Peckinpah's Tragic Westerns: A Critical Study (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Peckinpah's Tragic Westerns: A Critical Study Leonard Engel Peckinpah's Tragic Westerns: A Critical Study. By John L. Simons and Robert Merrill. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2011. 232 pages, $40.00. Do we need another book on Sam Peckinpah? A resounding "Yes" if it is as original and provocative as Peckinpah's Tragic Westerns is. None of the previous books on Peckinpah has focused so intensely on tragic action, specifically, on "the tragically irreversible nature of time" in his films (1). Concentrating on five Westerns and acknowledging how each is different from the others, John Simons and Robert Merrill define their chief task as honoring and explaining "these differences even as we pursued the features which make our five tragic Westerns tragic" (1). This is a novel approach. Excellent studies of Peckinpah's Westerns have been made by Jim Kitses, Michael Bliss, David Weddle, and Paul Seydor, among others, but none has so closely followed the major characters' pathways to "disastrous ... tragic conclusions" (2). Peckinpah, the authors conclude, "is the only tragedian among the major Western directors" (2); none of them possessed his tragic vision. These are bold statements and, no doubt, will be vigorously debated, but Simons and Merrill provide solid arguments and cogent examples to support their views. While exploring Peckinpah's tragic vision in chapter 1, the authors render an extensive survey in which they discuss the nature of tragic action, from its classical origins to the present, and apply it to well-known and little-known Westerns (this may be the best chapter ever written on the subject). Then in the remaining five chapters they discuss each of Peckinpah's tragic Westerns: Chapter 2—"The Double Vision of Tragedy in Ride the High Country," 3—"Noon Wine: A Tragic Pastoral," 4—"The Tragedy of Love in The Wild Bunch," 5—"Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: The Tragedy of Pat Garrett," and 6—"Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia: The Revenger's Tragedy." Time and space do not permit comment on each of these chapters, but a brief word about chapter 5 is necessary. In addition to providing a thorough analysis of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, including extensive comment on the various versions that have appeared since the theatrical release in 1973, Simons and Merrill critique the key elements of the other major Billy the Kid films (especially The Left-Handed Gun, director Arthur Penn, 1958) and show not only how these films influenced Peckinpah, but how he subtly nuanced scenes and dialogue to achieve his own artistic designs. This chapter is an amazing tour de force in film criticism. As Peckinpah's admirers know, most of his films have engendered controversy, some of it volatile (recall Pauline Kael's famous statement in a New Yorker review about fascism in Straw Dogs [1971]: "the first American film that is a fascist work of art" [vol. 47, no. 50, January 29, 1972, p. 84]), but the three films examined in the latter three chapters, Wild Bunch [End Page 224] (1969), Pat Garrett, and Bring Me the Head (1974), have also been at the storm center of heated debate on numerous occasions. In their penetrating analysis and meticulous research, Simons and Merrill integrate their own incisive exploration with the major issues raised by critics, and they also provide a valuable guide to the filming and postproduction of the films. Anyone wishing to learn about the various versions of each film, the cuts made, the material restored, followed by more cuts, and then more restorations (and, of course, the interminable battles Peckinpah had with the Hollywood money men) need go no farther. It's all here: in the discussion and in the many footnotes—a masterly piece of research, rendered in highly readable prose. Paul Seydor is probably the foremost scholar of Peckinpah, the one who has written most extensively, persuasively, and passionately about his Westerns. In their examination of the nature of tragic action and the tragic hero, Simons and Merrill have gone beyond Seydor; their analyses have opened up these five films and have provided new, in some cases stunning, insights. They have helped us see and understand how Peckinpah "transformed" the...