Destiny-land
It's..... The happiest blog on earth



Tuesday

Bob Dylan wrote the song "Knock Knock Knockin' on Heaven's Door" for its soundtrack, plus several other songs (including "Billy," above) -- and he even appears in the film. But Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid -- a 1973 western starring Kris Kristofferson -- is probably more famous for its director, Sam Peckinpah. The movie "is definitely the most interesting film of its time," says one critic.

I've always loved this movie, where Peckinpah grafts his own personal code into the lives of the two legends of the old West. "If for nothing else," the critic writes, "Peckinpah admires his heroes for their staunch individualism in the face of a world that is changing for the worse, eroding under the blindly ruthless power of money."

The movie starred James Coburn -- who died today at age 74. He was thirty years younger when he played the aging lawman -- despairing for thirty years that he'd shot his friend Billy the Kid.

There's guns across the river aimin' at you
Lawman on your trail he'd like to catch you
Bounty hunters too they'd like to get you
Billy they don't like you to be so free.



11/19/2002