'If They Move... Kill 'Em!": The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah [Hardcover]

David Weddle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1994

The first major biography of the film director recounts his life and career, from his stint as a script-writer for the television series, "Gunsmoke," in the fifties, through his string of movies, including The Wild Bunch in 1969.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This biography portrays writer-director Peckinpah (1925-1984) as a gifted man at war with Hollywood, his four wives and himself. The signature of a Peckinpah film like The Wild Bunch or Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is an audaciously protracted, viscerally exciting brawl or shootout. The gravity of such carefully crafted sequences stems from their integration into psychologically nuanced narratives and from their moral ambiguity: in Peckinpah's world, even the "best" of men are capable of harrowing and unbidden acts of violence. Such a finely honed moral sense separates Peckinpah from his noisier imitators and speaks to his struggle to reconcile his aesthetic sensibility with the austere machismo he inherited from the unsentimental and self-reliant men in his family. Yet, as film critic and historian Weddle shows, the volatility of the filmmaker's temperament gets the upper hand, hastening his artistic and personal decline.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Known for violent action films such as The Wild Bunch (1969), Peckinpah was dismissed by many critics during his lifetime but is now receiving serious critical attention. The publisher bills this as "the first major biography" of the late writer-director, though many libraries already own Marshall Fine's Bloody Sam (LJ 11/1/91), as well as one or more critical studies. Fine's book is a rather conventional biography, with few surprises; Weddle offers a more vividly written mix of biography and analysis, though on occasion his writing style is too self-consciously hip. In both books, Peckinpah emerges as something of a stereotype: the hard-drinking, womanizing, yet inwardly sensitive hellraiser. Weddle's book is a good choice for libraries that don't already own Fine's book, but only large film collections really need both.
David C. Tucker, DeKalb County P.L., Decatur, Ga.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 8 pages
• Publisher: Grove Pr; 1st edition (September 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802115462
• ISBN-13: 978-0802115461
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,286,504 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tragic examination of the Sam Peckinpah myth, May 11, 2003

By 

Chris K. Wilson "Chris Kent" (Dallas, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: If They Move . . . Kill 'Em!: The Life and TImes of Sam Peckinpah (Paperback)

David Weddle's fine biography of director Sam Peckinpah "If They Move...Kill'em!" is a harrowing book, detailing an extraordinary professional life wrought with alcoholism, drug addiction, rage and eventually paranoia. This book doesn't attempt to brush Peckinpah off the mountain he will forever possess, but it does detail his inspirations, influences and life-long battle with the demons within. Peckinpah was indeed tortured, an Ernest Hemingway or even Jack Kerouac of his time. He was also one heck of an SOB.

As a fan of Peckinpah's extaordinary films, including "The Wild Bunch," "Cross of Iron," "Straw Dogs" and "The Getaway," I was always perplexed by the erratic quality of the films later in his career and his eventual disappearance from the filmmaking scene. I suppose Weddle's work provides an uneasy answer to these questions, and I think his arguments about Peckinpah living the life of the characters he created in his films is valid.

Peckinpah's legend has always overshadowed Peckinpah's work, which is why such underrated jewels as "Noon Wine," "Junior Bonner" and "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" have been overlooked. I appreciate Weddle's attempts at exposing this myth, and revealing the troubled inspirations and obsessions of Peckinpah. I have problems with the way Weddle skims the surface of many of his films, rarely providing much critical insight or interpretation. But to do so would be treading on the groundbreaking territory of Garner Simmons' ultimate work "Peckinpah, A Portrait in Montage." Weddle should be applauded for avoiding areas that perhaps have already been covered.

To support his argument, Weddle ignores films from Peckinpah's resume, and makes several generalizations which are not entirely accurate. As the years go by, curious viewers will eventually realize that "Cross of Iron" was one of his great films, just as they will also begin to appreciate the gritty greatness of "The Getaway." These films will never serve as examples of the eroding talent of Peckinpah. Though I do agree with Weddle that "Bring Me the Head of Alfred Garcia, "The Osterman Weekend" and "Convoy" are hollow shells of a once-great talent.

"If They Move...Kill'Em!" is eye-opening and disturbing. It needed to be written. Many artists who rose to prominence during the 1960s and 1970s suffered a similar Peckinpah fate - cocaine addiction, alcoholism, a life of excess. That he was still able to make his films was a stunning achievement. That he took 10 years and 5 films off of his life (at the very least), is an American tragedy. Weddle has done a good job at revealing a man who not only was his own worst enemy, but who lived the ignoble life of the tortured artist to the extreme. To know Peckinpah the man, is to eventually understand his utterly unique films.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Response, June 16, 2005

By 

MyComa - See all my reviews

This review is from: If They Move . . . Kill 'Em!: The Life and TImes of Sam Peckinpah (Paperback)

If you are interested in a detailed look at Sam Peckinpah's life and work, this book is a great starting point. I was particularly struck by Weddle's descriptions of Sam's creative process. Near the end of the book, the recurring theme of "he was drunk (and/or) high again," gets somewhat stale. But Weddle was only reporting fact. For any Peckinpah fan or even those just finding out about the director, this book is well-worth your time.

Last thing...Sorry, but I have to respond to a previous reviewer J. Austin. You lose all credibility as a reviewer when you criticize a biographer for not knowing enough about his subject when you--yourself--fail to spell the subject's name correctly. Secondly, the author's name is Weddle, not Waddle. Thirdly, Weddle hardly claims that Cross of Iron is embarassing. You quoted one word, "embarassing," and removed the entire context around it. Weddle stated that some scenes in Cross of Iron were embarassing (a result of Peckinpah's erratic behavior and inability to focus for a full day's work), but overall Weddle was complimentary of the film. It was Convoy that Weddle dismissed altogether--something I think all Peckinpah fans would agree with. And finally, Weddle apparently did meet Peckinpah on the set of The Osterman Weekend, as he points out in the introduction to Paul Seydor's The Western Films.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A book that needs some more details, July 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: 'If They Move... Kill 'Em!": The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah (Hardcover)

I always enjoy books on film makers that not only include comments on their films and styles but also some behind the scene type of details, like how director come out with new ideas, things happened during the shooting and etc. This way, you get a whole idea about the real identity of the film maker. David Weddle's book has all that content in a novel like style. You feel like reading a thrilling novel about one of Hollywood's greatest film makers. I personally found Peckinpah as one of the most interesting and original personalities of Hollywood, with his own out-of-cliches style. The book's first prologue section strikes you and grabs you with a fantastic section dedicated on the detaisl about the launch days of "Wild Bunch". It is quite apparent that the author has put a tremendous energy in talking with various sources, who bring a undisputed quality into the book. He (the author) tries to provide a full insight about Peckinpah's insparation points for all of his products. A work of this quality surely deserves author's personal interview with Peckinpah along with what he heard from "others". I am not sure whether he met Peckinpah personally. May be he didn't have an idea that one day he would produce such a book on Peckinpah. That is the first deficient or missing point about the book. What really surprised me great deal is that the author never mention about Peckinpah's greatest inspiration on his late westerns, like Wild Bunch. That is, his relation with famous Italian director Sergio Leone. I have read several anecdotes which say that Leone and Peckinpah were good friends and Peckinpah admired Leone a lot. Many sources say that Leone was his greatest inspiration for his masterpiece, Wild Bunch. Writing such a book on Peckinpah and never saying a word on Leone is surely a major deficiency of this book and, to me, this makes the book's sections on Peckinpah's westerns not quite complete. The author doesn't also mention that Peckinpah once took a role in one Spaghetti Western, called China 9, Liberty 37. The author either doesn't know all this or ignores the reality that Peckinpah was influenced by Leone style westerns. Whether like it or not this is fact and missing in the book. May be some day the author comes out with a new version of the book which include all those details. Then I would rate the book as 10. Let's see until then. The comment written by Cenk KIRAL from Istanbu