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I think it was Pauline Kael that called Straw Dogs the first fascist American film. She said something similar about Dirty Harry as well.

"Cross of Iron" is one the best films ever made, I have to watch it every couple of months.



And "Convoy" is pretty good as well.

I think Cross of Iron is resolutely anti-fascist and Convoy is great socialist action film.

connor wrote:I think it was Pauline Kael that called Straw Dogs the first fascist American film. She said something similar about Dirty Harry as well.

She said something similar about Clockwork Orange. Kael, while lauded by other critics, was, in my opinion, a pretty shitty movie critic. I haven't read any of her books, or any long essays, but her movie reviews were often vague and overly nitpicky, as if films were a series of parts instead of a whole. I always got the impression she wasn't a big fan of movies. And after all her slams of a lot of great films, she latches on to Brian fucking DePalma? Seriously? Pauline Kael-crap.

Straw Dogs is a great movie. The Wild Bunch is a great movie. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia is a great movie. Not crap.

(I think Kael and Peckinpah were actually friends, though. On the Straw Dogs DVD from Criterion, he praises her reviewing.)

There's a couple of great anecdotes about Peckinpah in David Weddle's (excellent) book about him. The ones that stick out for me are when at the age of five he charged down his tough-as-old-boots grandfather with a pitchfork, and later in his life, when his home was on fire, he got his wife and kids safely out, then returned to the blazing house and rescued his scripts (rather than the litter of kittens in there, that perished).

Sam Peckinpah's films capture the essence of violence as seldom others do. Not Crap with a bullet.

(Also I urge people to check out Ride The High Country, one of his early westerns. It's sad and great, a definite prototype for The Wild Bunch.)

In my mind, the only time Sam Peckinpah would cry is on the toilet.

NOT CRAP!

I also read a story about Charleton Heston threatening Peckinpah with a calvary saber.

I've been meaning to see Bring Me the Head... for some time now, but I get the feeling it's out of print. Hopefully Criterion will take care of this.

Pretty much agreed on Kael. Wasn't she the one who noticed the similarities between the infamous Nazi documentary (Triumph of Will?) and the award ceremony at the end of Star Wars? I'm sure most of you know this, but George Lucas named the skull-faced General Kael in Willow after Pauline herself.

Wild Bunch
Bring Me the Head
Getaway
Straw Dogs
Ride the High Country

All very good to great films. Normally I would be turned off by a fellow who graphically confuses rape with good sex, but Peck knew how to put such ambivalence into contexts which made the resultant ill ease instructive. Plus I like tits and blood.

"Bring Me The Head..." has America's greatest actor (duh, Warren Oates) giving arguably the greatest performance of his career. Kris Kristofferson plays a creepy rapist hippie w/a little mushroom patch sewn on to his vest. This movie is as NOT CRAP as it gets.

(A lot of great movies aren't on DVD. I found out yesterday that John Huston's brilliant "Wise Blood" is not on DVD. Wtf? For real, Wtf?)

And yes, "Wild Bunch." And yes, "Straw Dogs." Sure, yeah. I even think "Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid" is good.

I have a bad feeling that SP is somehow responsible for Tarantino, though.

N/C

Angus Jung wrote:I have a bad feeling that SP is somehow responsible for Tarantino, though.

Sam Fuller maybe, I remember seeing Tarantino interview him. He seemed to worship him, but then he is overenthuastic about everything.

i like pauline kael. if you read the review of straw dogs, she actually liked the film; she doesn't agree with peckinpah's moral vision and ideas about masculinity. i don't, either.