Book Description
The only major biography of Sam Peckinpah in print, David Weddle's If They Move...Kill 'Em! tells the wild story of Peckinpah's life with novelistic verve and does justice to one of the most important bodies of work in American cinema. Born into a clan of lumberjacks, ranchers, and frontier lawyers, David Samuel Peckinpah served in the Marines and then made his way to Hollywood, where he worked on a string of low-budget features before being hired as a writer for Gunsmoke in 1955. Quickly becoming the hottest writer in television, Peckinpah went on to direct a phenomenal series of features, including Ride the High Country, Straw Dogs, The Getaway, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and The Wild Bunch. The life he led -- glamorous, wild, and beset by personal demons -- is as vivid as his films. A hopeless romantic and a grim nihilist, inspiration to such luminaries as DePalma, Scorsese, and Tarantino, Sam Peckinpah was an audacious American original. If They Move...Kill 'Em! is his wild and woolly story.
Customer Reviews:
A Response.......2005-06-16
If you are interested in a detailed look at Sam Peckinpah's life and work, this book is a great starting point. I was particularly struck by Weddle's descriptions of Sam's creative process. Near the end of the book, the recurring theme of "he was drunk (and/or) high again," gets somewhat stale. But Weddle was only reporting fact. For any Peckinpah fan or even those just finding out about the director, this book is well-worth your time.
Last thing...Sorry, but I have to respond to a previous reviewer J. Austin. You lose all credibility as a reviewer when you criticize a biographer for not knowing enough about his subject when you--yourself--fail to spell the subject's name correctly. Secondly, the author's name is Weddle, not Waddle. Thirdly, Weddle hardly claims that Cross of Iron is embarassing. You quoted one word, "embarassing," and removed the entire context around it. Weddle stated that some scenes in Cross of Iron were embarassing (a result of Peckinpah's erratic behavior and inability to focus for a full day's work), but overall Weddle was complimentary of the film. It was Convoy that Weddle dismissed altogether--something I think all Peckinpah fans would agree with. And finally, Weddle apparently did meet Peckinpah on the set of The Osterman Weekend, as he points out in the introduction to Paul Seydor's The Western Films.
peck himself would have shot the man.......2005-04-18
sorry, but i have to differ w/ the other posted 'reviews'.
this book is a sorry mass of sensationalism & subjective criticism.
any 'fimmaker' who thinks this books paints an accurate picture of the man does not truly understand him or his work.
most of the text regarding THE WILD BUNCH is ripped from other sources. extant descriptions read like a bad screenplay (or bill o'reilly's novel)
what really irks me is that waddle dismisses CROSS OF IRON as embarrassing--how many times did he actually WATCH THE FILM?
clearly, the fact that Welles commented on it means it is worth intensive viewing. waddle would rather talk about peckingpah's drinking and obvious malformations . . .
so beware, true peckingpah fan . . . nothing new from this compendium (and it is thick)
a pity the author never met the man he was paid to write about.
jra
Tragic examination of the Sam Peckinpah myth.......2003-05-11
David Weddle's fine biography of director Sam Peckinpah "If They Move...Kill'em!" is a harrowing book, detailing an extraordinary professional life wrought with alcoholism, drug addiction, rage and eventually paranoia. This book doesn't attempt to brush Peckinpah off the mountain he will forever possess, but it does detail his inspirations, influences and life-long battle with the demons within. Peckinpah was indeed tortured, an Ernest Hemingway or even Jack Kerouac of his time. He was also one heck of an SOB.
As a fan of Peckinpah's extaordinary films, including "The Wild Bunch," "Cross of Iron," "Straw Dogs" and "The Getaway," I was always perplexed by the erratic quality of the films later in his career and his eventual disappearance from the filmmaking scene. I suppose Weddle's work provides an uneasy answer to these questions, and I think his arguments about Peckinpah living the life of the characters he created in his films is valid.
Peckinpah's legend has always overshadowed Peckinpah's work, which is why such underrated jewels as "Noon Wine," "Junior Bonner" and "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" have been overlooked. I appreciate Weddle's attempts at exposing this myth, and revealing the troubled inspirations and obsessions of Peckinpah. I have problems with the way Weddle skims the surface of many of his films, rarely providing much critical insight or interpretation. But to do so would be treading on the groundbreaking territory of Garner Simmons' ultimate work "Peckinpah, A Portrait in Montage." Weddle should be applauded for avoiding areas that perhaps have already been covered.
To support his argument, Weddle ignores films from Peckinpah's resume, and makes several generalizations which are not entirely accurate. As the years go by, curious viewers will eventually realize that "Cross of Iron" was one of his great films, just as they will also begin to appreciate the gritty greatness of "The Getaway." These films will never serve as examples of the eroding talent of Peckinpah. Though I do agree with Weddle that "Bring Me the Head of Alfred Garcia, "The Osterman Weekend" and "Convoy" are hollow shells of a once-great talent.
"If They Move...Kill'Em!" is eye-opening and disturbing. It needed to be written. Many artists who rose to prominence during the 1960s and 1970s suffered a similar Peckinpah fate - cocaine addiction, alcoholism, a life of excess. That he was still able to make his films was a stunning achievement. That he took 10 years and 5 films off of his life (at the very least), is an American tragedy. Weddle has done a good job at revealing a man who not only was his own worst enemy, but who lived the ignoble life of the tortured artist to the extreme. To know Peckinpah the man, is to eventually understand his utterly unique films.
Even the worst of us. . .Sometimes the worst most of all........2003-03-04
As I peddled my latest play, "Rust To Dust", I thought I was being pretty cute by describing it as "The Glass Menagerie meets The Wild Bunch". Working under the false pretense that my work uniquely combined the "hot ice and wonderous strange snow" of Williams' delicate and tender memory play with Peckinpah's bloody machismo driven Darwinistic fables, I thought I had something rare. Wrong.
According to Weddle, Sam Peckinpah himself had already beaten me to the punch.
In reading David Weddle's expansively researched and annotated biography of one of film's great colorful and tragic characters, I rediscovered the suprisingly sentimental and softly poetic side of Peckinpah.
Influenced tremendously by the symbollic stage poetry of Tennesse Williams (Sam was one of his champions!)along with the he-man adventures of John Ford, Howard Hawks and John Huston, Peckinpah brilliantly (admittedly only consistent in three films)managed to combine both seemingly polarized worlds.
Weddle really brings to light the complex character of Sam Peckinpah. Weddle pulls no punches and portrays the director as abusive, selfish, self destructive, malignant and paranoid. He also illuminates the softer, romantic side that created some legitimate and heartbreakingly penetrating works of art. Sam felt moved by poetry and the longing we all have to find the innocent and pure sides of our selves. He searched for salvation. Even in the hearts of deeply flawed and violent men. Knowing that he, like his famous protagnists, would only find it in honorable death.
Weddle does a fine and admirable job painstakingly finding the autobiographical currents running through all of Peckinpah's work.Weddle really shines as a film critic as he deconstructs all of Sam's work. He deftly balances negativity with effusiveness like a fine concert pianist. Like Williams' masterpieces, Peckinpah used his art to exorcise his demons.
It is so refreshing to learn that Peckinpah did not just educate himself on a diet of films, as so many young directors choose to limit themselves. He was a voracious reader of philosophy, history and literature. He loved the stage.
Many of Peckinpah's fans will already know much of the incidents present in the book, which will cause one to skim. But when Weddle works to humanize a deeply misunderstood artist, this book really shines.
"Let's Go!".......2001-07-05
If there has ever been a man for whom the phrase "consumed by his inner demons" was apt, that man was director Sam Peckinpah. And as David Weddle makes clear in this massive and massively detailed biography, Peckinpah's films bring many of these demons out to strut or cower on the silver screen. As Weddle remarks, almost everyone who loves film can remember the first time he saw THE WILD BUNCH, and yet, like almost all of Peckinpah's "serious" films other than RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, it was severely mutilated by studio meddling.
Not since Orson Welles has there been a famous director who had so much trouble with studio interference. And yet there were clearly times when some intelligent interference was more than justified... MAJOR DUNDEE falls completely to pieces in its "third half," to echo Tom and Ray of CAR TALK. THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE is a giant void at its center... where there should be a love story, there's absolute vacuum, despite the talents of the performers. STRAW DOGS is repellant and unmemoriable despite the efforts of Dustin Hoffman. Sam turned every film in which he had much control into a psychodrama in which his characters wrestled with Sam's own problems. In this, he was a true auteur.
Weddle's research is overwhelming and his information about Peckinpah's childhood, college days and TV career is very enlightening... but he makes a major mistake in trying to relate these early experiences of Peckinpah in the most mechanical and naive way to Peckinpah's massive later psychological problems. We even listen in to some of Peckinpah's innermost thoughts, which is pretty preposterous in a supposed work of nonfiction.
And as another reviewer has noted, the list of influences on Peckinpah has a gigantic lapse--- other directors! Apart from a few random mentions of John Ford, there's hardly a hint that Peckinpah ever went to movies, or ever studied the works of other directors. Yet his early films burst onto the scene precisely when there was a directorial ferment almost without precedent in US and international film-making.
Peckinpah's film career is a sad and disturbing litany of maniacal career- and self-destruction. After alcohol withered his talents to a minimum, he discovered cocaine, and spent the rest of his short life in a moronic haze penetrated randomly by spurts of insane violence and agression... until his heart stopped abruptly. Ironically, in his decline he did a couple of by-the-numbers potboiler action films, and these were the only ones of his films that made real money for the studios. His best known, and best, films, like the WILD BUNCH, were box-office failures and not available for viewing even today in their uncut, unmutilated forms.
It's almost all here, a repellent and tragic story that only a Shakespeare could really do much justice to. Recommended, if you've ever wondered what kind of man could have had the vision embodied in the first 15 minutes or the final 15 minutes of THE WILD BUNCH.
Customer Reviews:
fascinating but flawed.......2007-07-31
This book really is a must for fans of Peckinpah. It has a marvelous collection of rare behind-the-scenes photos that are the primary attraction, but the interviews are also very entertaining. I have to take one star away because reading this book is a chore. It has to be one of the most poorly written and edited books I have ever seen. Sentence structure is awkward and the punctuation atrocious. Apostrophes are used with wild abandon and almost always in the wrong place. The misspellings are enough to drive you to distraction. Whenever there are two words with the same sound and different spellings, the wrong one will be chosen with alarming regularity...."too" for "two", "reigns" for "reins, "throws" for "throes", "your" for "you're" and so on. It becomes an almost comical game to spot them.
The author is English and he has an annoying habit of occasionally inserting a British turn of phrase into what are supposedly direct quotes from some of the American interview subjects. Now I realize that is normal when it is David Warner or an English crewmember being quoted. But it is highly unlikely that Peckinpah ever said "Get your arse over here" or that R.G Armstong says "arseh*le" or an American talks about someone being "in hospital". This just makes the quotes seem inauthentic.
Fortunately, the interviews and subject matter are fascinating to make all this seems like nit picking. But next time...hire an editor!
Peckinpah Behind The Scenes..........2007-07-03
"Entered His House Justified: The Making of the Films of Sam Peckinpah" is a book that every Peckinpah fan has been waiting for. It is a great collection of behind-the-scenes photos from Sam's films, many of which have never before been seen before my most fans, accompanied by text which gives a brief overview of the making of each film. Author Jeff Slater has done a good job of getting quotes and stories from a lot of the cast and crew who worked with Sam, and these combined with all of the great candid shots, give the reader a good insight as to what it was to like to work with Peckinpah. Some of Peckinpah's lesser known gems like "The Killer Elite" don't recieve as much attention from Slater as some of his more well known films do, which is a small drawback, but overall this book is one not to miss for Sam Peckinpah fans or any filmaker interested in the career of one of Hollywood's greatest directors.
Great Peckinpah book!.......2007-01-14
This is one of the best books about director Sam Peckinpah. If you want interesting essays about the films of Peckinpah and many great photographs this is the book to get. It is not a biography but an very interesting and nice written info on the films of Sam Peckinpah.A must for the fans!
Book Description
Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch is one of the most influential films in American cinema. The intensity of its violence was unprecedented, while the director's use of multiple cameras, montage editing, and slow motion quickly became the normative style for rendering screen violence. This volume includes freshly-commissioned essays by several leading scholars of Peckinpah's work. Examining the film's production history from script to screen, its rich and ambivalent vision of American society, and its relationship to the Western genre, among other topics, it provides a definitive reinterpretation of an enduring film classic.
Customer Reviews:
A Retrospective on a Great Western.......2002-08-05
This book is a collection of essays on "The Wild Bunch" written in the late 90s. (When I bought the book, I had thought that the book would include some original reviews and show how attitudes toward "The Wild Bunch" had changed over time.)
Most of the essays are very good. The first, on how the script of the movie took shape, is worth the price of the book itself. Apparently, one can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, or at least we movie lovers were extremely lucky.
The only essay that is a dud is the last one, in which the author argues that "The Wild Bunch" is not a great film, that it is too romantic, and that "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" is Peckinpah's real masterpiece. Now, I think PG&BK is a very good movie, but it doesn't hold up as well as "The Wild Bunch" (and I have seen the restored PG&BK.) The idea of including an essay attacking the greatness of a movie that is the inspiration for the book strikes me as odd.
However, this book is recommended for those with an interest in Westerns and Sam Peckinpah.
Average customer rating:
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Sam Peckinpah's West
Leonard Engel
Manufacturer: University of Utah Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0874807727 |
Book Description
More than any other filmmaker, Sam Peckinpah opened the door for graphic violence in movies. In this book, Stephen Prince explains the rise of explicit violence in the American cinema, its social effects, and the relation of contemporary ultraviolence to the radical, humanistic filmmaking that Peckinpah practiced. Prince demonstrates Peckinpah's complex approach to screen violence and shows him as a serious artist whose work was tied to the social and political upheavals of the 1960s. He explains how the director's commitment to showing the horror and pain of violence compelled him to use a complex style that aimed to control the viewer's response. Prince offers an unprecedented portrait of Peckinpah the filmmaker. Drawing on primary research materials--Peckinpah's unpublished correspondence, scripts, production memos, and editing notes--he provides a wealth of new information about the making of the films and Peckinpah's critical shaping of their content and violent imagery. This material shows Peckinpah as a filmmaker of intelligence, a keen observer of American society, and a tragic artist disturbed by the images he created. Prince's account establishes, for the first time, Peckinpah's place as a major filmmaker. This book is essential reading for those interested in Peckinpah, the problem of movie violence, and contemporary American cinema.
Customer Reviews:
An Unusual Take on Peckinpah.......2004-12-12
Savage Cinema surprised me. Usually, books on Peckinpah focus on his relationship with the Western genre and put The Wild Bunch as his chief accomplishment.
Savage Cinema, however, looks at Peckinpah's relationship with violence and focuses instead on Straw Dogs, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. Ride the High Country and Major Dundee are barely mentioned, and Stephen Prince viewed The Wild Bunch as something that Peckinpah had grown past in these three later films.
The result was a book that viewed Peckinpah through a fresh set of eyes, instead of one that plowed over the same ground. I found the book very fascinating and convincing. The reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that Prince's chapter on the use of montage became hard for me to follow. But apart from that, this is a very interesting book that shows how Peckinpah was a major filmmaker and different from the "ultraviolence" of today's cinema.
Thought-Provoking and Meticulous.......2003-04-05
This book tells in great detail the relationship of violence in Sam Peckinpaugh's films and it's predecessors today. While I would recommend it to Peckingpaugh fans, critically-minded and socially-aware Hollywood types, and for academic purposes, this book is a little lengthy and tedious for those seeking a quick and easy read. Thought-provoking and meticulous.
A significant, insightful work.......2000-09-13
Prince doesn't get the fifth star only because the book is a little underwritten in parts (like the conclusion), and because I feel his analysis of "Straw Dogs", while well-intentioned and mostly solid, seems a little unbalanced with regard to David Sumner (Hoffman). Nevertheless, this is a a MUST-HAVE for students of Peckinpah and/or cinematic violence. Particularly fascinating is Prince's unique view of "Peckinpah's great trilogy on the toxic nature of violence" (re: "Straw Dogs", "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", and "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia"), which represents a significant breakthrough in the literature. The freshness and clarity of 90 percent of this book make it worthwhile, and the other 10 percent is still readable. Don't expect Vonnegut, after all this is a critical volume. Highly recommended to students and cinephiles.
A masterpiece of analysis on a brilliant film artist.......1999-07-09
Prince's book is a rich, deep study of Peckinpah's own serious and humanitarian concerns with violence, and how his films were a personal crusade against Man's inhumanity to Man. The author convincingly argues the director grew away from the catharsis philosophy and developed a more uncompromising style. A masterpiece, and a must!
Book Description
"Sam Peckinpah is, by his own admission and that of almost everyone else in this richly entertaining book, a director who needs adversity to get the juices flowing. As shooting goes on, complications multiply and tensions increase. The wild man, fortified by booze and shots of vitamin B12, rides the whirlwind he creates firing the incompetents beneath him, baiting the ones over him, and bullying and testing and goading the rest...[This book gives] a nuts and bolts account of the...complex interplay of power and art or movie and myth-making as practiced by an idiosyncratic but skillfull manipulator." -New York Times Book Review
Customer Reviews:
Solid and fair-minded........2006-02-02
This is the kind of bio that should be written about every important film director. Simmons is just detached enough to be objective, but not cold and removed so as to miss the color and flavor of this remarkable man. Highly reccommended for all interested in films - not just Peckinpah geeks.
Someone should get this guy to do a series of books on directors.
Great Peckinpah biography.......2003-12-16
This is one of the first and best Peckinpah's biographies. Written a few years before his death but with a new preface and postscript it is a superb account about the life and films of Sam Peckinpah. Garner Simmons talked to many friends, family, actors and producers to make this a wonderful readable experience.If you are in the films of Sam Peckinpah get this book!
Peckinpah - just the facts.......1999-11-22
Peckinpah, written by Garner Simmons and published by the Universtity of Texas Press in 1982,is a no-nonsense, non-opinionated look at the life and work of director Sam Peckinpah. The first few chapters are devoted to his early life: parents, childhood, growing up, early TV work, etc. The rest of the book is presented in a movie-by-movie format, with one chapter being devoted to each film. The chronological discussion of each film pays great attention to detail form pre to post production. Lots of good insight from cast and crew members help make this book really special! There is little info on Peckinpah's final film, "The Osterman Weekend", as it had not been released at the time of this book's publication. The book is dedicated to the memory of Jerry Fielding, the extremely talented composer who worked with Peckinpah on several films.
Average customer rating:
- A big waste of time
- A must have for the action movie fanatic
- Violence in film... almost there, perhaps next try.
- This is a sick but jovial book...
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Ultraviolent Movies: From Sam Peckinpah to Quentin Tarantino
Laurent Bouzereau
Manufacturer: Citadel
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0806520450 |
Customer Reviews:
A big waste of time.......2003-08-31
The author summarizes the plots of about a dozen violent movies, then he summarizes the critics' reaction to those movies. That's about it. The interview with Oliver Stone is pointless. If you want to read a really good book on this subject, try The Blood Poets by Jake Horsley.
A must have for the action movie fanatic.......2003-06-29
A lot can be said for this book, but I'll try to keep it short.
First, the cons. This book can be a bit dry. It takes a genre (i.e. Law and Order for police movies), then it will choose several films from this genre and discuss what the movie was about, why critics either hated it or liked it. Some movies even get a section on any particularly famous, gory scenes within. Another thing that I didn't particularly care for was that it included several horror films that weren't particularly violent. Psycho, which has a relatively low body count when compared with Friday the 13th, etc. Of course, Psycho was included because it was directed by the master Alfred Hitchcock, but doesn't seem ultra-violent.
The best thing about this book is that it shows how violence has progressed in movies, starting with Bonnie and Clyde, all the way through RoboCop (one of the bloodiest action movies ever made in my opinion). Many well known movies are discussed (Dirty Harry, Clockwork Orange), as well as some smaller, lesser-known movies (Walking Tall).
The pros far outwiegh the cons. For any one who lies their movies full of Desert Eagle handguns, this book is for you.
Violence in film... almost there, perhaps next try........2003-03-12
Violence has been an integral part of art in all its forms ever since man invented art. It has been, and probably always will be, a part of life, no matter how civilized we become. Civilization itself is not only created and molded by violence, but sustained, perpetuated, and developed by its application or the threat of it.
Violence is disturbing but it can also be cathartic, and art presents both of these in an unsettling synthesis that is bound to get as many people upset as it will get to delight in it. Going back to Sumerian myths, Greek tragedies, Chinese folk tales, Elizabethan drama, and more recent literary examples reveals a long and cherished tradition of reveling in violent excess to the great entertainment of audiences as varied as one can imagine. Pictorial art tries to outdo the written word with cruel displays of bloodletting, and even when ostensibly depicting religious events the artists tend to go for the shocking, sensational, and sublimely disturbing.
It is little wonder then that films, just another art form, would seize on this long tradition, integrate it into its own canons, and fully participate in it, expanding it and adapting it according to the requirements and possibilities of the medium.
Films that depict violence have always been subject to the ferocious attacks from various corners, depending on what the movie portrays. What do the film-makers do or say in their defense? This is the subject matter of Bouzereau's book. It is not as much about what violence is, what role it plays in society, and how it is reflected in the arts, as it is about the various responses to its presence in films. The author traces how critics, the public, the law, the industry, and finally, the directors themselves view the presence of violence in these films.
The book is divided into eight chapters that cover everything from the films of Sam Peckinpah to those of Clive Barker. While the book does not dwell on horror films apart from some brief look at slasher, fantasy, and zombie movies, it does present a rather extensive catalogue of the most famous violent movies made in the U.S. This should be made quite clear: the book is only about American films despite featuring a Belgian B&W feature and making references to reactions in Britain and France to some of the films in the study.
This is a shortcoming, and a very serious one, because it deprives us of the comparative look at violent films that might shed some light on the role of violence in life and art, and thereby provide a much better justification for its use in films. Some cultures are even more tolerant to violence than America (e.g. Japan) and their arts inevitably reflect that as well. Omitting serious cinema from around the world handicaps the argument by forcing a distinctly American frame of reference on a globally shared phenomenon.
Ultimately, the book does not offer much insight. It is really a collection of film synopses, woven around anecdotes, interviews with directors, and cursory look at the controversies surrounding some of the films. Even this becomes fragmented in the second part of the book, with the chapters getting shorter, as if the author was in a hurry writing them, and the discussion being less and less attentive to the social implications of the subject matter. By the end of the book, the author simply recites brief summaries of the films and sometimes does not even include much of the reaction to them at all.
It is as if The Wild Bunch, Clockwork Orange, and Natural Born Killers are somehow worthier than Night of the Living Dead, Scream, or Man Bites Dog. Again, the ugly and entirely artificial distinction between art haute and the low-brow, low-budget horror flick rears its ugly head. Even in this marginalized genre hierarchy is imposed by critics who seek to redeem the images of death by uncovering some social commentary in the films.
The premise, however, appears flawed to me. It assumes that these films are in need of defending. Indeed, the book (and the directors) spend a lot of time trying to justify the violence in these films. Most of them center around the "life is full of violence, we're just showing it they way it is" variety. But this defense misses an essential point. If movies were simply photographs of reality, they would make great 8 o'clock news, but art they will not make.
It is naive to claim that art is just a mirror of reality. The film-makers do that for obvious reasons: they want to protect their creations from the depredations of the multidinous censors. Yet art's purpose is to evoke emotions. Showing violence does that. But so do romance, horror, bravery, depression, you name it. If it's well done, the audience would respond. And that is the purpose of art, to get a response. A lot of times we might be surprised at our own reactions, we might even be disgusted by them. Maybe the veneer of civilization is not as thin as many would have us believe and maybe, just maybe, our rational selves would be able to recognize and suppress these traits that we deem unworthy of perpetuating.
Civilization has routinely glorified violence and for good reason. We always have to fight for our gains, we always have to protect our freedoms. Liberty dies as soon as we are unable to kill to keep it.
Violence is destructive, it is ugly, and it is life. There is no existence apart from violence. We may not like it, we may deplore it, but it will never be further than inches away from even the most docile among us. Violence can also be a way of expressing ourselves and thus moving others. There can be no heroes without violence. Being a hero means overcoming fear and the only fear worth overcoming is that of untimely violent death. Getting rid of violence in the arts would simultaneously rid us of our heroes.
This is a sick but jovial book..........2001-05-22
And anytime an author can make gore an exciting and interesting element, then he's done his job. DEATH WISH, WALKING TALL, TAXI DRIVER, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, and more. Buy it and be disgusted [...] and just enjoy!
Customer Reviews:
Best Peckinpah Bio.......2007-08-24
I think this is the best Peckinpah bio. Yes, even better than the excellent "If they move, kill em". Why? First of all, this book gives MUCH better coverage of his non-western films. I happen to think that "The Getaway", "Killer Elite" "Garcia" "Cross of Iron" are great films. These films get very little coverage elsewhere, but our covered in depth here. I also think Fine has a better sense of the man. How drinking, drugs, fighting and chaotic relationships with women hurt him in the end, but were part of his personality, lifestyle and art. It also covers his political and religous beliefs better, showing them grounded in his anti-establishment views. The other bio gives good coverage on the westerns, and is excellent and in depth on "Wild Bunch", but I think this book gives the best view of the non westerns and the man himself. Great read - funny in many parts, and touching and sad.
Book Description
A detailed look at both the films and the man. One of America's most intriguing directors of Westerns and films of violence, Peckinpah created a highly influential body of work, including Ride the High Country, Major Dundee, The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, and The Getaway. Illustrated with 50 stills, the book includes a biographical account of Peckinpah, including his early years in television, and a chronological examination of his films, placed in the context of their production and critical reception. There are fascinating accounts of Peckinpah's approach to film direction and on-set behavior, as well as of studio interference during editing. An analysis of the iconography of his films illuminates the director's recurring themes and preoccupations.
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Crucified heroes: The films of Sam Peckinpah
Terence Butler
Manufacturer: Gordon Fraser
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0860920089 |
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- King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking: Delicious Recipes Using Nutritious Whole Grains
- Letting Go: A 12-Week Personal Action Program to Overcome a Broken Heart
- Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds
- Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found
- Methods, Standards, & Work Design
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- Career Counseling Of College Students: An Empirical Guide to Strategies that Work
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Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage
Peckinpah: THE WESTERN FILMS--A RECONSIDERATION (Illini Books)
Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection (The Wild Bunch / Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid / Ride the High Country / The Ballad of Cable Hogue)
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Straw Dogs
