of its pioneers and its regularities, Pekinka seeks to portray the pathetic and cramped wandering of the heroic, its last survivors, which is no longer in their size.

His characters, who are guided by honorable feelings and devotion to themselves, will refuse to compromise, even if they were at the cost of their survival. For Beijing, there is sadness that this promise of freedom will disappear forever, which is the essence of America.

Tragic meditation on dying Western characters

If bloody apotheosis The wild horde Marked the first step, Little Garrett and Billy Baby It represents the final and even more tragic meditation on these heroes of the West. Here, the last large spaces are colonized, capitalism and order are now reigning from the supremacy.

Pat Garrett (Brilliant James Cobern), a former law -abiding barrier, is responsible for completing the actions of his former weapons satellite, Billy Baby (Cristopherson).

If he is an old day man, Garci tries to adapt to changes, for the sake of “Aging with the Country”As he says at the beginning of the film. “Time has changed” Shart thinks a little later his old accomplice, still friendly in the exchange. “Time may, but not me” Billy returns it. The decomposition is now consuming.

Seriously mutilated by a masterpiece

Throughout his career, Beijing has suffered from censorship and / or its manufacturers of scissors. His filmography in this respect is so unfortunately known for this: Major Dundi, straw dog, The wild horde… and Little Garrett and Billy Baby So.

As in the interview Gordon T. “The worst was to track the trick because he drank all the time. On the back of There were lots of ice cubes and beer bottles. You have permanently heard the bottles. You had to stop in every bar. It was completely Sahali after eight in the evening. And at 6am, he was taking cocaine. He never tried to stop.

It was James Oubri, who was located on top of MGM Little Garrett and Billy BabyWho hired hostilities. When he discovered a scenario of ordinary, where Garrett rests on the river’s edge and the exchange of fire with a family that is moving forward, he has become hysterical. “This is the moment of existential violence” We answered. “Existential violence?! I never want to hear about it again!” Set up Major CEO …

Pekingpa managed to put singer Chris Christopherson for the role of a baby, where the studio wanted John Woite or Peter Fonda. But these filming was undoubtedly the most difficult in the director’s career. “All of these mgm retarded species blame” Balança peckinpah.

To the Cabochard and Boutiste, Pekingpa then multiplied the excessive sequences to shoot just to make the manufacturers lose money. He even sent a photo to the diversity where we see his assistant (and his girlfriend), Katie Haber, who was disguised as a nurse who intravenously incorporated alcohol. A joke that had a hard smile on James Oubri …

He completed two different installation suggestions, returning to MGM lines, especially the prologue who saw Pat Gart, who was killed by the people who asked him to kill an old friend.

“Rudy Wurlitzer Is a poet. He writes very well. His script would be shot in five hours. Epic confrontation with great lyrical properties. I have summarized this in my movie, I was trying to keep her poetry and I was happy “ Said Pekingpa. And add, bitter: “From MGM, these emotional armories removed all individuals in their editing, trying only to keep the shots. It didn’t work.”

Different versions of the movie

The filmmaker has been handed over to the version Director cut From 124 minutes, which was only once shown in criticism, in 1973. James Oubrim forced Pekingpa to reduce his film editing from 124 to 106 minutes for its internal operation. It was a terrible failure, and Pekink was logically bruised. He demanded two million dollars from MGM for his film scout.

In 1988, Ted Turner was released in Laserdisk and a video version Director cut From the movie. In 2005 we offered a special film Montage, which lasted 115 minutes, shorter than the version Cut the director. Made by the notes left by Sam Pekingpa, it combines elements Director cutThere are no two previous versions of the release version of the 106 -minute room release as well as new scenes. At the same time, there are many films of aficionados, which excluded this version because of anger.

Among the new elements of this version, we can particularly note the general that is completely different from the version Director cut Since 1988, also a significantly reduced version of the death of Pat Garrett. A figure that belongs to the American Western legend, but which eventually violates its principles with the murder of his best friend and betrays the ideals that were representatives of the Western pioneers that he loved Pekingpa.

Farewell song by Lelly Melancholic Bo, which was signed by Bob Dylan, who also depicts a member of Alias, Billy The Kid Band. Little Garrett and Billy Baby Is as well as The wild hordeDesperate by lyricism and strong elegant nostalgia.

Beijing can return to the totems of the long past, his work more than ever visible to our kinfil memory. And for a long time. This is a timely brand of masterpieces.

We will start with, EventuallyStrong call. This absolute wonders are only with us in the 19-year-old DVD already old … Only the United States was given a double edition in 2005 showing two installations of the film. The famous editor’s criterion was published in 2024On the 50th anniversary of Pekingpa’s work. We like it so much that the publisher looks at the question …