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Part one of two-part conversation with author Paul Seydor, on Sam Peckinpah’s legacy, Stanley Kubrick’s image management, Seydor’s first experience of Peckinpah, The Deadly Companions, The Wild Bunch, the presence of poetry, getting a better education, The Western Films, Pauline Kael on the Western, Peckinpah mountain, Wild Bunch as commentary on the Vietnam experience, the intersection of art & society, Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man, Peckinpah’s abiding hatred of Nixon, Major Dundee & American intervention, Paul finds a purpose in Peckinpah, critical writing and the importance of finding a great subject, why Paul wasn’t drafted, meeting Sam, the question of affinity, plugging into Peckinpah’s greatness & obsession, “I’ll show you how involved you are!”, Kael on Peckinpah, Beethoven’s greatness, everything shimmers, the exhilaration of violence, the sheer physicality of the game (football), Kubrick’s lecturing, the Bunch’s code, Peckinpah’s sacrifice, making meaning, a very wicked movie, an attack on absolutes, Peckinpah’s love, reckless on beauty & excess, Kubrick vs. Peckinpah, David Denby on Wild Bunch, a self-destroying machine, no wonder Sam hated critics.
Songs: “El Mariachi” by The Freak Fandango Orchestra; “Golondrina” & Vivo Na Mare,” by Dom La Nena.