Mama, Take this Badge Off of Me:
A Portrait of Peckinpah
They punched him. They kicked him. They hung him out to dry and they left him to die. Time after time. But he fought back and did some hellraising of his own. The unapproved butchered truncated versions of yesterday are being forgotten. Replaced by the heroic restored versions and over time this director is increasingly being recognised as a master of subversion right under the studios nose, leaving his stamp on every piece originally conceived as routine work. Where the Hollywood hack's saw the western as a form to be copied over and over for guaranteed profit, he saw a universal frame within which to place contemporary commentary. The blood of Vietnam oozed across his yellow desert canvas. He was raised by law men and he rebelled against that exploring all the territory the legal system couldn't. To watch his work is to witness Ford's patriotic purism exposed as the work of an ignorant child whilst the shades of morality and the complexities of codes bleed on to the screen. Time is our test and we are our own judge. Once the credits roll, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Cries from behind the camera of, "If they move kill 'em". And that includes you. No audience was ever treated as a passive spectator in this man's movies. If his presentation of violence scares you, it's because he's saying even you possess it. Man is beast and years of evolution has not taken away our primordial instincts. We cannot ignore it, we cannot pretend it's not there, we cannot let it rule us, we must learn how to use it. Ladies and gentlemen, the biggest badass in cinema. Sam Peckinpah.
The Deadly Companions (1961) Fresh out of university, Peckinpah got himself a good gig as Don Siegel's assistant. Hence, why you'll see his name attached to noticeably big projects early on such as the original '50s classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Originally hired as a dialogue coach but taking on greater roles as time went by. On Siegel's recommendation, Peckinpah was able to work on a few of television's hottest western shows like Gunsmoke, Have Gun – Will Travel, The Rifleman and Broken Arrow. However, the show that really established his name was The Westerner, for which he wrote and directed several episodes and garnered great acclaim. During this time he was able to learn from the best, being taught the various slow motion editing techniques that he would later become so recognisable for. After The Westerner was over, its star Brian Keith signed up for The Deadly Companions and who would he suggest for the role of director? You guessed it, Mr Peckinpah. The Deadly Companions would set the tone for Peckinpah's entire career. For his debut he comes up with the most marvellous story about a man who never takes his hat off because he may or may not have been scalped that ends up accidentally shooting a child so he agrees to join the mother in taking the body to be buried next to a grave that may or may not be the boy's father and along the way they form an understanding. Sadly, so much of the picture is destroyed by studio meddling and over involved producers. Against his wishes, the ending was changed to this contrived one that does not fit with the rest of the film and characters betray comments they make in previous acts. Also, the producer wouldn't allow Peckinpah to give direction to the female lead, Maureen O'Hara who was his sister. O'Hara would go on to trash Peckinpah by saying he didn't have a clue what he was doing. I'd go on a rant about how she's not exactly Lauren Bacall (Who is though?) but time will get to her first. This dull prude and party pooper may have been one of the longest serving women of the studio system but in 50 years nobody will care, whereas Sam Peckinpah will be forever on the lips of aspiring filmmakers. Often, what would happen many times in Peckinpah's career is that after the critical beating and box office disappointments, the studio would then invite him back to reedit the movie how he would have originally intended and that is exactly what happened here. Unfortunately, though by the time he was asked to come back for this one, he was long gone and too busy to accept. It's a testament to his abilities that his skills still shine through on the picture. There's these near psychedelic scenes of Native Americans continuously hunting them and when they look for the boy's father's grave there's a real poignancy. Going forwards, Peckinpah decided in future he would always demand full script control to see his vision was not compromised.
1
