In a time when the most popular American Westerns were more like pulp, filmmaker Sam Peckinpah made Westerns that had a sense of immediacy and influence that set them apart.
In his new book, The Authentic Death and Contentious Afterlife of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: The Untold Story of Peckinpah's Last Western Film, writer/editor Paul Seydor takes a closer look at this fabled film, examining what makes it so haunting over 40 years after it was made, and why Peckinpah's greatest films are the ones that are somehow incomplete.
Photo: Samantha Rose Seydor