Editor's Note
Influential director Sam Peckinpah has four of his best movies collected here. THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE: This charming comic western features a winning performance by star Jason Robards as prospector Cable Hogue. Double-crossed and left for dead in the desert, Hogue recovers, finds the only well for miles around, and turns the place into a thriving oasis. Eventually, his treacherous partners return, and Hogue is able to have the revenge he hankers for. An unusual but winning offering from the notoriously violent Peckinpah. PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID: An ex-crony of Billy the Kid is forced to attempt the arrest of the infamous outlaw. His challenge results in a deadly confrontation. RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY: Two grizzled cowhands reminisce about their lively pasts as they travel across dangerous country with a gold shipment they were hired to protect. This is often considered to be Peckinpah's finest film, and its elegiac tone is typical of post-classical westerns. THE WILD BUNCH: As a counterpoint to the heroic horde of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, the aging gunmen of Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece break the very laws of honor that bind them in this bloody and meditative tale of the American West--widely considered to be the self-conscious nail in the coffin of the genre. William Holden, Robert Ryan, and Ernest Borgnine star as the leaders of a grizzled crew of Texan bandits who ride to Mexico, where, one by one, they are unceremoniously slaughtered by a Mexican revolutionary.
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