University of Virginia Library

sam peckinpah:

genius or charlatan?

by jacoba atlas

—ed.

From the attention accorded
"The Wild Bunch" it might well be
said that 1969 has been the year of
Sam Peckinpah. His film has been
praised as one of the year's best,
and berated as one of the decade's
worst; the director who created the
work has been called everything
from a genius to a commercial
charaltan desperately looking for a
hit.

Peckinpah has never rested easy
within the framework of established
Hollywood. One former
co-worker stated in a mixture of
awe and aggravation that "if
Peckinpah is thinking of something,
he expects you to be thinking of
the same thing. If telepathy comes,
he'll be the greatest to work for, if
not look out. Before going on
location, a Sam Peckinpah company
should have spring training."

Critics consider Peckinpah a true
maverick, someone who will never
play anyone else's game. This has
made the director loved, hated,
exalted and damned, but after
"The Wild Bunch" he can never
again be ignored. This interview
took place while his latest film,
"The Ballad of Cable Hogue" which
stars Jason Robards Jr., David
Warner and Stella Stevens was being
edited.

Question: You said sometime back
that writing was very important to
a director, why was that?

Peckinpah: Writing? Well, because
that's the material you work with;
it's the material your actors work
with. I was very lucky to have a
fine script by Mr. Penny and Mr.
Crawford and even more important
I had the services of Gordon
Dawson who did a marvelous
re-write on the script which took
the elements that were good to
begin with and brought them to life
in terms of the film I wanted to
make.

Question: On the credits it states
that all the characters are fictitious,
why was this necessary?

Peckinpah: I wasn't worried about
anyone identifying but somebody
else was. I suppose, I'm always
happy to name names, but studio
policy being what it is that always
goes on the credits.

Question: What about "Cable
Hogue" I gather it's a wonderful
gentle love story.

Peckinpah: I really...you know it's
very difficult for me to talk about
any films I've made. The fact is I
think it's a damn good picture. The
people who made it were all like
one family. I'm very pleased and
proud of the picture and the people
who made it.

Question: It was a very interesting
piece of casting to have English
actor David Warner play an itinerant
preacher/parson....

Peckinpah: Drunken, lecherous, a
man of God as they were in those
days. I didn't cast David Warner,
though Ken Hyman did. We were
discussing Peter Ustinov for the
part and Ken Hyman said I had to
see David Warner, that he would be
very interesting. Consequently I ran
"Morgan" and about half way
through the film I called Ken and

said if you can't get me David now,
then I'll burn down the studio. This
is the thing about working with
someone like Ken Hyman, he was
the reason Ernest Borgnine ended
up in "The Wild Bunch" and many
others. He's left the studio now and
I miss him already.

Question: There have been more
violent arguments over the violence
in "The Wild Bunch"....

Peckinpah: It's a picture about
violent people, people who accept
it and recognize it and live with
that knowledge. I tried to do two
things, I know a little bit about
violence and the people who deal in
violence such as professional soldiers
and criminal elements, and I
merely tried to show people in
many kinds of hidden ways that we
are all part of violence, that it is our
heritage and a lot of people get very
upset when they look at themselves
and see a mirror into their basic
emotions.

Question: "The Wild Bunch" came
out shortly after the President's
committee on violence which said
pretty much the same thing, and
everybody got very hung up about
that. It's almost like we pride
ourselves on what we aren't.

Peckinpah: It's a sickness. I really
believe it's a horrible sickness and
we are putting our heads in the
sand on television and Madison
Avenue and we really believe that
there's going to be a happy ending,
and there's not unless someone
wakes up and gets to work...

Question: You mean we're not
really in a movie...

Peckinpah: No, we REALLY aren't
in a movie and it's terrifying.

Question: You are really a historian
of the West, you're not only born
here and raised here (fourth generation)
but you have a great love for
the time. Was it always such a
violent time?

Peckinpah: Yes. Yes, anytime that
you...I'm sure any time in any part
of history that I can remember
studying when people took land -
and they did take land - they
killed the people living on it. And
then others took the land from the
people who took it originally. It
was very violent. That is our
heritage - violence. As a matter of
fact in the history of all people
outside the Mongols under Genghis
Khan, we are the most violent
people in the history of the world.
What is really scary is that nobody
admits it, nobody recognizes it,
nobody says anything about it.

Question: I guess people don't want
to face it, we all walk around saying
how great we are...

Peckinpah: Bullshit!

Question: "Cable Hogue" is not a
violent picture?

Peckinpah: No, "Cable Hogue" is
the story of a man who challenged
the Gods and was destroyed by it.

Question: You're an interesting
example to young film makers. You
started out making your own films
while still at a television station.
What did you actually do?

Peckinpah: I lied, cheated, stole
and got the use of lights and
cameras and we made three experimental
films including one of a
Tennessee Williams one act play - I
did that for my graduate thesis. All
of them were very bad, in fact one
of the stage hands who was working
with me said 'why are you always
doing this, you're always failing'
and I said that this was the time to
fall. I think I was right.