The Authentic Death & Contentious Afterlife of Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid: The Untold Story of Peckinpah's Last Western Film

Along with its status as film director Sam Peckinpah's final Western and the legendary conflicts between the iconoclastic director and studio executives that plagued its production, one more major factor has long enhanced Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid's cult status. Among the several preview, theatrical, television, and "special edition" releases available, no definitive "director's cut" version exists. Using detailed comparisons of these multiple releases, and with new access to preproduction documents, Seydor (film and media arts, Chapman Univ.; Peckinpah) expertly traces the development of the work. Print sources including Garrett's own biography and Charles Neider's The Authentic Death of Hendry Jones (1956) led to screenplays by Peckinpah and Rudolph Wurlitzer that were followed by working scripts and rewrites, not to mention improvisations on the set and the epic postproduction battles that signaled the final break between Peckinpah and MGM studios. Despite the wide range of sources, long time frame, and large cast of characters, Seydor's tight organization keeps the reader engaged, informed, and eager to learn the next twist on the bumpy road between an artist's vision and the realities of the creative process.