The Film Society of Lincoln Center announces Bring Me the Head of Sam Peckinpah, a complete retrospective of the film work of cinema's great choreographer of blood and bullets, March 31 - April 7. The director's filmography, originally presented by the Locarno International Film Festival, will screen almost entirely on 35mm.
"Peckinpah was clever and he was demonically intuitive, and he had such self-dramatizing brio. He liked the hopelessness of it all; the role he played was the loser. And though the competition is keen, he's perhaps the greatest martyr/ham in Hollywood history." - Pauline Kael
Sam Peckinpah ushered in a new era of American filmmaking with his deliriously violent, coolly existentialist, strikingly lyrical works, which spoke to an American public disillusioned by events like the Vietnam War and Watergate. A pivotal director who revolutionized the Western and action genres, he stood between worlds, straddling the tradition of craft that defined the classic studio era and the freewheeling experimentation of New Hollywood. At their heart, Peckinpah's movies are elegies: for the ideals of the Old West, for honorable men compromised by circumstances beyond their control, for a mythic America that may never have existed.
His stylistic innovations-particularly the iconic use of slow motion and rapid-cut editing-and balletic, blood-spattered action sequences in titles like The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia have been justly celebrated. Less remarked upon is that Peckinpah could be surprisingly tender in gentle, moving films like The Ballad of Cable Hogue and Junior Bonner.
Featuring all 14 of the director's films, from his remarkably assured 1961 feature debut The Deadly Companions to his final, 1983 conspiracy thriller The Osterman Weekend, this complete retrospective is an opportunity to view the dynamic, dazzlingly inventive works of a maverick director who refused to compromise his singular vision.
Organized by Dennis Lim for the Film Society of Lincoln Center. This program was selected from the Sam Peckinpah retrospective curated by film programmer and historian Roberto Turigliatto at the 2015 Locarno Film Festival, organized in collaboration with the Cinémathèque Française in Paris and the Cinémathèque Suisse in Lausanne.
Tickets go on sale Thursday, March 17 and are $14; $11 for students and seniors (62+); and $9 for Film Society members. See more and save with the $99
ALL ACCESS Pass or 3+ film discount package. Visit filmlinc.org for more information.
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