Sam Peckinpah

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David Samuel Peckinpah (1921 – December 28, 1984) was an American film producer and screenwriter who rose to fame after the release of the Western epic The Wild Bunch (1969).

He was known for his graphically innovative and clear representation of action and brutality as well as his revisionist approach to the Western culture. Peckinpah's films often explore values and ideals, as well as human society's deception and violence.

His characters are often loners or losers who want to be respected, but they are eventually obliged to compromise in order to survive in a world of nihilism and brutality.

Due to the violence in his films, he was given the name "Bloody Sam." Peckinpah's unashamed personality, as shown by years of alcohol and opioid use, had a major influence on his work.

Many of his films were criticized for behind-the-scenes confrontations with writers and crew members, affecting his image and career throughout his lifetime.

Some of his films, including Major Dundee (1965), Straw Dogs (1971), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), and Cross of Iron (1978), are controversial.

Life

David Samuel Peckinpah was born in Fresno, California, where he attended both grammar school and high school in 1929. Denver Charles, his elder brother, was born in 1960 (1916-1996). On their grandfather's ranch, he spent a lot of time skipping classes with his brother to participate in cowboy activities, including trapping, branding, and shooting. During the 1930s and 1940s, Coarsegold and Bass Lake were still populated with descendants of the miners and ranchers of the 19th century. Many of these descendants were employed on the Church's farm. It was a rural area experiencing significant changes at the time, and this exposure is believed to have influenced Peckinpah's Western films later in life.

While at Fresno High School, he competed on the junior varsity football team, but his parents were forced to enroll him in the San Rafael Military Academy for his senior year due to frequent combat and discipline issues.

He joined the United States Marine Corps in 1943. Following World War II, his battalion was sent to China with the job of disarming Japanese troops and repatriating them. Although his service did not include combat, he claimed to have witnessed acts of war between Chinese and Japanese troops. Several acts of torture and the murder of a labourer by sniper fire were among those that were described by friends. The American Marines were not allowed to interfere. Peckinpah was also wounded during a Communist attack. During his remaining weeks as a Marine, he applied for discharge in Peking, so he could marry a local woman, but was refused. Peckinpah's experiences in China are said to have greatly affected him, and may have inspired his portrayals of violence in his films.

He attended Fresno State University, where he studied history after being dissatisfied with Los Angeles. He met and married Marie Selland, his first wife, when he was a student. Selland introduced Peckinpah to the theater department, and he became interested in directing for the first time as a drama major. He adapted and produced a one-hour version of Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie during his senior year.

Peckinpah first graduated from high school in 1948 and pursued graduate studies in drama at the University of Southern California. He spent two seasons as the director of residence at Huntington Park Civic Theatre in Los Angeles before obtaining his master's degree. Peckinpah was asked to remain a year longer, but he began working as a stagehand at KLAC-TV in the hopes that television experience would lead to film work. Peckinpah was displaying a persistent streak even earlier in his career. He was apparently kicked off the set of The Liberace Show for not wearing a tie, and he refused to cue a car salesman during a live stream because of his attitude against stagehands.

Peckinpah was hired as a dialogue coach for the film Riot in Cell Block 11, 1954. Don Siegel's job required him to act as an assistant. Folsom Prison was shot on location. The warden, according to reports, was reluctant to allow the filmmakers to work at the prison until he was admitted to Peckinpah. The warden knew of his wealthy cousins from Fresno and was immediately helpful. Siegel's location work and his use of actual prisoners as extras in the film made a lasting impression on Peckinpah. Private Hell 36 (1954), An Annapolis Tale (1955), and co-starring L. Q. Jones), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) and Crime in the Streets (1956).

Peckinpah appeared in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a sequel to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. It became one of the 1950s' most highly praised science fiction films. Peckinpah's screenplay was reportedly updated extensively, a claim that is still tense.

Peckinpah was influenced by alcoholism and, later, other forms of heroin use throughout his adult life. He suffered from mental illness, possibly malevolent anxiety, or paranoia, according to some. When he was stationed in China while serving in China, it is believed his drinking disorder began during his military service when he frequented Tianjin and Beijing. Bego Palacios, a Mexican actress, married divorcing Selland, the mother of his first four children, in 1960. They married on three separate occasions over the years as a result of a turbulent marriage. They had one daughter together when they arrived. His personality is said to have swung between a sweet, softly spoken artistic disposition, and bouts of rage and violence, during which he verbally and physically assaulted himself and others. Peckinpah, a veteran hunter, was captivated by firearms and was known to shoot the mirrors in his house while downing alcohol, an image that appears in many of his films.

Peckinpah's fame as a hard-living brute with a flair for violence, which was inspired by the imagery in his most popular films and in some ways perpetuated by himself, contributed to his artistic legacy. This does a disservice to a man who was actually more complex than was expected, according to his relatives and family members. In several of his films, Warren Oates, L. Q. Jones, R. G. Armstrong, Ben Johnson, Kris Kristofferson, and Martin Kristofferson all appeared, and several of his associates and employees stayed by him to the end of his life.

After his marriage to Palacios, Peckinpah spent a majority of his time in Mexico before buying a house in the country. He was fascinated by Mexico's lifestyle and Mexican history, and he often portrayed it with a strange sense of realism and romanticism in his films. Major Dundee (1965), The Wild Bunch (1969), Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973), and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) were shot entirely on location in Mexico, while The Getaway (1972) concludes with a couple escaping to freedom there.

Peckinpah lived at the Murray Hotel in Livingston, Montana, from 1979 to his death. During his remaining years, Peckinpah was seriously ill, as a lifetime of hard living caught up with him. Despite this, he continued to work until the end of his months. At age 59 in Inglewood, California, he died of heart disease at age 59. He was writing on the script for On the Rocks, a forthcoming independent film shot in San Francisco at the time.

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Television career

Peckinpah established himself during the late 1950s as a scriptwriter of western series of the period, including Gunsmoke, Broken Arrow, Klondike, The Rifleman, and Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre, the latter four Star Television productions, following Don Siegel's advice. For the CBS series Trackdown, he wrote one episode "The Town" (December 13, 1957).

Peckinpah penned a screenplay from his book The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones, a draft that developed to the 1961 Marlon Brando film One-Eyed Jacks. His writing led to his production of a 1958 episode of Broken Arrow (which was largely credited as his first official directing role) and several 1960 episodes of Klondike (co-starring James Coburn, L. Q. Jones, Ralph Taeger, Joi Lansing, and Mari Blanchard). Mr. Adams and Eve, starring Howard Duff and Ida Lupino, was also directed by Mr. Adams and Eve on CBS.

Peckinpah wrote a script for Gunsmoke in 1958 that was rejected due to content. He reworked the screenplay, titled The Sharpshooter, and sold it to Zane Grey Theater. The episode sparked a lot of attention and became The Rifleman, starring Chuck Connors. Peckinpah produced four episodes of the series (with guest stars R. G. Armstrong and Warren Oates), but they were forced to leave early in the first year. The Rifleman appeared in syndication for five seasons and earned enduring success.

During this period, he also created the television series The Westerner for Four Star Television, starring Brian Keith and John Dehner in three episodes. Peckinpah created and directed a pilot named Trouble at Tres Cruzes, which appeared on March 1959 before the actual series was produced in 1960. Peckinpah acted as the series's producer, assassinating each episode and directing five of them. The show lasted for only 13 episodes before cancellation, owing to its gritty content describing the drifting, laconic cowboy Dave Blassingame (Brian Keith). Jeff and Hand on the Gun are particularly noteworthy in their depiction of gun control and their imaginative directing, forerunners of his later Hollywood films. Despite the fact that Peckinpah was shortlisted for Best Filmed Series by the Producers Guild of America, The Westerner and Peckinpah were nominated by the Producers Guild of America for Best Filmed Series. A segment of the series that would later be used as the basis for Tom Gries' 1968 film Will Penny starring Charlton Heston. The Westerner, who has since acquired cult status, has firmly established Peckinpah as a natural performer.

Peckinpah conducted two hour-long episodes for The Dick Powell Theater in 1962. The Losers, an updated remake of The Westerner set in the present day starring Lee Marvin and Keenan Wynn, combines slow motion, fast motion, and stills together to convey violence in Dehner's character Bergundy Smith, a process that was first introduced in 1969s The Wild Bunch.

Early film career

In the 1961 Western film The Deadly Companions, Brian Keith was cast as the male lead. He suggested Peckinpah as the project's producer, and Peckinpah accepted the proposal. The low-budget film shot in Arizona was a learning process for Peckinpah, who rivald with Fitzsimons (brother of the film's star Maud O'Hara) over the screenplay and staging of the scenes. Fitzsimons, according to reports, refused to allow Peckinpah to lead O'Hara. Peckinpah promised not to rewrite the screenplay or edit the image unless he had script control. The Deadly Companions went through the Deadly Companions without notice, and Peckinpah's films are the least well known of Peckinpah's.

Ride the High Country (1962), his second film, was based on the screenplay Guns in the Afternoon, written by N.B. Richard Lyons, a producer, praised Peckinpah's work on The Westerner and gave him the opportunity to direct him. Peckinpah completed a comprehensive rewrite of the screenplay, including personal accounts from his own childhood growing up on Denver Church's ranch and even naming one of the mining towns "Coarsegold." He based Steve Judd, a once-famous lawman who died on a hard time on his own father, David Peckinpah, on his own father, Steve Judd. Judd and his long friend Gil Westrum are hired to carry gold from a mining community through a volatile area. Westrum is hoping to convince Judd that they should keep the gold for themselves. Westrum gradually realizes that his own self-respect is much more significant than profit, following Judd's example. Judd is fatally wounded during the final shootout, when Judd and Westrum stand up to a trio of men, but his death is Westrum's salvation, a Catholic tragedy weavened from the fabric of the Western genre. In several Peckinpah's later films, this sort of repentance became a major theme. Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, the two leading Western actors in their final big screen roles, went unnoticed in the United States, but it was a huge success in Europe. Foreign commentators applauded Federico Fellini's 812 for first prize at the Belgium Film Festival as a brilliant reworking of the Western genre. Peckinpah's unexpected Western was also reviewed by New York reviewers, with Newsweek naming Ride the High Country the best film of the year and Time naming it on its ten-best list. The film is lauded by some commentators as one of Peckinpah's finest productions.

Major Dundee (1965), Peckinpah's first film in the city's many uninsured collaborations with the major studios that funded his productions, was Peckinpah's next film. Charlton Heston, who was based on a screenplay by Harry Julian Fink, was the film. After Heston watched producer Jerry Bresler's private screening of Ride the High Country, Peckinpah was hired as director. "I'd like to work with you," Heston liked the film and named Peckinpah. Major Dundee, the Union cavalry officer who heads a New Mexico outpost of Confederate prisoners, was the subject of the sprawling screenplay. Dundee, a rebel Confederate veteran, black Federal soldiers, and more traditional Western troops, assembles a makeshift army after the Indians after the Apache war chief wipes out a company and kidnaps several children. Dundee becomes fixated on his quest and leads his exhausted men in tow deep into Mexico's wilderness.

Peckinpah chose several remote locations in Mexico, causing the film to go overbudget. Peckinpah reportedly drank heavily each night after the shooting, despite being overwhelmed by the project's size and scope. At least 15 crew members were also shot by the captain. Peckinpah's mean streak and sarcasticity towards the actors angered Heston, that the normally well-tempered actor threatened to run the director through with his cavalry saber if he did not show more courtesy to the cast. With Peckinpah and producer Bresler no longer on speaking terms, shootings were 15 days behind schedule and $1.5 million more than budgeted. Peckinpah's career was largely reedited after the film, which stressed Peckinpah's themes and sequences, was largely removed from him. Big Dundee produced poorly at the box office and was sluggish by critics (although its reputation has increased over the years). Peckinpah maintained, but his reputation was shattered throughout his life, but his first version of Major Dundee was one of his best films, but his fame was seriously harmed.

Peckinpah was elected to direct The Cincinnati Kid, a gambling drama about a teenage prodigy facing an old master in a big New Orleans poker match. Martin Ransohoff, a producer, began receiving phone calls about the Major Dundee ordeal, and was told that Peckinpah was impossible to work with before filming began. Peckinpah chose black and white to turn the screenplay into a social realist saga about a young boy who was surviving the Great Depression's tough streets. Ransohoff hated the rushes and immediately dismissed him after four days of filming, which included some nude scenes. The film was later directed by Norman Jewison and starring Steve McQueen, and it went on to become a 1965 hit.

Peckinpah had a lucky break in 1966 when producer Daniel Melnick needed a writer and director to rewrite Katherine Anne Porter's short story "Noon Wine for television. Melnick was a huge fan of The Westerner and Ride the High Country, and he had learned Peckinpah had been unfairly fired from The Cincinnati Kid. Melnick recruited Peckinpah and gave him free rein in spite of several industry resistances. Peckinpah's script was completed, which Porter enthusiastically accepted, and ABC Stage 67's project became an hour long presentation.

Noon Wine, a dark tragedy involving a farmer's act of futile murder that leads to suicide, took place in West Texas at the turn of the century. The film starring Jason Robards and Olivia de Havilland was a critical success, with Peckinpah named by the Writers Guild for Outstanding Television Adaptation and the Directors Guild of America for Best Television Direction. Robards owned a personal copy of the film in his private collection for years as he regarded it as one of his most rewarding career experiences. Noon Wine, a rare film that didn't get a home video release until 2014, is today considered one of Peckinpah's most intimate works, revealing his unique ability and artistic depth.

Later career

Peckinpah's life and career began in 1973. Peckinpah sneaked across the border into Juarez in April 1972 and married Joie Gould while filming The Getaway in El Paso, Texas. When filming Straw Dogs, he had encountered Gould, England, and she had since been his companion and a part-time crew member. When making The Getaway, Peckinpah's drink intake had soared, and he became fond of saying, "I can't direct when I'm sober." At one point, Gould was struck with violent mood swings and eruptions of rage, including violent mood swings and explosions of rage. She returned to England and filed for divorce after four months. Peckinpah's recovery was disrupted by the breakup, and his health was in a spiral of almost continuous alcohol intake, and his health was poor for the remainder of his life.

Peckinpah decided to make Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, but it was in this state of mind. Rudolph Wurlitzer, who had previously written Two-Lane Blacktop, a film that had been admired by Peckinpah, was convinced that he was going to make his final decision on the Western genre based on the screenplay. The script gave Peckinpah the opportunity to investigate topics that appealed to him: two former partners were forced by time changes to opposing sides of the court's agenda, which was manipulated by corrupt economic interests. Peckinpah rewrote the screenplay, establishing Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as colleagues and trying to weave an epic tale from the historical legend. The film was shot on location in Durango, Mexico, and starred James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson in the title roles, as well as Bob Dylan, who created the film's soundtrack, Kris Kristofferson, Thomas Kristofferson, Richard Jaeckel, Richard Jaeckel, Jack Elam, Caty Jurado, Matt Clark, L.Q. Jones, Russell Smith, and Harry Dean Stanton. Peckinpah began to clash with MGM and its president James Aubrey, who is known for his stifling of creative ambitions and eventual demise of the historic film company from the start. Multiple production challenges, including an outbreak of influenza and failing cameras, as well as Peckinpah's alcoholism, culminated in one of his career's most difficult projects. Principal photography was 21 days behind schedule and $1.6 million over budget. Patrick Garrett and Billy the Kid were released in a truncated version that was largely dismissed by cast and crew members, enraged, Aubrey radically reduced Peckinpah's film from 124 to 106 minutes. Critics insisted that the film was incoherent, and that the Peckinpah's experience sparked Peckinpah forever on Hollywood. Peckinpah's director's cut was released on video in 1988, sparking a revaluation, according to several commentators, who praised it as a mistreated masterpiece and one of the era's finest films. Martin Scorsese, a film maker, has praised the film as one of the finest modern Westerns in modern history.

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), the "last authentic Peckinpah film," according to his admirers. It was the only one of his films to be released exactly as he intended it, according to the filmmaker himself. Peckinpah wrote the screenplay with the support of Kowalski, Walter Kelley, and Gordon Dawson, which was based on an idea developed by Frank Kowalski. Bennie (Warren Oates) was co-starring a burlap bag containing the severed head of a gigolo being coveted by a Mexican patron for having impregnated his youthful granddaughter, sparking revenge, greed, and murder in the Mexican countryside. Bennie is offered a ten thousand dollar reward for Alfredo's death or proof thereof, and Alfredo's head is demanded as proof that the deal has been fulfilled. The macabre story was part black comedy, action film, and tragedy, with a warped twist rarely seen in Peckinpah's works. The majority of commentators were disapproved, and Harry Medved and Randy Dreyfuss' book The 50 Worst Films of All Time lists the 50 Worst Films of All Time. Roger Ebert was one of the few critics to praise the film in recent years, with some referring to the film's uncompromising outlook as well as its anticipation of the violent black comedy that has become popular in the works of such directors as David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino. Despite being a failure at the box office, the film today has a cult following. In 1991, UCLA's film school held a festival of outstanding but forgotten American films, which included Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia. According to reports, It's Takeshi Kitano's favorite film.

Peckinpah was in need of a strike like The Getaway, despite his recent box office setbacks. He chose The Killer Elite (1975), an action-filled espionage drama starring James Caan and Robert Duvall as rival American agents in his next film. Thanks to Caan and his entourage, a filmed on location in San Francisco, Peckinpah, reportedly discovered cocaine for the first time. His once-famous dedication to detail slowed as a result. For the first time since Peckinpah's debut film The Deadly Companions, producers also refused to allow him to rewrite the screenplay. The director spent a lot of time in his on-location trailer, allowing assistants to direct several scenes. At one point, he overdosed on cocaine, ended up in a hospital, and received a second pacemaker. The film was completed and was very popular at the box office, but critics sluggish about it. The film, which is also an example of his decline as a major director, is one of Peckinpah's poorest films today.

Peckinpah was formerly known as a ghost writer who penned King Kong (1976) and Superman (1978) and was the first to command the future blockbusters. He turned down both offers and instead selected Cross of Iron (1977), a bleak and vivid World War II story. On the Taman Peninsula on the Eastern Front, the screenplay was based on a book about a platoon of German soldiers in 1943, just about to fall apart. The German film was shot in Yugoslavia. Peckinpah rewrote the screenplay and watched several Nazi documentaries in preparation, alongside James Hamilton and Walter Kelley. Peckinpah discovered he was on a low budget production because he had to pay $90,000 to recruit experienced crew members right away. Peckinpah began to drink heavily, leading to his confusion and erratic behavior when not suffering from the cocaine use that marked The Killer Elite. Peckinpah was forced to completely rewrite the closing sequence after the production ran out of funds, and Peckinpah was forced to rewrite the entire sequence in one day. Senta Berger, James Mason, Maximilian Schell, David Warner, and Senta Berger were all featured in the opening montage, which also highlighted the bizarrely combat sequences. The film was a big box office hit in Europe, sparking Richard Burton's sequel Breakthrough. Orson Welles said that Cross of Iron was one of his favorites, and that after All Quiet on the Western Front, it was the best anti-war film he had ever seen. The film was poor in the United States and was later eclipsed by Star Wars, but today it is widely revered and considered the last example of Peckinpah's once-great talent.

Peckinpah took on Convoy (1978), in the hopes of building a blockbuster. His coworkers were perplexed as they suspected that his decision to send such substandard stuff was a result of his revived cocaine use and continued alcohol use. The film, based on C.W. McCall's hit song, was an attempt to cash in on Smokey and the Bandit's (1977)'s great success. Despite his heroin use, Peckinpah found it inexorable to bring the exercise to a different level. B.W.L.'s screenplay was unsatisfaction. Norton, Peckinpah, attempted to convince the actors to re-write, improvise, and ad-lib their dialogue. Peckinpah attempted to bring a new sense of vision by casting a pair of black actors as members of the convoy, including Madge Sinclair as Widow Woman and Franklyn Ajaye as Spider Mike, in another departure from the script. Convoy, shot in New Mexico and starring Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, and Ernest Borgnine, proved to be yet another problematic Peckinpah production, with the director's health a continuing issue. James Coburn, a friend and actor, was hired to film several scenes while Peckinpah stayed in his on-location trailer. In September 1977, the film was finished 11 days behind schedule and $5 million over budget. Surprisingly, Convoy was the best-grossing image of Peckinpah's career, earning $46.5 million at the box office but was sluggish by several commentators, affecting his image, leaving his brand seriously damaged. Peckinpah completed a portrait and discovered himself unemployed for the first time in nearly a decade.

Peckinpah remained a professional outcast for the next three years. But Don Siegel, his original mentor, gave him a chance to return to filmmaking in 1981. Siegel, a comedy drama starring Bette Midler and Rip Torn, asked Peckinpah if he'd be interested in directing 12 days of second unit operations while shooting Jinxed! Peckinpah accepted immediately, and his earnest collaboration, though uncredited, was immediately acknowledged in the industry. Peckinpah returned to the directing industry for the first time.

Peckinpah's health was poor by 1982. Producers Peter S. Davis and William N. Panzer were stunned, as they believed that having Peckinpah's name attached to The Osterman Weekend (1983) would give the suspense thriller a certain degree of respectability. Peckinpah accepted the position, but Robert Ludlum's book, which he also loas, was apparently disliked by the tangled screenplay. Multiple actors in Hollywood auditioned for the film, excited by the opportunity. Many of those who went on, including John Hurt, Burt Lancaster, and Dennis Hopper, did so for less than $100,000 for the chance to work with the legendary director. By the time the shooting ended in January 1983 in Los Angeles, Peckinpah, and the developers were barely speaking. Nonetheless, Peckinpah completed the film on schedule and on budget, revealing his director's cut to the producers. Davis and Panzer were dissatisfied with Peckinpah's version, which featured an opening sequence of two characters in love. The producers modified the opening and deleted some scenes that they deemed unnecessary. Peckinpah's last film was critically panned. It earned $6.5 million in the United States (nearly recouping its investment), and it did well in Europe and in the emerging home-video market.

Peckinpah's last work as a filmmaker was done two months before his death. Julian Lennon was hired by producer Martin Lewis to shoot two music videos starring him, "Valute" and "Too Late For Goodbyes." Lennon's nomination for Best New Video Artist at the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards was based on his critically acclaimed videos.

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