Movie: Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
Pat Garrett (James Coburn) 'learned to code' and what did that get him? Sure, when the old ways are dying, and your expertise as an outlaw has diminshing currency, it's tempting to reskill. And make no mistake, getting yourself elected as sheriff has its benefits - a steady income, no jail time, a decent horse. All of that's great, but do you really want to abandon your calling, your trade you've spent your whole life perfecting, to please some men in suits who look down on your craft? These people, they want to create laws, enclosed communities and capitalism and they think that killing men in the service of those ideals is the same as killing men in the service of freedom. They see no dignity in marksmanship, and have developed a written code that makes binary decisions about good and evil for us. We are given the illusion of choice, but the only decision we can really make is when to pull the trigger. Just a matter of time before machines replace us. Pat knows, look at him, he's riding and gunnin' around New Mexico as he always did, but his heart just isn't in it. You can be good at capturing criminals, but if you don't find any meaning or pleasure in it, what's the point?
Peckinpah directs as if he'll never again be allowed to make, or even see, a classic western, luxuriating in all the signposts we've come to associate with the genre, but above all in the freedom to roam and travel across the widespread landscapes. In one of the many lyrical moments, Pat Garrett is sitting by a river bank when a makeshift boat slowly passes by, its passengers shooting at objects they throw in the water. It's by our standards an entirely idiotic and dangerous activity that serves no purpose, but is saluted by Pat, who signs his approval by taking his own shot It's of course on the mark, leading to Pat and his counterpart on the boat pointing guns at each other. The two men will likely never see each other again, going their own way in the wilderness, capturing exactly why the film repeatedly laments the rise of bordered settlements and towns where people have to act in ways that are compatible with the norms imposed by authorities. Pat Garrett has accepted that this transformation can't be stopped and has decided to adapt to it. As a result, he spends most of the film in misery, unlike Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) who has decided to be an outlaw until the bitter end. He knows this might mean an early death, but he'd rather be happy, and Kristofferson's roguish smile never disappears.
The movie is ostensibly about Pat Garrett's pursuit of Billy the Kid, but neither Pat nor Billy is too obsessed with the outcome of said pursuit.The sherriff only does the job out of obligation, while for Billy the action is the juice. He knows that his adventures will come to an end sooner rather than later anyway, and part of him would rather be killed by his old friend than by someone else. Peckinpah is above all interested in exploring these contrasting attitudes to the changing world, and all the various colorful characters we meet along the way. This approach does mean that the film sometimes becomes a bit too leisurely, but every time it risks dragging. it steers into a funny, tense and/or eccentric moment. It helps too that it is filled with great character actors (that doesn't include Bob Dylan. His soundtrack is wonderfully melancholic, but as an actor he seems completely out of place, unable to adapt to the film's tone, style or period) who need only very little time to create highly specific and distinct personalities, which allows Peckinpah to build the film's most iconic moment around Slim Pickens' who is barely 5 minutes on screen before knockin' on heaven's door. That scene is also one of the few instances where the film swaps its standard western imagery for a dreamier, painterly look underscoring how futile it is to sacrifice such beauty for the pursuit of Billy.
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