The man would have been 86 today.
Compadre, I’m in Nottingham not Old Mexico, I’m raising a glass of beer not a shot of tequila, but I’m drinking to your eternal memory all the same.
“I want to enter my house justified” – ‘Ride the High Country’
“I want to enter my house justified” – ‘Ride the High Country’
Would have been 86. If he hadn't been pursued by inner demons, bound to an atavistic and self-destructive code, determined to piss on the boots of the system. Thank the gods he isn't.
ReplyDeleteBut imagine him: pursued by inner demons, bound to an atavistic and self-destructive code, determined to piss on the boots of the system AND ram-raiding nurses with a zimmerframe!
ReplyDeleteGreat title for great man, one of highlights of Wild Bunch, but then-it's a movie in which every moment have something extraordinary. But it would be great if Sam is still around
ReplyDeleteSlobodan - amen to that!
ReplyDeleteA-fucking-men to this. I didn't realize that you were another Peckinpah nut like myself. It might finally be time to tackle "The Wild Bunch," "Pat Garrett" and "The Osterman Weekend"!
ReplyDeleteScott, I bloody LOVE Peckinpah. Check out the archives for Dec 09 on this blog - I devoted the entire month to Peckinpah.
ReplyDeletePeckinpah's been my favorite since I was about 20 and having to special order VHS copies of "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" and "Ballad of Cable Hogue" because no store in my Midwestern suburb carried them. I'd venture to say he's a little more well-known now.
ReplyDeleteCaught a screening of "Alfredo Garcia" here in L.A., at the New Beverly, last year, and it was sheer revelation. The print that MGM sent over was gloriously scratchy and grimy. A double bill with Sergio Leone's "Duck, You Sucker!" -- but Alfredo was pushed back from its listed starting time because it turned out that MGM had sent over the extended European cut of "Duck." Awesome.
Packed house for "Alfredo." People laughed in all the right places and GOT the scenes of Warren Oates conversing with Alfredo's head and the picture of Elita on his bedside table. My favorite memory: a hot Asian chick in a beret sitting there (all by herself, I might add), clutching her popcorn as the end credits rolled -- trying to process just what the FUCK she had seen.
I believe you commented on one of my Peckinpah pieces awhile back. I think my fave may be the one I did on "Alfredo" -
http://scottisnotaprofessional.blogspot.com/2010/04/bring-me-head-of-alfredo-garcia-1974.html
I saw Alfredo on the big screen at Nottingham's Broadway cinema in the mid-90s are watched it with an entirely polarized audience: half of them (including yours truly) were having a racuous time with it, heartily laughing at the vicious black humour; the other half were sitting there in stony silence and filed out looking dumbfounded and/or outraged as the end credits rolled.
ReplyDeleteLucky you for getting to see the European cut of Duck, You Sucker on the big screen - epic fucking win!