Pat Garret and Billy the Kid: The Special Edition

Pat Garrett and Billy were once friends. Now one of them is on the side of the law and the other an outlaw. As a sheriff, Pat Garrett has been integrated into the system that Billy hates with all his heart. It feels like times have changed! proclaims Pat Garrett at the beginning of the film; Times maybe. Not me!, is the Kid’s response. But it’s the landowners who rule things now. And they can bend the rules any way they want. The longer he takes to track down Billy the Kid, the more Pat Garrett begins to understand his erstwhile friend. When the search culminates, the hunter has long since become the mirror image of the hunted. And when Pat Garrett finally shoots Billy the Kid, it is an act of self-betrayal tantamount to suicide.
PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID was released in July 1973 to mixed reviews. many critics complained the film was incoherent. Unfortunately, during shooting open warfare broke out between Peckinpah and MGM. The studio forbid Peckinpah to shoot certain scenes, but the director defied them and shot them anyway. Fifteen years after its initial release, and four years after Peckinpah’s death, the film was restored and 16 minutes were added.