Synopses & Reviews
Long before Sam Peckinpah finished shooting his 1973 Western, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, there was open warfare between him and the studio. In this scrupulously researched new book Paul Seydor reconstructs the riveting history of a brilliant director fighting to preserve an artistic vision while wrestling with his own selfand#8209;destructive demons. Meticulously comparing the film five extant versions, Seydor documents why none is definitive, including the 2005 Special Edition, for which he served as consultant. Viewing Peckinpahand#8217;s last Western from a variety of fresh perspectives, Seydor establishes a nearly direct line from the book Garrett wrote after he killed Billy the Kid to Peckinpahand#8217;s film ninety-one years later and shows how, even with directors as singular as this one, filmmaking is a collaborative medium. Art, business, history, genius, and ego all collide in this story of a great director navigating the treacherous waters of collaboration, compromise, and commerce to create a flawed but enduringly powerful masterpiece.
Review
and#8220;This exceptional and engrossing book explores the genesis of a particular film while describing the turmoil in film production that we like to call and#8220;collaboration.and#8221; I cannot call to mind another book that is so illuminating on the great variety of pressures on a film idea that begins in the writing and the shooting, but may climax in the internecine warfare that carries the footage to the screen. In addition, we get a rich portrait--as good as has been achieved--of Peckinpah, the unruly genius who made many enemies but reserved first place on that team for himself.and#8221; and#8212;David Thomson
Review
and#160;and#8220;Sam Peckinpah was a brilliant and self-destructive cinematic poet, and no one has studied his work more thoroughly than Paul Seydor. This book is an intimate and haunting portrait of the artist and his last Western, and it is a must-read for those who care about Peckinpah and the genre.and#8221;and#8212;Glenn Frankel, author of
The Searchers: The Making of an American LegendReview
and#8220;In Paul Seydorand#8217;s fascinating book on Peckinpahand#8217;s classic, we discover how a fastidious novelist, a maverick screenwriter, and a genius filmmaker all drew from and reshaped the Kidand#8217;s legend, the end result being the best Billy the Kid movie ever made.and#8221;and#160; and#8212;Mark Lee Gardner, author of To Hell on a Fast Horse: Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and the Epic Chase to Justice in the Old West
Synopsis
Paul Seydor, film scholar and editor of the most recent cut of Sam Peckinpahand#39;s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, offers a comprehensive account of this brilliant directorand#39;s most controversial film.
About the Author
Paul Seydor is an Oscar-nominated film editor and a professor in Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in California. He is the author of Peckinpah: The Western Filmsandmdash;A Reconsideration (1997).