Sam Peckinpah

[yoloswegmaster]

It seemed obvious to me that it would have been released in 2023 considering that it's the film's 50th birthday this year.

[ford]

Thinking about how bummed I am that we don't have a better release of The Wild Bunch. Borderline criminal.

[nicolas]

Plaion announced a Peckinpah box set that includes Pat Garrett in HD in three cuts.
Mike Siegel was involved in the extras and created 7.5 hours of material.

Full specs announced:

Ride the High Country - 1962 - 1 Blu-ray
Running time: approx. 94 minutes
Image: 2.35:1 (1080p)
Extras:
Audio commentary Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, David Weddle
A look back at his work: Sam Peckinpah and Sacramento (approx. 23 minutes)
Passion & Poetry - Peckinpah's early westerns - by Mike Siegel (approx. 40 minutes)
Cinema advertising gallery - by Mike Siegel (approx. 13 minutes)
Photo gallery - by Mike Siegel (approx. 7 minutes)
Trailer (approx. 3 minutes)
Trailer from Hell (approx. 3 minutes)

The Wild Bunch - 1969 – 2 Blu-rays

Disc 1
Film in both versions (Director’s Cut (approx. 145 minutes) and Roadshow Version (approx. 146 minutes)
Image: 2.35:1 (1080p)
Extras:
Audio commentary Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, David Weddle
US trailer (approx. 3 minutes)
8 US radio spots (approx. 6 minutes)

Disc 2
Extras:
Sam Peckinpah’s Western: The Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade (approx. 83 minutes)
The Wild Bunch – An Album in Montage (approx. 33 minutes)
A Simple Adventure Story: Sam Peckinpah, Mexico and The Wild Bunch (approx. 24 minutes)
Deleted Scenes (approx. 9 minutes)
Passion & Poetry – The Wild Bunch – by Mike Siegel (approx. 9 minutes)
Cinema advertising gallery (approx. 23 minutes)
Filming gallery 1 – by Mike Siegel (approx. 10 minutes)
Filming gallery 2 – by Mike Siegel (approx. 10 minutes)
Color photo gallery – by Mike Siegel (approx. 7 minutes)
Video essay “Deleted Scenes” (approx. 14 minutes)
Trailer from Hell (approx. 3 minutes)

The Ballad of Cable Hogue - 1970 – 1 Blu-ray
Running time: approx. 121 minutes
Image: 1.78:1 (1080p)
Extras:
Audio commentary with Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, David Weddle
An afternoon with Stella Stevens (approx. 27 minutes)
Interview with Stella Stevens (approx. 3 minutes)
Passion & Poetry – Cable Hogue - Stories by Mike Siegel (approx. 48 minutes)
Trailer
Trailer from Hell (approx. 3 minutes)
2 US TV spots (1 minute)
11 US radio spots (approx. 5 minutes)
Cinema advertising gallery (approx. 15 minutes)
Photo gallery (approx. 11 minutes)

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid - 1973– 3 Blu-rays

Disc 1
Theatrical version (approx. 106 minutes) and “50th Anniversary” version (approx. 117 minutes)
Image: 2.35:1 (1080p)
Extras:
Audio commentary by Nick Redman and others for the “50th Anniversary” version

Disc 2
Turner Preview version (approx. 121 minutes)
Image: 2.35:1 (1080p)
Extras:
Audio commentary by Nick Redman and others
Passion & Poetry – The Last Western – by Mike Siegel (approx. 48 minutes)
Extended brothel scene

Disc 3
Final Preview version (approx. 122 minutes)
Image: 2.35:1 (1080p)
Extras:
2 dubbings
One Foot in the Grave – Memories of Sam Peckinpah (approx. 28 minutes)
One for the Money: Sam’s Song (original songs by Kris Kristofferson and Donny Fritts; approx. 6 minutes)
An analysis by Pat and Billy (approx. 15 minutes)
Scenes from the TV version (approx. 22 minutes)
Trailer from Hell (approx. 4 minutes)
German trailer (approx. 3 minutes)
US trailer (approx. 3 minutes)
US TV spots (approx. 2 minutes)
Gallery photos (approx. 6 minutes)

From Plaion about Pat Garrett: All 4 versions are based on the 4K transfer, with missing scenes reconstructed, color corrected and inserted

More info from Mike Siegel about the Wild Bunch Roadshow version and Pat Garrett:

We did it to preserve a filmhistorical detail. The film itself is the same. But 70mm screenings had a break / intermission before the train robbery sequence. With intermission music. Even 35mm screening in the UK back in 1969/70.

My friend saved the the original intermission 35mm film & music back then and had it in his archive for 54 years. So Ithought it would be a nice little extra to make that roadshow experience available for interested film fans...

PLAION is the only company so far, except for the "super premium" Criterion, that was able to license the Peckinpah westerns! That is major coup in itself, but I guess UHD is Criterion exclusive (like my CONVOY extended with IMPRINT).
The "roadshow" BUNCH gimmick for instance had a budget of approx. $200. If that doesn't sound much, I'd totally agree! It happened because Jeff Slater had the footage in his collection, nobody will thank him either I suppose. But he also does everything for Sam.

Finally I had the time to check the Turner Preview. Again, without a budget to speak of you always wind up with a fan restoration - some dedicated guy who spends his time preserving film history. I did the same with OSTERMAN (Imprint), I'm still in the reds with this project since I could only license it to Imprint. I need at least two or three int. releases to recoup my money when I produce all these extras. Money-wise this new box is a negative deal for me, but to finally have my BUNCH doc out there is an artistic triumph for me.
Artists do it for the art - studios & labels are into BUSINESS. That alone answers most of the forum questions...
Anyway, to me this new fan restoration is the only way to watch PAT from now on. Maybe a future release can deal with issues that couldn't be dealt with now (remaining scratches and scans of the unique Turner footage). But it beats to hell out of the unrestored Preview 2 version released 2024.

[therewillbeblus]

After a few revisits over many years, Cross of Iron suddenly rose from a passable late-career effort to the top of Peckinpah's canon for me, probably just behind The Wild Bunch (which I also revisited recently, and was bowled over by its editing alone - New Hollywood Violence so explosively spliced that it's insuperably definitive). The late-period WWII pic is sometimes meandering, sloppy or silly, but I love a war film that detours through eccentric situations to reveal the horrors of human egos and ids clashing, and this does just that after establishing (and cheekily abandoning, for like the majority of the film) its basic plot, and before transitioning into a nonstop blood-soaked battle for its last full hour (and without ever feeling exhausting or overblown, like so many of Peckinpah's violent scenes can - avoiding such a pitfall feels like a tremendous feat, and indication of great careful editing as well). Its influence on Inglorious Basterds - another film that took more than one viewing to get fully on board with its strange structure of elisions - is way more obvious now in a constitutional sense, and Klaus Löwitsch is the original Hugo Stiglitz. The final frames came off as obnoxious, until I realized how many of Peckinpah's movies either end this way (even the car ride at the end of Straw Dogs contains a light bittersweet joke as its final line) or are populated with ill-fitting moments of laughter earlier on. The whiplash of juxtaposed tones in behavior and environment now seem fitting to both its themes of the insanity of war and Coburn's attitude towards his fellow man, or officers in particular. Getting the opportunity to condescend to a superior is a greater win for our hero than winning the war could be, so why not celebrate amidst life-threatening circumstances? Well, I can think of many reasons sober, but it's a wonderful externalization of a drunk artist's self-destructive exaltation.

[Stefan Andersson]

Screenshots comparison between Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Final Preview, Criterion and Plaion editions, with Plaion´s own color correction for the Final Preview:
https://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=522905

[Stefan Andersson]

Comparison of Director´s Cut and Road Show of The Wild Bunch, in Plaion´s Peckinpah box:
https://www.schnittberichte.com/schnitt ... p?ID=63498