was there a peckinpah film NOT cut by the studio?
-
-
rockmail — 15 years ago(June 05, 2010 01:00 PM)
Actually a film is the Producer's project and responsibility (not to mention vision), and it's up to him (and his bosses if he's working through a studio) to get the film edited.
Although it is often done, it's not a given that a producer has to let the Director be heavily involved in the editing. Sometimes the director is only allowed to review and comment, others of course basically do the editing themselves (in company of an editor). -
bstephens21 — 15 years ago(June 07, 2010 03:24 AM)
Actually a film is the Producer's project and responsibility (not to mention vision), and it's up to him (and his bosses if he's working through a studio) to get the film edited.
Although it is often done, it's not a given that a producer has to let the Director be heavily involved in the editing. Sometimes the director is only allowed to review and comment, others of course basically do the editing themselves (in company of an editor).
That would be true if this was 1930s Hollywood, but nowadays, the primacy of the director is pretty well accepted (even if Hollywood producers still go out of their way to undermine it). Even the most hands-on of today's producers - Jerry Bruckheimer, the Weinsteins, etc. - never "craft" the film as much as a David O. Selznick; they're usual content simply hiring company men whose "personal vision" is one-and-the-same with the studio's commercial concerns. Hollywood filmmakers, unfortunately, don't have the "Droits d'auteur" to the extent they do in other countries, but I don't think even the most fiscal studio-man would pretend that it isn't the director's job to "write" the film they just hold the they have the power to "rewrite" other people's work if its a question of profit.
And you're kidding if you think that this movie was anyone but Peckinpah's vision. -
DarthBill — 15 years ago(August 18, 2010 06:02 PM)
It's downright tragic the way Peckinpah's films have been treated. I'd put him up there with Orson Welles in a list of great directors treated badly by the studio. Though Peckinpah did get to make his Citizen Kane, Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia.
Funny you should say that, Charlton Heston worked with both (Welles for Touch of Evil, Sam for Dundee) and he wrote of the two men in his autobiography In the Arena: "Where Orson would charm the cast and crew, Sam would pick fights with the cast and fire the crew." -
ScopeWatcher — 11 years ago(October 23, 2014 09:21 AM)
From a longtime fan who has seen all the films (and a good amount of the TV work), read all the Peckinpah histories, and met over the years with a number of his collaborators, friends, and relatives including a treasured chat with the director himself in 1981:
The only Peckinpah films that were NOT re-edited by either producers or studio executives are RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, THE BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE, JUNIOR BONNER, and BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA.
RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY: Peckinpah was fired and barred from access to the MGM lot before the end of post-production. When the new studio chief declared it "the worst movie ever made" (right after having slept through half of the screening), Peckinpah offered to raise enough cash to buy the film outright from MGM and get it distributed elsewhere. That got Sam kicked out. This was before the final sound mix and the music were completed (he disliked the score); but Peckinpah's cut survived the storm as well as the test of time.
BALLAD OF CABLE HOGUE: Warner Bros. dumped this film onto the market with scandalously little promotion it has even been reported that they sabotaged their own release by screening an unfinished, unscored workprint for an exhibitors' screening but they did not otherwise change the picture.
JUNIOR BONNER: Released just as its director made it (even though all American homevideo editions have contained a different song during the opening titles than what was heard on film prints and the Japanese laser disc).
ALFREDO GARCIA: As has been discussed above, Peckinpah's contract here gave him his otherwise elusive final-cut rights. But as I cite above, it wasn't the only time his work was not tampered with.
Earlier in this thread someone stated that THE GETAWAY was not recut, but that is incorrect. It's known that Steve McQueen exercised (abused) some contractual rights by eliminating some of Al Lettieri's footage as well as replacing Jerry Fielding's initial score with different music from Quincy Jones.
The original-release versions of Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH, STRAW DOGS, and CROSS OF IRON have emerged over the years, as well as extended approximations of MAJOR DUNDEE and PAT GARRETT & BILLY THE KID. It's too bad that their creator was no longer around to enjoy that degree of vindication. But it's also no coincidence that his only four features which never got tampered with are also among his best work.
Most great films deserve a more appreciative audience than they get
.