'Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid'

This would've been a great film if it wasn't for all the gosh darn Bob Dylan.

What a disaster. Any killer dramatic moments of the film were absolutely ruined by Dylan's music, especially the overplayed "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" ... as someone's dying. If you're going to use Dylan, don't use that song and don't use it during an actual dying scene. Filmmaking is supposed to be creative. Not done in a way that my three-year-old could do it.

Also, Dylan, as the actor, reminded me of Pee Wee Herman when he's cast in the film of his actual adventure. He's real still and oddly looking straight into the character and at the other actors waiting for someone to tell him he's doing it wrong.

They tried to force Dylan on us and I wasn't buying.

Otherwise, a brilliant film. Love the way Sam Peckinpah uses the earthy tones like brown and then put Kris Kristopherson in that bright, light blue shirt. It jumps off the shot. Just breathtaking. He'd do the same using the greenness of the trees, the blueness of the skies and, most notably, the redness of the blood.

Another fine point of the film is James Coburn's portrayal of Pat Garrett as a torn and broken man at home, in his business and in his heart. We're led to believe that Garrett is somehow the villian here. The problem with that assumption is that the good villain doesn't know what he's doing wrong. Or maybe he doesn't believe it's wrong.

Coburn's Garrett does, and its eating him alive.