BLOODY SAM: THE FILMS OF SAM PECKINPAH

      I was a big fan of Robert Ludlum. As you can tell, I’m a big fan of Sam Peckinpah. I eagerly awaited the release of this movie. There was an incredible cast: Rutger Hauer, Dennis Hopper, Burt Lancaster, John Hurt, Chris Sarandon, Craig T. Nelson, Meg Foster (love her eyes), Helen Shaver and Cassie Yates. All good to great actors. Talk about a let down. Sam left us with a bad taste in our cinematic mouths. The final film is incoherent, confusing and a betrayal of the source material. Maybe he needed the money. Maybe he just didn’t have it in him anymore. He can be forgiven this final failure as he brought so many memorable characters to life is a string of great, good and average films.

      Sam died the next year. Before he died he directed two music videos for Julian Lennon. They were simple, gentle and poetic. Julian sitting in a studio with Sam behind the engineer’s board. The son of a man of peace who was murdered and a man who looked for the inner character of violent people. That was Sam, a wonderment and a puzzle.

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Rusty White