Irakli Makharadze is a documentary film director working in a Georgia State TV film company in Tbilisi, Georgia (former Soviet Republic).

Irakli has a deep interest in the history of the American West, and has written numerous articles about Western films in local newspapers and magazines. Having had much experience in producing TV shows about this magnificent genre, Irakli has also published a book entitled WESTERN FILMS, which is the first book written on this topic in his country.

Send This Page To a Friend

Perestroika and the rising of Iron Curtain in the 1980s significantly eased the transfer of information across the borders of the Soviet Union. The people of the USSR, including us, the citizens of Georgia, were finally able to witness the incredible world of American cinema. Although this exposure could have occurred twenty, thirty and even forty years earlier, it was certainly better late, than never.

The accessibility of American cinema to the Soviet Union viewers influenced me personally. As a beginning movie director in Georgia, I discovered the Western, which consequently became a true passion of my life. I saw various Western movies, but none of them amazed me as much as Wild Bunch by Sam Peckinpah. This great film tarnished all Westerns I had seen before, and up until today, Wild Bunch is Number One on my list of favorite movies. I started reading more about Peckinpah and saw all of his films. After many years of research, Ive become convinced, that this outstanding director deserves much greater attention and acclaim for being the creator of real pearls in the treasury of American cinema.

At one time Peckinpah was considered to be the most controversial name in the American movie industry. After Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs, his work became the synonym of brutality and the example of beautiful violence on the screen, bringing him the nickname of Bloody Sam'; ballet-like is the term often used to describe his style by various movie critics.

Criticism of the violence portrayed by him on the screen often kept his achievements in the shade. Although Peckinpah had many fans during his lifetime, after his death the name and the creative work of the great director fell into oblivion. Almost for the next 10 years, Peckinpahs name seem to have never existed. It was not until March 23rd, 1995, when a release of a renewed, director-cut version of Wild Bunch provoked interest in Peckinpahs work again. The film reviewers and movie critics in the popular press applauded and described it as an impressive work that has not been made for the past thirty years. Wild Bunch was now identified as the Citizen Kane of the Vietnam generation and Peckinpahs name won international acclaim once again. The fate of Peckinpahs career was unfortunate and at the same time typical for one who was a dare devil, a rebel, and whose achievements are finally rewarded only after death, once the possibility of acting defiantly has been eliminated.

Sam Peckinpah was one of the innovators of the Western genre. If John Ford created romantic realism in his films, Sergio Leone grotesque abstractionism, Peckinpah may be said to have established documentary realism in his work. His realism is characterized by philosophical symbolism and is easily recognizable by his peculiar editing style. Peckinpahs best works could be compared to the works of the directors from the old generation, one of which is Rio Bravo by Howard Hawks. In this western a lonely sheriff surrounds himself with a group of equally courageous men, fighting against cruelty. As a representative of the traditional western school, the director of Rio Bravo ends his film with the optimistic victory of the main characters, their moral rebirth and purification. In Peckinpahs world, however, such a resurrection of an individual never occurs without a bloody sacrifice, characters often perish, since a heroic death is the only way free oneself of earthly sins.

Peckinpah is a cruel realist. The good and the evil in his work is clearly defined. Unlike the characters of Leones westerns, the heroes in Peckinpahs films do not play evil, but rather live and carry on with it. The innovativeness of Peckinpah is due to his great contribution of taking the Western from the childhood battlefield and putting it into the real world battle. Most importantly, his characters fight against their most unforgiving enemiesthe demons within themselves.

Peckinpah has left an indelible mark in cinema by creating a new way of montage. As David Weddle says, "the most creative use of montage since Sergei Eisensteins Potemkin. His editing style is swift and painful, much like the wounds and the rivers of blood streaming off the wounds he portrays on the screen. His editing legacy is widely used by filmmakers both in Hollywood and in the world today.

Although scandalous and strange facts from directors life were frequently published by the critics, Peckinpah always emphasized the fact that he appreciated humanity and courage, moral and law. Let us remember the character, David Sumner from Straw Dogs portrayed by Dustin Hoffman. He was asking for fair justice and not for a bloody retribution for a stupid villager, who accidentally choked a young girl. And when he had nothing else to defend his family with, Sumner used violence against his attackers. Only a cynical and immoral person can find the thirst for violence in the motives and behavior of Hoffmans character.

Due to ill fate or other circumstances, being chased by police, having broken the military oath, etc - all Peckinpahs characters find themselves in desperate situations. At the same time all of them share one similar quality: self-dignity and adherence to moral principles. In this respect, Peckinpahs heroes resemble the Japanese samurai with their allegiance to the bushido code, one of the proverbs of which states that the loneliness of a samurai is like a tigers solitude in the jungle. The heroes rebel against any kinds of organizations, whether against professional killer groups or secret agencies.

With Wild Bunch Peckinpah had summarized, reexamined, revisioned a lot of films made in this genre. The West in his films is much more of a disgustful and dirty place, rather than an almost holy land we are used to seeing in numerous classic westerns.

In Wild Bunch the horses are replaced by the cars, Colts and Winchesters by the machine guns, instead of lonely heroes there is a bunch of outlaws being chased by the hired headhunters. In each one of the films by Peckinpah, the end of the West is depicted.

The continuation of the dying West theme can be traced back in his other Westerns as well, such as The Ballad of Cable Hogue and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The splash of violence in films is both tragic and amazing at the same time. The violence hardly ever solves the problems of his heroes and in the most case Peckinpahs heroes die. If you have seen the Wild Bunch you would probably never forget the last episode of this great movie, when all four members of the bunch are heading toward the garrison of Mexican troops to rescue their friend Angel. An unbelievably brutal scene takes place, I must admit I have never seen anything like this. With the usage of slow motion and superb editing, Peckinpah has created an incredible effect of a battle. All the members of the group die heroicallythey sacrifice their lives in the name of friendship.

Sam Peckinpah died on December 28th 1984 at the age of 59. The abuse of drugs and alcohol shortened his life drastically, turning his last movies into a sad farewell of a great director. Fortunately, his films still remain in the history of cinema as outstanding works and his characters are often compared to the Borxes heroes.

Copyright © 2003  Irakli Makharadze. No unauthorized reproduction or transmission by any means whatsoever permitted under federal criminal law.