Ride The High Country

Director Sam Peckinpah was just starting out when MGM released Ride the High Country in 1962. He was a new kind of director: young, brash, and in a hurry to help the Western "grow up" by treating it with adult themes. Ride the High Country was something new and different, a changing Western to match a changing West. Stars Randolph Scott and Joel McCrea were old hands at this sort of thing. Ride the High Country gave the two veteran actors one last job to do and a chance to go out with some dignity. Ride the High Country helped the genre mature and adapt to turbulent, changing times. It launched Peckinpah's career by invoking the themes of honor, loyalty, and compromised ideals, the destruction of the West and its heroes, and the difficulty of doing right in an unjust world--themes developed to their pinnacle in Peckinpah's later masterpiece, The Wild Bunch.

Covers wide range of popular British and American fiction and film including Westerns, spy fiction, science fiction and crime narratives.

LET THE MOVIES BE YOUR GUIDE! * Hike THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Trail! * Behold the KILL BILL Chapel! * Enter THE DOORS Indian Caves! * Swim at BEACH BLANKET BINGO's Malibu! * Escape to SOME LIKE IT HOT's Resort! * Raft the STAGECOACH River! * Explore HIGH PLAIN DRIFTER's Ghostly Lake! * Trek to the LOST HORIZON Waterfall! * Discover the STAR WARS Sand Dunes! Here is the first comprehensive guide to Southern California's outdoor filming locations taking you to more than 50 of the Golden State's most cinematic beaches, mountains, deserts, lakes, hot springs and waterfalls. Illustrated with over 100 scenic photos and 20 easy-to-read maps, Hollywood Escapes: The Moviegoer's Guide to Exploring Southern California's Great Outdours not only takes you to movie history's most memorable destinations, but also recommends places to dine and lodge along the way, from mountain hideaways to beach side resorts. Written by inveterate movie buffs and outdoors enthusiasts Harry Medved and Bruce Akiyama, these two native Southern Californians have interviewed dozens of actors, filmmakers, location scouts and rangers to help you explore Hollywood's most spectacular scenery.

The work of Sam Peckinpah represents a high point in American cinema. This text is the first theoretical and critical attempt to place Peckinpah within the 2,000-year-old tradition of western tragedy. The tradition, enfolding the Greeks, Shakespeare and modern tragedians, is represented in Peckinpah's art in numerous ways, and the fact that he worked in the mode throughout his career distinguishes him from most American film directors. Films covered include Ride the High Country, Noon Wine, The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.

Westerns may have had their heyday, but they remain popular. The greatest films from 1914, when The Squaw Man and The Virginian were among the genre’s best, through 2001, when American Outlaws and Texas Rangers were tops, are the subject of this work. For each year, the author names the outstanding western films in the following categories: picture, screenplay (original and adaptation), direction, cinematography, music, male and female leading roles, and male and female supporting roles. Also for each year, the author lists the westerns that received Academy Award nominations (and those that won), makes note of the births and deaths of notable actors, directors, producers, composers, cinematographers, authors and other such personalities, and describes the genre’s significant achievements.

An account of the life and career of actor Joel McCrea. Contains over 200 photos and a complete filmography.

One of the greatest film directors America has produced, Sam Peckinpah revolutionized the way movies were made. In this detailed and insightful study, Bernard F. Dukore examines Peckinpah's fourteen feature films as a coherent body of work. He investigates the director's virtuosic editing techniques, thematic preoccupations that persist from his earliest to his last films, and the structure of his dramatic depiction of violence. He also addresses Peckinpah's cognizance of existentialism and the substantial traces this interest has left in the films. At the heart of Dukore's study is an extensive and detailed examination of Peckinpah's distinctive editing techniques. Focusing on representative sequences--including the breakout from the bank and the final battle in The Wild Bunch, the half-hour siege that concludes Straw Dogs, the killing of the title characters of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and combat sequences in Cross of Iron--Dukore provides a shot-by-shot analysis that illuminates Peckinpah's mastery of pacing and mood. Sam Peckinpah's Feature Films demonstrates that Peckinpah's genius as a director and editor marks not only The Wild Bunch, Straw Dogs, and other classics but also his lesser-known feature films, even those that suffered substantial cuts at the hands of studio producers. Dukore's organic approach to the feature films reveals a highly unified body of work that remains a pointed commentary on power, violence, affection, and moral values.

One of the most controversial films of its time, The Wild Bunch is the epitome of the no-holds-barred filmmaking of the 1960s and 1970s. Since its 1969 release, it has come to be recognized not only as an iconic Western, but as one of the most important films in the American cinematic canon. Over the years a parade of filmmakers have tried to imitate its gut-punch effects but none have equaled it. The Wild Bunch revived the floundering career of volatile, self-destructive director Sam Peckinpah--it also hung on him the label "Bloody Sam." This book tells the complete story of the film's production, reception and legacy.