I recently read the Weddle (Widdle?) bio of S.P., and, yeah, the decline was horrifically sad. There were still flashes of brilliance at the end (some of the stuff in THE KILLER ELITE is almost as good as Pauline Kael thought it was, for example, and ALFREDO GARCIA is some kind of shambling, monsterous masterpiece), but flashes aside, I don't think he ever recovered after PAT GARRETT (which has it's own enormous problems, though I've never seen the longer version).

He really was his own worst enemy, but he also seemed to have plenty of help.

I think I said this before, but I loved that issue of THE HIGH HAT.

Yeah, the Weddle bio was great. The Seydor book is also worth reading, too, if you have the time & interest. The Fine book is sorta redundant after reading the other two, though.

ALFREDO GARCIA is some kind of shambling, monsterous masterpiece

Damn straight. That movie is brilliant.

I don't think he ever recovered after PAT GARRETT (which has it's own enormous problems, though I've never seen the longer version

I have a VHS copy of the supposedly perfect Laserdisc, which is occasionally brilliant but heavily weighed down by its existential angst. The framing device, in which an older Garrett is shot by the same land interest with whom he colluded to bring down Billy, works better than the versions without it.

He really was his own worst enemy, but he also seemed to have plenty of help.

Oh yeah. Everyone thought that was just Sam being Sam. He sounds like a miserable fuckhead to me, but I didn't know the guy; I merely admire him from afar.

I think I said this before, but I loved that issue of THE HIGH HAT.

Thanks! We've been talking about pitching it as a book with expanded entries and such, but I'm really not sure how to undertake such a venture and have no time for it right now.

Serial here, but just to toot my own horn, a guy who runs a site on Taoism loved my article on Junior Bonner. He emailed me that he's since watched it and now considers it one of his favorite movies. That's the thing about Peckinpah -- people think about his raw, violent, explode-the-macho movies and forget how much pure sweetness he was capable of. My wife, who does not love Mr. Peckinpah, no, recently watched Cable Hogue with me and loved the hell out of it.

My wife, who does not love Mr. Peckinpah, no, recently watched Cable Hogue with me and loved the hell out of it.

The imminent release of MAJOR DUNDEE has me hoping that maybe CABLE HOGUE and PAT GARRETT will follow, but who knows.

It's a crime that they aren't available, let alone that Ride the High Country, which is almost the equal of The Wild Bunch, is only available as a pan-and-scan VHS. And Noon Wine, because it appeared on tv, is completely unavailable to the general public. Someone's asleep at the wheel at Criterion.

And Noon Wine, because it appeared on tv, is completely unavailable to the general public.

Aren't there only like two or three copies of that in existence, and two of them are in national archives (Libarary of Congress being one, I think)?

I think two are in national archives, one is owned by CBS (or is it NBC?), and one is in the possession of the Peckinpah estate. It's the last one that I think Criterion should release as an extra. I think both Weddle and Seydor had access to it for stills in their books.

Hey, a buddy sent me a copy of The Westerner episode "Jeff" (written and directed by Peckinpah) in which the hero encounters a former sweetheart working as a prostitute in a seedy border brothel, and she eventually refuses to leave with him, telling him that she actually loves her sad, miserable life. Warren Oates plays a drunk layabout. Lovely, bleak stuff. It wouldn't be out of place as a Deadwood plot, and it's a wonder that it aired on tv back in the '60s.

Warren Oates plays a drunk layabout.

Heh. Outside of STRIPES, BLUE THUNDER and DILLINGER, when didn't he? Mostly kidding, but boy talk about your early type-casting.

Still, part of me will always think of Warren Oates as "our big toe".

Heh. Outside of STRIPES, BLUE THUNDER and DILLINGER, when didn't he? Mostly kidding, but boy talk about your early type-casting.

Sometimes he played a coked-out layabout. And sometimes an existential cockfighter. Who's also drunk. And lazy. Must be something about that face.

but boy talk about your early type-casting

Can anyone say, "R. Lee Ermey"?