Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)

USA
directed by: Sam Peckinpah
written by: Rudy Wurlitzer
starring: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Bob Dylan
senn: 11th August, 2014

The music makes my experience mostly unpleasant. Why the hell are all of the films of New Hollywood accompanied by an optimistic sounding music that obviously doesn't fit the realistic tendencies of the stories? "Why" probably isn't the most relevant question I could ask because I don't really need to know that, but it's certain that it will ruin my experience of the film. And why in hell are they presenting a "rough" western world where happy singing songs play along, that almost makes it a musical and that's more ridiculous than anything else. I suppose I prefer my westerns depressing and melancholic.

And keeping that in mind, what kind of film is this anyway? Am I supposet to be moved by the deaths of characters I don't know and hold no sympathy towards? Most of the shots are static in the beginning and only after a while the people start moving, you can almost hear someone shouting "action!" off camera. Nobody acts naturally. Nobody talks naturally. And what about the wtf scenes like Garrett's group hanky panky?

I believe I'm rather sensitive when it comes to things like dancing with death, friendly betrayals and such, but I sense none of that in this film. Alias was cute as heck, especially when smiling, and overall he was the only reason I was looking forward to see what will happen in the film (and with his character) next. But it should have been a fourteen year old boy and not a thirty year old Bob Dylan. That scary looking cross-eyed dude was also rather impressive, as well as the way one of the victims fell towards his death. But these are not the impressions I expected to leave with after a film with such a reputation as this one.