If you view the four movies comprising the Sam Peckinpah's Legendary Westerns Collection and don't agree it is the single best collection of western varieties ever . . . well, just as Angel said to the Bunch--as some didn't share his vision that Mexico was more beautiful than Texas crossing the swollen river into his homeland--"You have no eyes."
The Wild Bunch is simply the best real Western ever. Men learn how to be men; how to handle failure with its recognition then laughing the pain away so one can go forward. The idea of loyalty, so missing in modern day bunches, is emphasized here like Pike preaching, "Once you side with a man, you stay with him; otherwise you're just like some animal." And so your modern personal business model has changed . . . Medicare doesn't reimburse enough, commissions are squeezed, selling a book doesn't earn what it used to . . . all of those things are not new. A startling hero of the movie, Edwin O'Brien as Freddie Sykes, remembers at the end whatever you like and want and need to do, "It ain't like it used to be, but it'll do," electrically making it okay to go on and enjoy, the heck with everything else. After this movie, worth every penny of the collection, the rest cost nothing but are perfect attendees to the king of westerns, The Wild Bunch.
Billy Bob Thornton comments in the special features of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, this is his favorite of Peckinpah's Westerns because it is so far out there--way out. The story between the two "friends," James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson, is cut in the Peckinpah way of surprises, twists, and then touching moments interspersed with the harsh realities of the untamed West. You'll never again see anything like this. Leaving the lead character's performances for the moment--Coburn is as menacing a psychopath as Kristofferson's Billy--Richard Jaeckel as Sheriff Kip McKinney "goes loco" with his fundamentalist beliefs trying to redeem Billy's soul before the hanging. Peckinpah's slight of hand in his direction allows the viewer to inhabit the moment as a shotgun loaded with 16 dimes does far more than $1.60 worth of killing. The minor character Donnie Fritts brings to life Beaver who is so unintentionally funny as his lines are repeating what was just said, causing even Garrett so laugh behind clinched teeth over a cigar while he contemplates "tickling (Fritts') private parts" with a bullet.
The entrepreneurial Cable Hogue, the best blue-collar frontiersman hero yet, winning the pretty girl, Stella Stevens' Hildy, with his deep pioneering spirit and fumbling ways, tells a life one comes to see as the way Peckinpah may have viewed his own, even down to the funeral. His conversations with the Lord are a reflection of a religion where Holy Ones are friends, and when you need water, and on about the third day going without, you're going to talk to that friend in a pretty harsh, direct way. ". . . Now about sinnin', you just send me a drop or two (of rain), and I won't do it no more... whatever in hell it was that I did."
L Q Jones calls Ride the High Country the best Saturday matinee, take your girl friend and eat popcorn Western movie ever. There's a love story here and with feeling the viewer sees it develop in a wonderful way even at a dinner she cooks "a fine ham hock; eating Chapter one," in a reference to the strict Biblical father's quoting scripture to squeeze every drop out of happiness. But the powerful story here is of two men, now out-of-date cowboys, aging, and in doing so, refinding their moral compass and friendship of one another. This yields one of the all-time best lines in any movie, a thought that can guide one's life as a goal, an aspiration higher than any other: "All I want is to enter my house justified." View the movie and the special featurette where this notion is discussed . . . you won't be able to forget it.
The box-set cover reflecting a scene from each of the four films also has a side portrait of Peckinpah himself, looking into a camera as his mind saw and interpreted a unique vision of changes in life and how one is left behind in a different era. It is in many respects like any modern times, yet the parable is set in these frontier times, and harsh times lead to some very difficult outcomes. But along the way, all of these characters lived, really lived, a lesson all of us need to remember as we find ourselves becoming politically-correct stiffs. Watching this collection will enhance your life, broaden your horizons, and deepen appreciation of the twisted but brillant creator, Sam Peckinpah.
| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
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November 7, 2017 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $11.99 | $16.60 |
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January 10, 2006 "Please retry" | — | 6 | $45.99 | $17.01 |
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It’s the wrong movie. It’s the 4th season of some show called Mom. I want the movie I paid for and I want it NOW. This is completely UNACCEPTABLE.
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A. W. Wilson
CABLE HOGUE almost Sam's finest hour? DVD from WARNER
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 25, 2019Michael E Payne
Good film, bought the Dvd to replace my video ...
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 2, 2018Amazon Customer
1-time watch
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 27, 2018Jason Parkes
An oddball classic.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 27, 2002
