Like Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, it both records and condemns the passage of time and the advent of progress; and there is a sombre, mournful quality which places the film very high up in the league of great Westerns.
75
TV Guide Magazine
TV Guide Magazine
The film is visually stunning, and Peckinpah makes great use of his Durango, Mexico, locations.
Pat Garrett and Billy the kid suggest either that he (Peckinpah) has begun to take talk about his genius too seriously (it can happen to the best) or that he has fallen in with bad company.
Coburn offers more of his smiles as testimony to the wizardry of Old West dentistry, while Kristofferson ambles through his role with solid charm. Neither conveys the psychological tension felt between the two men whose lives diverge after years of camaraderie.
50
The New YorkerPauline Kael
The New YorkerPauline Kael
Probably nobody involved was very happy about the results; Dylan doesn't come off at all.