Hello!

Here I am, linking to an article I don’t like. I don’t think it reads as if written by AI; I just don’t agree with much of anything in it. It’s about Sam Peckinpah, with his personality and career spun to create an attractive image for a site called ‘Drunkard.’

The first tip-off is all the strange misinformation. Ride the High Country was Mr. P’s first feature?  It won three Oscar nominations?   I can generate plenty of sincere praise for some of Peckinpah’s films, but the phrase ‘he directed a handful of this country’s finest motion pictures’ doesn’t resonate. ‘He changed the way movies were written?’  I don’t think so.

‘Born and raised in the quiet suburbs of Northern California‘  After reading about Sam’s upbringing in ranch houses in historical mining country, that doesn’t sound right.

The text wants to elevate Peckinpah’s status by the fact that he was a big drinker, that his rough language made him cool. The author assures us that most criticism of Peckinpah is wrong, including that by his key biographers. For my money all four books by the Peckinpah bio posse paint strong, well-considered portraits of a very problematic artist. Ah the joys of drunken escapades in the California mountains. The joy of a movie sequence without dialogue or music, where bandits finish that last bottle of whiskey before going out to fight. Booze and guns, what could be better?

According to the author, evil studio executives sabotaged Peckinpah’s career, which made Sam’s outrageous behavior logical and appropriate. The examples in the article stroke Sam’s legend; the stories I heard first-hand from film crew people make one want to never meet the man.

The article builds on the fan opinion of Peckinpah, seeing his rebellion as justified and his self-destruction as somehow glorious. I agree that he’s a legend, but the glorious part escapes me. Admittedly, some of my favorite movies were made by very flawed people. Here’s to them.

Joe Dante just offered up this link … it’s like a much-needed public service message.

As a kid I lived on big Air Bases with multiple theaters one could walk to, or in a small city with a variety of theaters. But when I visited my grandmother in Henderson, Nevada, I saw the small-town theater experience — a little, clean family business with good projection and a grateful clientele. I saw  Hercules in the Haunted World there, my second exposure to a director whose name I would learn years later.

Rustin Thompson uploaded this little film, which is a movie trailer but doesn’t play like one. It’s only a couple of minutes long but it really makes one feel sorry for today’s kids. Nothing was better than wishing and hoping for Saturday, and the experience of a matinee in a real movie house.

Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson