Agreed. It is too easy to take the well-trodden critical path with this one. Stephen Prince dares to be different. Not only that, but he has the intellectual weight to back up his arguments. Prince's commentary illuminates both the subject matter and Peckinpah's craftsmanship, rather than simply describing the action on screen, or reeling off an endless stream of facts about the cast and crew, as so many such tracks do.domino harvey wrote:Can you name any other commentary that so radically redefines the film under discussion? Like any interpretation, the question isn't whether you sign off on the thesis or not, but he absolutely makes a compelling case and backs up his claims with textual evidence.
I've mentioned it on this board before, but I really cannot recommend Prince's book, Savage Cinema, highly enough. It is essential reading for budding Peckinpah scholars, or, for that matter, anyone with a serious interest in screen violence.