 THE
WILD BUNCH
US 1969 DIRECTOR: SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 3 5 FRI 7 PM SUN 7 PM Guild
Theatre
Peckinpah’s cacophonous, anti-heroic masterpiece is
one of the great cinematic meditations on violence. William
Holden’s immortal line, “If they move, kill ‘em”
typifies the unromantic, brutal world occupied by both Peckinpah
and his actors. Among the cast are Holden, Ernest Borgnine,
Robert Ryan, Ben Johnson, and Warren Oates, who survived a
nearly impossible shoot in Mexico in order to be remembered
as one of the strongest ensembles in the history of the western.
(145 mins.)
top 
 JUNIOR
BONNER
US 1972 DIRECTOR: SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 10 12 FRI 7 PM, SUN 4:45 PM
Whitsell Auditorium
Set in high contrast to the famously controversial STRAW DOGS,
produced a year earlier, Peckinpah directed the quietest,
least violent picture of his career. Aging bull rider Junior
(McQueen), a once celebrated star of the rodeo circuit, spends
his days in lonesome meditation, traveling laconically between
small western towns. When he returns to his home town for
the annual 4th of July Frontier Days, he finds a brother set
on developing their countryside into real estate, a father
with gold fever, and a mother resigned to simply getting by.
A paced, melancholy look at the “new west,” JUNIOR
BONNER is Peckinpah’s family drama is one of his most
understated works.
(100 mins.)
top
 CONVOY
US 1978 DIRECTOR: SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 11 12 SAT 7 PM SUN 7 PM
Whitsell Auditorium
Now a classic of 1970s drive-in cinema, Peckinpah transmutes
the outlaw horsemen of his earlier films into a band of diesel
burning truckers. Tired of prejudicial treatment by corrupt
highway patrolmen, Martin “Rubber Duck” Penwald
(Kris Kristofferson) begins on a high-speed mission across
the southwest U.S. into Mexico. Accompanied by the sexy Melissa
(Ali McGraw), Rubber Duck’s convoy grows in length and
momentum as the police hone in. Like Peckinpah’s earlier
films, this neo-western features a cast of grizzled eccentrics
among them Burt Young, Seymour Cassel, and Ernest Borgnine
in one of his wiliest roles) set against the backdrop of the
decayed American frontier.
(106 mins.)
top
 PAT
GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID
US 1973 DIRECTOR: SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 17 19 FRI 7 PM, SUN 7 PM
Guild Theatre
Peckinpah’s take on the classic western fable is given
a moody, bullet-riddled treatment, as newly-christened sheriff
Garrett (James Coburn) is assigned to incarcerate his wily
frontier compatriot, Billy (Kris Kristofferson). With some
of the director’s most poignant examples of “poetic
violence,” this meta-western is also colored by an impressive
supporting cast, including Jason Robards, Rita Coolidge, and
Bob Dylan (who also wrote the original music).
(122 mins.)
top
 THE
KILLER ELITE
US 1975 DIRECTOR: SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 18 SAT 7 PM Guild Theatre
Peckinpah’s one foray into the martial arts genre, THE
KILLER ELITE was produced at a time when personal as well
as professional) demons were alienating the director from
the major Hollywood establishment. James Caan and Robert Duvall
star as fellow mercenaries in the super-secret ComTec organization,
a corporate paramilitary wing of the CIA. On the surface a
strict genre piece, this kung-fu filled thriller is an artfully
sinister, often paranoid portrait of killers for hire.
(122 mins.)
top
 RIDE
THE HIGH COUNTRY
US 1962 DIRECTOR: SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 23 25 THU 7 PM, SAT 7 PM
Guild Theatre
Peckinpah’s second feature film follows two wizened
cowboys the enigmatic (Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea) as
they are hired to transport a cash of gold across the frontier.
Unbeknownst to ex-marshall Steve (McCrea), his old friend
(Gil Scott) and his son plan to steal the gold for themselves,
while the crew defends their treasure from a group of psychotic
outlaws. As anticipation to Peckinpah masterpiece THE WILD
BUNCH, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY is an elegant look at two men
bound by the past, and forced to accept the hastening future.
(94 mins.)
top
 STRAW
DOGS
US 1971 DIRECTOR: SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 24 26 FRI 7 PM, SUN 4:30 PM
Guild Theatre
Perhaps Peckinpah’s most controversial work, the film
follows American mathematician David (Dustin Hoffman) and
his wife Amy (Susan George) as they move to her native Cornwall,
England for an academic sabbatical. When local thugs brutally
attack Amy, the nebbish David discovers a dark rage that ultimately
must articulate itself. A curious alter ego to the British
John Boorman’s look at rural American violence (in DELIVERANCE
1972), STRAW DOGS is an unforgettable portrait of desperate
survival.
(118 mins.)
top
 BRING
ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA
US 1974 SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 25 26 SAT 9 PM, SUN 7 PM
Guild Theatre
Warren Oates (in perhaps his most indelible role) is Bennie,
a whisky-soaked piano player living in Mexico. When the daughter
of a wealthy caudillo Emilio Fernandez, (reprising his role
from THE WILD BUNCH) becomes pregnant, the likely father Alfredo
Garcia’s fate is sealed. Bennie becomes one of several
bounty hunters trailing Garcia, and proves to be as handy
with a pistol as he is a piano.
(112 mins.)
top
 MAJOR
DUNDEE
US 1965 DIRECTOR: SAM PECKINPAH
JUNE 30 JUL 1 2 3 THURS 7:30
PM, FRI 7:30 PM, SAT 7:30 PM, SUN 7 PM Guild Theatre
Long forgotten (and now restored in a brand new 35mm print)
with a longer director’s cut, Peckinpah’s early
Civil War era tale follows Dundee (Charleton Heston), a Union
officer assigned to shepherd a group of Confederate soldiers
(among them Richard Harris, Warren Oates, and L.Q. Jones)
through the New Mexico desert. Along the way, Dundee is given
the charge of rescuing two boys from the renegade Apaches
who abducted them. A film mired in studio struggles, budget
battles and recuts, this new version—featuring 12 minutes
of original footage, re-editing continuity and substitution
of the original score—is as close to Peckinpah’s
original vision as possible. A testament to the work of one
of America’s true maverick geniuses.
(136 mins.)
top
|
