…this is a proper revisionist Western, with heroic mumbling bad-guys, corrupt good guys, all part of a realistic, practical and amoral tone…you’d expect a script written by a man with a name like Rudy Wurlitzer to be arcane and pithy and it sure is that..

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 14, 2025

I can’t say enough about Kris Kristofferson’s portrayal as Billy the Kid. It’s a performance filled with the charisma and confidence of Steve McQueen, and is arguably (and in my opinion) the coolest anybody has ever been on screen.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Oct 1, 2024

Watching the film in the version that most closely approximates what Peckinpah would have released, I was struck by the balance it achieves between the harsh brutalities of life in the Old West and the striving of its characters to transcend them.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 3, 2024

Peckinpah's attempt to cram in multiple story threads means that some invariably get lost in the shuffle.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 22, 2024

The film explores themes of friendship and duty in the old west.

| Jul 17, 2024

... a somber affair with plenty of action, but very little of it thrilling or exciting. This isn’t a young man’s western, but a tale of the end of a friendship in a lifestyle that often ends well before old age.

| Jul 11, 2024

The film casts an unsparing eye on the characters’ hypocritical notions of honor.

| Jul 5, 2024

Dylan’s presence is so slyly subversive that the film -- as a Western -- barely survives. Instead it becomes an unintentional comedy, which is great for Dylan’s fans but an unforgivable casting gaffe if you’re a Peckinpah enthusiast.

| Jun 15, 2022

Even in the maimed state in which it has been released, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is the richest, most exciting American film so far this year. There are moments and whole sequences here that stand among the best Peckinpah has ever achieved.

| Jun 14, 2022

There seems to be a killing every five minutes in "Pat Garrett," but who is killing whom and why, are rather fuzzy and of minor consideration.

| Jun 14, 2022

Unfortunately, a number of things, such as a clutch of clichés merely remolded to sound different, mar and flaw the otherwise interesting, certainly visually attractive, interpretation by Peckinpah.

| Jun 14, 2022

All of them love and kill one another like so much good fun until finally, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid just ends up as one big casualty.

| Jun 14, 2022

Kristofferson proves to be a capable, as well as engaging, performer. Coburn achieves another of his understated, teeth-gritting portrayals which, while emphasizing the formidability of Garrett, does little to illuminate him.

| Jun 14, 2022

Had the film not been mucked about in the cutting-room, I think it might have been Peckinpah's best. As it is, it belongs with Major Dundee as a ruined masterwork. But it still shows a concern with the eternal human themes rare in today's cinema.

| Jun 14, 2022

A monotonous and despicable movie.

| Jun 14, 2022

In Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Peckinpah has come up with a picture that is moderately violent but definitely slow. It appears that Peckinpah's respect for authentic history has dulled his instinct for action.

| Jun 14, 2022

This could have been interesting; it's been so before. But Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid appears to have been shot in emotional slow motion, and the self-inflating lethargy and mugging of all concerned reduces the enterprise to an exercise in pretension.

| Jun 14, 2022

If death can be made pretty, Mr. Peckinpah achieves it. If ruthlessness can somehow be rendered lovely, here it handsomely is.

| Jun 14, 2022

There are more messages in this film than in The Times Personal Column. But as a devoted Western watcher, I urge you not to miss it.

| Jun 14, 2022

Although the overall effort is repellent in the extreme, several of the actors, and particularly Kristofferson, do manage to exude a certain personal charm.

| Jun 14, 2022