Peckinpah’s lyrical (dull) Western with a great cast and Dylan’s music

This was a project that director Sam Peckinpah wanted to fulfill a dozen years earlier with his script for what he called “the definitive Billy the Kid movie” based on Charles Neider’s 1956 novel “The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones,” a fictional treatment of the story, with Stanley Kubrick set to direct. Marlon Brando eventually took over that production to create his outstanding “One-Eyed Jacks” (1961) with Peckinpah not given any writing credit.

In any case, this was a troubled production with the turbulent director struggling with serious alcoholism and only coherent for about four hours a day. Kristofferson got Dylan involved, who was initially enlisted to compose the title song, but eventually wrote the score/soundtrack for the entire film, most notably "Knockin' on Heaven's Door.” The soundtrack album was released seven weeks after the movie’s debut.

It’s very similar in tone and theme to Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch” (1969) with Coburn’s role being almost identical to that of Robert Ryan in that more famous Western. It’s also reminiscent of contemporaneous films like “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “McCabe & Mrs. Miller” and “The Missouri Breaks.” But it’s the least of these because the story is both uninvolving and tedious despite the gory gun slayings every 10 minutes. Like “The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid” from the year prior, it makes the Old West ugly.

Meanwhile Dylan’s one-dimensional folk ditties don’t help in making it compelling, but rather drag it down. I mean no disrespect to the musical icon. His music is fine for what it is; it’s just too static to carry a film like this IMHO.

Peckinpah complained that 15 minutes were cut from his preview version while six editors are credited with the final product. Maybe this is why there’s no drive to the picture. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

On a positive note, Dylan does fine in his acting debut and looks more like the real-life Billy the Kid than Kristofferson, who resembles Jim Morrison. Plus there are some great sequences, like Billy’s 10-step duel with Elam’s character. And you can’t beat the cast, which also includes Rita Coolidge, who was Kristofferson’s girlfriend during shooting and would become his wife for the next seven years.

To see Peckinpah at his Western best I recommend the outstanding “Ride the High Country” (1962) and the unique “The Ballad of Cable Hogue” (1970).

For more entertaining renderings of the Billy the Kid story, check out "Young Guns" & "Young Guns 2" (1988/1990) and John Wayne's "Chisum" (1970).

There are a few cuts of the film: The theatrical version runs 1 hr 46 min, the 1988 restored cut runs 2 hr 2 min and the 2005 Special Edition runs 1 hr 55 min (which is the version I saw). The movie was shot in Durango Mexico, roughly 500 miles due south of the historical locations in New Mexico.