The Authentic Death & Contentious Afterlife of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: The Untold Story of Peckinpah's Last Western Film - Softcover

Seydor, Paul

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810130564 ISBN 13: 9780810130562

Publisher: Northwestern University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Long before Sam Peckinpah finished shooting his 1973 Western, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, there was open warfare between him and the studio. In this scrupulously researched new book Paul Seydor reconstructs the riveting history of a brilliant director fighting to preserve an artistic vision while wrestling with his own self?destructive demons. Meticulously comparing the film five extant versions, Seydor documents why none is definitive, including the 2005 Special Edition, for which he served as consultant.

Viewing Peckinpah's last Western from a variety of fresh perspectives, Seydor establishes a nearly direct line from the book Garrett wrote after he killed Billy the Kid to Peckinpah's film ninety-one years later and shows how, even with directors as singular as this one, filmmaking is a collaborative medium. Art, business, history, genius, and ego all collide in this story of a great director navigating the treacherous waters of collaboration, compromise, and commerce to create a flawed but enduringly powerful masterpiece.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Seydor is an Oscar-nominated film editor and a professor in the Dodge College of Film and Media Arts at Chapman University in California, USA. He is the author of Peckinpah: The Western Films - A Reconsideration (1997).

Edition details

• Publisher: Northwestern University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810130564
• ISBN 13: 9780810130562
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 456