Saw Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. It was a Sam Peckinpah movie about the death of Billy the Kid at the hands of Pat Garrett. I didn't like it. Filmed in the 70s, this is one of those movies that celebrates the daring individual against the encroaching forces of civilization and capitalism. This is a fine theme and, unlike many other films of the time, it doesn't come at the expense of broader society or some hapless girlfriend. The folks that Billy kills in order to be free, man, are usually maniacs or evil in their own right. No, the thing that sets me off about this film is how tediously violent it is, how plodding and grim, how torturous and lame.
The plot is this: Pat Garrett is a retired outlaw become sheriff. He's been hired or assigned or whatever to bring his old friend Billy the Kid to justice. Pat has the outlaw chops but is clearly a sell-out. He cavorts with prostitutes, commands hired men, and generally carries out his duties in a grim self-loathing way, hating what he's being forced to become in order to capture Billy. Billy meanwhile smiles and smirks and dandles children on his knee, beloved by all, he kills only when he has to, being free and cool and all. All the other characters are filthy, ugly, fat old men who lumber ponderously around the desert, murdering each other. (Oddly Bob Dylan is given a prominent but minor role.)
In fairness to the film, I think I didn't really Get It. It's not really for me, I think. The violence is distasteful, but it's sort of Peckinpah's whole thing, and the theme of living free vs bowing to societal pressures is a theme I've seen before and have been irritated by before (most notably by Five Easy Pieces which I hated.) I think I recognize the universe that this film takes place in as one that has no use for me; one in which I, personally, would be killed by. If life were all just a cynical kill-or-be-killed, I think I'd just lay down and die.
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