Category: Directed by Sam Peckinpah
-
The Wild Bunch opens with a methodically executed heist slash shootout sequence. Director Peckinpah quickly introduces cast members, partially due to the dramatic plotting, mostly due to Lou Lombardo’s fantastic editing. All juxtaposed with some kids watching ants kill scorpions. The Wild Bunch opens with one heck of a declarative statement. Peckinpah wants to look…
-
Ride the High Country is a fine attempt. It’s not a successful attempt, but it’s a fine one. Director Peckinpah seems to know what he wants to do, but he’s too trapped in Western genre tradition. Having icons Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott as his leads (they’re both great), George Bassman’s intrusive score and Lucien…
-
From the lengthy opening credits to the big action finale, it's always clear sound is important in The Getaway. Editor Robert L. Wolfe does some wonderful transitions with sound foreshadowing the cut and the next scene, but there's something more to it. That something more is the isolation theme running through the film–Steve McQueen starts…
-
Little known fact: the British Tourist Authority actually funded for Straw Dogs. They were sick of Americans moving over. Obviously not true, but it would explain a lot. Not many films have such singularly evil human beings as those portrayed in Straw Dogs, but then few feature such textured evil human beings either. The film’s…
-
Godawful adaptation of Robert Ludlum espionage novel about TV journalist Rutger Hauer (who’s excellent despite not having his accent ironed out to play American white bread) getting recruited to spy on his pals, who may or may not be enemy agents. The film’s a shocking waste of its cast–Burt Lancaster, John Hurt, Dennis Hopper, and…
The Stop Button 