Metro Reading

I was first introduced to Sam Peckinpah’s work rather recently (within the past year or so) when I finally sat down and watched Straw Dogs. I was rather underwhelmed, considering the high regard Dogs is held. I expressed my feelings on the HorrorTalk boards, and Chuk, a Peckinpah fan, recommended I watch The Wild Bunch, which I did. While I enjoyed it a little more than Dogs, I still was not grasping why Peckinpah was heralded as a Great American Director.

After discussing with Chuk my feelings on Bunch, he gave me one last movie recommendation — Bring Me the Head of Alfreda Garcia. Chuk said that Garcia would be right up my alley, and if I didn’t like it, he couldn’t help me. Well, I liked it, a lot. But there was something I noticed in Garcia that stuck out in Dogs. Both had rape scenes in which the woman seemed to enjoy being victimized.

I brought this up to Chuk, and he then gave me a book recommendation — “If They Move… Kill ‘Em!”: The Life and Times of Sam Peckinpah. Chuk explained that the book would answer some of my questions. As I’m always buried in books, I threw Kill ‘Em on my wish list over at BookMooch (if you read, and aren’t a member, join).

Kill ‘Em sat in my wish list for a while (apparently no one had it, or no one wanted to give it up), and I was getting to the point where I would have to actually break down and buy it. Fortunately, I was at my local Daedalus book store (a fantastic bookstore, go if you have one near you) scouring their film section, when I came across Bloody Sam: The Life and Films of Sam Peckinpah by Marshall Fine. I figured, what the hell. It was about 7 bucks, 464 pages and I was tired of waiting for Kill ‘Em. This would have to do.

And do it did.

Bloody Sam is a no-holds-barred account of Peckinpah’s life and film career, starting with his family histroy before his birth all the way to just after his death. I didn’t just get an education on his movies, I got an education on the man. This is very important, as I found out why his films, at least the ones I’ve seen to date, seem so incredibly misogynistic. Well, that’s because his mom was such a bitch. Controlling, manipulative and vindictive, it’s quite easy to see why Peckinpah treated women — both on screen and off — the way he did. It certainly doesn’t excuse his actions, but at least I have an understanding why.

The book also breaks down the troubles Peckinpah had with actors, producers, studio execs and crew on each of the films. And, believe me you, most of those troubles were due to Peckinpah’s thickheadedness and overall asshole demeanor. He was an alcoholic through most of his life, and a coke addict almost to the end (these vices most likely contributed to his death at the relative young age of 59, two months shy of his 60th birthday).

Bloody Sam seemingly covers everything about Peckinpah, and has motivated me to check out more of his films, as well as giving the three I’ve already scene another spin. I honestly don’t know if my opinion will change on them — in particular, Straw Dogs — but I’m quite sure I’ll look at them in a different light because of the wealth of information the book provided me with.

I highly, highly recommend this book to anyone who’s a fan of film. Hell, I wasn’t a big fan of Peckinpah, and I completely dug it. Bloody Sam is well written, chock full of tidbits, anecdotes and behind the scenes anarchy (one of my favorites being when Peckinpah pissed off Charlton Heston so bad, he (Heston) came at him with a saber. I’m not a fan of Heston). It pulls no punches, and doesn’t attempt to paint Peckinpah in a glamorous light. And that’s what makes it great. It lays out all of the information in front of you and says, “Hey, this guy might have been an asshole, but look at what he accomplished and think of what he could have accomplished if he was given a little more free reign.”

The question the book leaves you — or at least me — with is: Would Peckinpah had been even bigger, if he wasn’t so damn hard to work with?

I guess we’ll never have the answer to that, but Bloody Sam: The Life and Films of Sam Peckinpah certainly gives you enough information to draw your own conclusions.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 22nd, 2007 at 11:07 pm and is filed under Biography, Non-Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.