The impression I got was that Sam Peckinpah wanted out - out from everything. Everything. But to slow the process down he wanted to carve his own tombstone, something that he would be remembered for for all eternity. He seemed unable to settle on a final 'cut' of what he wanted to say and be remembered for/as. Had he accomplished that directly after The Wild Bunch he would have had an impeccable (sort of) epitaph to leave this world but nothing better came his way afterwards. All somebody had to do was tell him that the "All-American boy laughing in the face of Death" thing went out with Jimmy Cagney in th 1940's. I worked with alcoholics and the quickest was to get them to straighten up is to shame them. Maybe Peckinpah would have been a tough client, I'll never know.
I just watched season 1 of "The Rifleman" and I have to say that the 4 Sam Peckinpah episodes are the stand out episodes. Dude is a legend.
Fascinating stuff excellent compliment to the book
The impression I got was that Sam Peckinpah wanted out - out from everything. Everything. But to slow the process down he wanted to carve his own tombstone, something that he would be remembered for for all eternity. He seemed unable to settle on a final 'cut' of what he wanted to say and be remembered for/as. Had he accomplished that directly after The Wild Bunch he would have had an impeccable (sort of) epitaph to leave this world but nothing better came his way afterwards. All somebody had to do was tell him that the "All-American boy laughing in the face of Death" thing went out with Jimmy Cagney in th 1940's. I worked with alcoholics and the quickest was to get them to straighten up is to shame them. Maybe Peckinpah would have been a tough client, I'll never know.
I smoke grass too