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Ballad of Cable Hogue [VHS]

Starring: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens Director: Sam Peckinpah Rating: R (Restricted) Format: VHS Tape

4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Actors: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin, Slim Pickens
Directors: Sam Peckinpah
Writers: Gordon T. Dawson, Edmund Penney, John Crawford
Producers: Sam Peckinpah, Gordon T. Dawson, Phil Feldman, William D. Faralla
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Language: English
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number of tapes: 1
Studio: Warner Home Video
VHS Release Date: August 2, 1993
Run Time: 121 minutes

Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)

ASIN: B000006FNL
Amazon.com Sales Rank: #14,078 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)
Popular in these categories: (What's this?)
#4 in Video > Westerns > Western Directors > Sam Peckinpah
#40 in Video > Westerns > Comedy
#67 in Video > Westerns > Action & Adventure

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video
What does it tell us that Sam Peckinpah's most joyous and life-affirming movie is also his most underappreciated? The Ballad of Cable Hogue was made in that singular moment when, having just completed The Wild Bunch, Peckinpah knew he was back in the game as a feature-film director; and before anyone (including Peckinpah himself?) had an inkling of how completely he was about to redefine the Western genre, contemporary American filmmaking, and his own personal legend.

Cable Hogue is a splendiferous entertainment: a grufty Western tall tale, a lusty comedy, and also (in critic Kathleen Murphy's phrase) "a musical about the economic and emotional complexities of capitalism." Its title character--Jason Robards in a great, exuberant gift of a performance--is an ornery varmint left by two scurrilous partners (L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin) to die in the desert. Through pure cussedness and what may be dumb luck, may be divine intervention, he "finds water where it wasn't" and survives. Nothing to do now but settle back, let his waterhole--the only one on the stage line between Deaddog and Gila--make him a rich man, and await the day those two old partners drop by his waystation.

Besides such Peckinpah regulars as Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, and Gene Evans, the movie features Stella Stevens in her career-best role as Hildy, Hogue's best reason for getting into town now and again, and David Warner, an itinerant preacher and full-time lech who becomes his soulmate. Lucien Ballard photographed, and there's a charming song score (by Richard Gillis) whose neglect is as mystifying as that of the film. Above all, there is Sam Peckinpah exulting in the lyrical, heart-filling possibilities of making a motion picture, trying just about anything, and finding it beautiful. This film was his personal favorite. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description
Sam Peckinpah's light-hearted, rambunctious ode to the dying Wild West, with Jason Robards as a rascally prospector who transforms a desert water-hole into big business. Year: 1970 Director: Sam Peckinpah Starring: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner

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Customer Reviews

34 Reviews

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

Average Customer Review

4.4 out of 5 stars (34 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buried Treasure, June 21, 2006

By	Theo Logos (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Ballad of Cable Hogue (DVD)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue is buried treasure - an outstanding film by a legendary director with brilliant performances that is still little known and rarely seen. Sam Peckinpah made it just months after his groundbreaking film, The Wild Bunch, and both films deal with the same topic - the end of the western frontier, although in radically different ways. While The Wild Bunch is a violently realistic film about a breed of western gunmen who had outlived their day, The Ballad of Cable Hogue is a stylized fable, by turn tender, dark, comic, and tragic that depicts the last days of another sort of western archetypal man. It may be that the film's resistance to easy categorization (is it a comedy? a tragic love story? a morality tale of revenge? a musical?) is responsible for its continued obscurity, but I find it an element of its greatness, and concur with Peckinpah, who characterized the film as part Keystone Cops, part Sartre's The Fly, and considered it his favorite of all his movies.

There are many reasons to love this film, including its stunning scenery of awesome, big sky desert landscapes, and a unique, lilting soundtrack with songs that become mysteriously etched in your mind. Yet its foremost strength is its brilliant performances from an impressive cast. Jason Robards plays the title role, brilliantly rendering the tough as boot leather yet vulnerable Hogue as charming and totally unforgettable. Stella Stevens delivers the crowning performance of her career as Hildy, a prostitute who aspires to go to San Francisco to become the "ladiest damn'd lady", yet unaccountably falls in love with the desert rat Hogue. Stevens and Robards together create an utterly believable screen romance that not only crackles with passion, but conveys real depths of caring and emotion. David Warner adds color and comic relief to the story as Josh, a lascivious traveling preacher who becomes side-kick, foil, and nemesis to the no nonsense Hogue. Several great character actors all at the top of their form, including Strother Martin, Slim Pickens, and L.Q. Jones, round out this first rate cast.

This DVD release includes several excellent special features. There is a mini feature called The Ladiest Damn'd Lady: An Afternoon With Actress Stella Stevens, in which Stevens talks about her career, Director Sam Peckinpah (she didn't much like him), and her experiences working on The Ballad of Cable Hogue. Also included are trailer galleries from five Peckinpah movies - Ride the High Country, The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, The Getaway, and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Most importantly, however, is an outstanding commentary track featuring four Peckinpah scholars. Their commentary covers the symbolism and philosophy of the movie, Peckinpah's filming technique, and the movie's relationship to Peckinpah's larger body of work. Unlike many commentary tracks that seem to add little value, this excellent track is both entertaining and useful, and leaves you wanting to watch the movie yet again with the new perspectives you have gained from it.

The Ballad of Cable Hogue is a film that will stick with you, and one you will want to revisit frequently. It is not only my favorite Sam Peckinpah film, it is one of my top five all time favorite Westerns. If your Western collection lacks this quirky gem, it is not yet complete, so go discover it for yourself.

Theo Logos

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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant little gem of a movie., March 1, 2002

By	David J. Gannon (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

Starring Jason Robards & Stella Stevens and Directed by Sam Peckinpah, The Ballad of Cable Hogue is a brilliant little gem of a movie that somehow never made it onto the national radar screen when it was released. A major departure for Peckinpah, whose forte back then was the ultra violent epic-movies like The Wild Bunch and the highly acclaimed Straw Dogs-The Ballad of Cable Hoague tells the tail of a fellow abandoned for dead out in the western desert who is lucky enough to find the equivalent of an oasis and converts the spot into a way station for the pony express and the stage coach runs of the time. Wonderfully acted by Robards as Hoague and Stella Stevens as the nearby town's "working girl" as his romantic interest, the story is in essence a depiction of western life and the characters of the time.

This was a wonderful vehicle for may well know western character actors of the day: It's full of those sort of actor you recognize in an instant and have no idea what their name is. The story is sweet and engaging and the movie is totally devoid of the violence and gore that Peckinpah was famous for at the time.

So, if you are the sort of person who wants a movie to actually tell a story, actually present real characters, and warm your heart-this is definitely a choice you should make. You will not be disappointed.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ten thousand gallons of sand!, January 21, 2006

By	Patrick Dunn (Elko, Nevada United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Ballad of Cable Hogue (DVD)

Another long-awaited Peckinpah DVD, courtesy of the newly-released Peckinpah Westerns collection. Rather than take up space recounting plot, etc, I will focus on the disc. The film looks great, with its widescreen desert vistas, and offers a commentary track that does a lot to boost appreciation for the film as a whole, and for the many contributors to the effort.

In fact, the film plus the commentary are good enough to overcome the unfortunate addition of a weak, rather counter-productive "extra" featuring Stella Stevens. She appears to have loved the film also, and loved working on it, and has kind things to say about her fellow actors. Sam, however, rates only cruel, dismissive insults from the woman, which only comes off the worse for the fact that he isn't around to defend himself. Less interview than monologue - it's just Stella talking, no interviewer, no one to maybe question why, if she found the man so repugnant, did she want so much to work with him on another picture?

While it would have been nice to have a more worthy extra, Sam's poignant desert ballad does quite well on its own.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Not without merit despite juvenile comedy and Peckinpah's misogyny
Confounding expectation, Peckinpah's follow up to "The Wild Bunch" is a broad comedy. The humour is on a pretty juvenile level though and a scene in the middle where a drunken... Read more

Published 9 months ago by Peter Hoogenboom

4.0 out of 5 stars Dying Of Thirst In The Desert? Stop By And See Cable Hogue!!!
I enjoyed The Ballad of Cable Hogue alot. It's quite a wonderful, lesser-known cinematic gem from 1970 and certainly not your typical western, which is a good thing. Read more

Published 10 months ago by M. B. DaVega

4.0 out of 5 stars Great . . . but
As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a feel-good gem (unlike so much of the director's movie work---not TV, though): great cast, great acting, well directed, lovely... Read more

Published 11 months ago by Chris Gibbs

5.0 out of 5 stars Thirsty for a good western? Here it is.
This is a great western. Nontraditional? Yes, but in a good way. The story is a quick tale of revenge and regret. Read more

Published 14 months ago by Dr. Tumbleweed

4.0 out of 5 stars Love Stella Stevens
Oh My; Stella Stevens! How do I love you!? Let me count the ways! Love this film.

Published 15 months ago by David Litsinger

5.0 out of 5 stars My Favorite Peckinpah Western
The Shut Mouth Society
The Shopkeeper

An unusual and great Western--well worth owning

The Ballad of Cable Hogue may seem like a departure for... Read more

Published 16 months ago by J. D. Best, author

5.0 out of 5 stars A Peckinpaugh Keeper

This movie, suddenly became available, as I continue

to add to a completion of Sam Peckinpaugh legends. Read more

Published 20 months ago by Warren Christian II

4.0 out of 5 stars Not really a great film...but it stays with you...
I've always been a big fan of Sam Peckinpah and a bigger fan of Strother Martin so when I ran across this film some years ago on late night television I was hooked. Read more

Published 21 months ago by S. C. Dixon Photography

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Western Love Story
I bought this movie for my husband who loves westerns and he has watched it several times and enjoys it, the more he watches it. He especially loves the music.

Published 22 months ago by S. Lamkin

3.0 out of 5 stars Films don't age well
There are films that are not just movies to me--"The Sound of Music," "The Last Tycoon," "Chariots of Fire," "The Purple Rose of Cairo". . . Read more

Published 22 months ago by The Concise Critic:

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