Paul Schrader on Sam Peckinpah

[@NoirFan84]

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia really doesn't get enough love. One of Peckinpah's best.

[@azohundred1353]

Ride The High Country (1962) definitely doesn't get enough love either. To that matter, Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea and their entire cinematic legacies also deserve far more attention than they get nowadays.

[@NoirFan84]

@@azohundred1353 I forgot he did Junior Bonner too until I saw clips in this video. That's an underseen gem.

[@azohundred1353]

@@NoirFan84 Definitely, and one of Steve McQueen's finest performances.

[@m1lst3r89]

​@@NoirFan84nah, it's slow and flaccid and while the protagonist is typical Peckinpah antihero, the movie never makes it to root for him in any way.

[@Njbear7453]

Major Dundee doesn’t get enough love

[@azohundred1353]

On an aesthetic note, Sam Peckinpah deserves the credit for popularizing the Slow-Motion Shootout. Many action movie fans credit John Woo or The Wachowskis but Peckinpah did it first and definitely inspired Woo(by his own words) and many others since then.

[@m1lst3r89]

That actually should be awarded to Kurosawa.

[@azohundred1353]

@@m1lst3r89 Funnily enough, Paul Schrader has said that someone suggested to Peckinpah that "the editing of The Wild Bunch was just as good as any Kurosawa samurai epic." And Peckinpah replied, "I think it's better."

[@azohundred1353]

@@m1lst3r89 For action scenes in general, Kurosawa gets that award, though he didn't accentuate it nearly as much. For slow-motion "shootouts" being popularized, I'd definitely say Peckinpah still. By the way, don't make me choose between Peckinpah and Kurosawa, lol. I like them both too much. I'll just stay neutral and continue being a Howard Hawks and John Ford fan first.

[@fbschilling]

There's a very brief slow motion shot in this sequence from THE LEFT HANDED GUN (1958) directed by Arthur Penn, who would later use slow motion at the end of Bonnie and Clyde: kzbin.info/www/bejne/m3XRnIafhdWMsMksi=3XOBTvm_IPHRMSuG Don't know if Penn had seen Seven Samurai, strongly suspect Peckinpah saw the Penn film @@azohundred1353

[@azohundred1353]

@fbschilling Peckinpah definitely saw Left-Handed-Gun, you could tell even in tv shows like The Rifleman he directed, he wanted to use slow-mo. Then with The Wild Bunch, he probably wanted to top Penn, Leone, and Corbucci, hence the bombastic ending. Peckinpah popularized it though, that's why I was careful not to say he "created" the slow-motion action sequence. As for when I said "doing it first," I meant making action-type movies as a whole more liberally sprinkled with slow-motion shootouts, long before the likes of Woo's A Better Tomorrow, The Matrix, or even an early Michael Mann like Thief (the ending). I'd say this, Kurosawa created the slow-mo action sequence, Penn created the slow-mo shootout, Peckinpah popularized it. (Now watch, we'll find out there was a Raoul Walsh or Fritz Lang shootout we forgot about in the 1940's that was in slow-mo, lol).

[@shoheiimamura4067]

I could listen to Paul speak on film for hours, such a knowledgeable man in the medium.

[@hwstuder]

Have you seen the TAFS episode with him?

[@shoheiimamura4067]

@@hwstuder I did! Very interesting and revealing things said about Hollywood in that one. Nonetheless, still very enjoyable since Paul doesn't seem like a bad guy in person.

[@thomasmacisaac1503]

Ironically, Paul was raised a strict Calvinist and didn't even see a movie until he was in his late teens

[@shoheiimamura4067]

@@thomasmacisaac1503 Yeah, I heard someone say that when describing him. I can't even imagine an early life without films

[@hwstuder]

@@thomasmacisaac1503 yeah, and he’s said it’s because of that he has such an intellectual approach to cinema; he simply doesn’t have any sentimental childhood memories of watching movies.

[@BruceStephan]

All you Quentin Tarantino fans should see a real director like Peckinpah . Its sad , his last work was a music video for Julian Lennon .

[@spinsandneedles]

I give a lot of credit to the actors and stuntmen in Peckinpah's films. Totally committed in what must have seemed to be difficult shoots. Also the armorer and make-up effects.

[@krisscanlon4051]

Schrader...dang this guy got the goods on his man Sam

[@jeremyhopkins577]

He generally has really great insight about movies and is super articulate. Used to hang out with Pauline Kael so perhaps some of that rubbed off on him.

[@WendellDaniels-di5rp]

You should definitely look for Joe Dante recounting on The Movies That Made Me podcast how he went to the press screening of The Wild Bunch in the Bahamas and how celebrities like Yul Brynner walked out on it. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the episode offhand, but it would make a good clip.

[@m1lst3r89]

It was tough to listen to Shrader due to his speech, but I find his takes on Pekinpah very interesting he never was someone I'd name as Pekinpah fan. And he is right. Pekinpah heroes are men you shouldn't root for but he makes them kinda joy to watch (except Alfredo Garcia which was not fun to watch) and I like all of that. He truly was one of rare maverick directors whose movies were solely about men as if he reveled in their flaws and that's pretty ballsy thing to do. I only dislike Peckinpah rather incoherent structure in all of his films which evidently wasn't his strongest suit. If you think Osterman Weekend has loose structure (not that film is impossible to follow) then what to say about his other films? And I repeat; I love Peckinpah

[@classiclife7204]

Peckinpah invented Rooster sauce

[@Njbear7453]

Probably my 2nd favorite director! Major Dundee, Straw Dogs, Wild Bunch, The Getaway, Bring me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.... Cross of Iron, all great Great films.

[@thomasmacisaac1503]

Thank you for lightening up on the Quentin videos. I love a lot of Quentin's movies, but holy shit, sometimes his takes are utterly worthless.

[@brianvail9212]

Peckinpah's weakest films are still better than most movies nowadays.

[@Able406]

Give me Convoy over Fast and the Furious 14 any day

[@Hexon66]

Rubbish. Yes, the stupid Marvel and VFX movies, of course. But there are tons of films being made today better than The Killer Elite and The Osterman Weekend, even though I enjoy those films as well.