Where to watch Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
3 Stars
In 1881 New Mexico, Pat Garrett, erstwhile traveling companion of the outlaw Billy the Kid, has become a sheriff, tasked by cattle interests with ridding the territory of Billy. After Billy escapes, Pat assembles a posse and chases him through the territory, culminating in a final confrontation at Fort Sumner, but is unaware of the full scope of the cattle interests’ plans for the New West.
Kris Kristofferson’s first starring role is as Billy the Kid in director Sam Peckinpah’s frustrating but compulsively watchable film. The minimalism of the film (sparse dialogue, open landscapes, and thin plotting) amplify the extreme violence when it suddenly erupts, which, being a Peckinpah movie, is to say, frequently. James Coburn plays legendary outlaw turned lawman Pat Garrett, and the actor has never looked better on screen; his black brimmed hat and silver hair make Garrett an older man resigned to the fact that he will have to gun down his once-friend Billy the Kid. Kristofferson is less effective in the flashier role of the twenty-something bandit who became infamous a century after his death.
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is still Peckinpah working within his wheelhouse, and his film focuses on the two men of the title and their cat and mouse pursuit, but there is a subtext about the loss of individual freedom, authoritarianism, industrial expansion, and aging. These themes are fairly common in the filmmaker’s other works, and in this narrative, they aren’t a distraction. The rest of the 1970s would be a downward spiral for the legendary director, losing all credibility with the almost abstract Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. This is a soulful western about two remorseful men who know their names will forever be synonymous with one another.
Directed by: Sam Peckinpah
Written by: Rudy Wurlitzer
Starring: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Jaeckel