(For Day 18 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem about singing in a car, incorporating a song lyric. Well, I went the simpler, time-saving route of a couple haikus. Doesn’t everyone do this at some point in NaPoWriMo?)

Friendship only lasts
As long as the unforked road.
After that, farewell.

The West was not won;
It was lost, shot by dead shot.
Its carcass is home.
________________________

MPA rating: R (for violence and nudity)

There’s something to be said for the clear black-and-white heroics of the old-fashioned western, with the likes of John Wayne and Gary Cooper, but I can appreciate the grayer areas represented by films like Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Directed by Sam Peckinpah, the film dramatizes two big names of the Old West, notorious outlaw Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) and his former friend-turned-sheriff Pat Garrett (James Coburn). After Garrett becomes a lawman, he warns the unperturbed Billy that he’ll have to bring him to justice, and so he does, with many deaths, escapes, and betrayals along the way.

Coburn and Kristofferson make a great pair of leads, the former sporting an icy glare confirming when he means business and the latter full of smirking charisma even when he’s being threatened. They’re surrounded by a who’s who of excellent character actors of the time, most notably Bob Dylan in a self-insert kind of role on the sidelines, owing to the fact that he also wrote the score and the anachronistic but strangely fitting song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” used to haunting effect during several death scenes. The shootouts are often the best parts, particularly Billy’s escape from custody, where he shoots and drops a one-liner straight out of a Home Alone gangster movie.

While Garrett’s pursuit of Billy is clearly driven by justice, there are several reminders of the blurred morality of the West, from Garrett’s visit with prostitutes (one of the more unnecessary R-rated scenes) to Billy’s defense of a Mexican family being raped by men working under a local cattle baron. By the end, both men have killed enough to be guilty, and neither is pleased with the prospect of felling a friend. Though bloodier than I like in its violence, as was Peckinpah’s trademark, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is quite an engrossing western, fueled by the excellent performances of its dual antiheroes.

Best line: (Billy) “Ol’ Pat… Sheriff Pat Garrett. Sold out to the Santa Fe ring. How does it feel?”
(Pat) “It feels like… times have changed.”
(Billy) “Times, maybe. Not me.”

Rank: List Runner-Up

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