Film- Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

The 1973 movie Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, directed by Sam Peckinpah, was beset with problems from start to finish and was panned by the critics on its release. James Coburn was hired to play lawman Garrett and country musician Kris Kristofferson was handed the role as the outlaw Billy the Kid. Kristofferson got Bob Dylan involved, to write the score, and landed him a small part too, as a gunslinger called ‘Alias’. “He should have used one”, wrote eminent critic Roger Ebert at the time. “His screen presence makes him look as if he’s the victim of practical jokes involving itching powder”. “The title song written by Bob Dylan,” he continues, “is quite simply awful”.

One of the many disputes Peckinpah got involved with during shooting was with his studio, who made him cut a number of scenes; the director’s cut of the movie was re-released in 2005. Without MGM’s scene-slashing butchery, it was suddenly hailed as a lost classic, said to rank amongst Peckinpah’s greatest. The Guardian rated it as “Peckinpah’s best movie - his ‘Magnificent Ambersons’ ’’. Dylan’s performance was described as ‘enigmatic’; the soundtrack was ‘inspired’. The truth may lie out there, somewhere: best to judge for yourself. Whatever the case, the soundtrack includes the classic ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’. DL