Ballad of Cable Hogue

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

After the intense bloodshed of The Wild Bunch (1969), this comic western fable took the opposite approach to director Sam Peckinpah's continuing examination of the end of the West. Left for dead by a couple of lizard-slaughtering desperados in the middle of the desert, prospector Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) is saved by his unexpected discovery of water "where there wasn't any." Hogue turns the water hole, felicitously located near a stagecoach route, into a thriving business, creating a rest stop for a never-ending series of parched travelers. On his occasional trips to the closest town, he meets chipper prostitute Hildy (Stella Stevens), who joins him in his oasis, completing Hogue's little paradise. But even though Hogue may be able to succeed and avenge himself against his original attackers, there is one thing that he cannot stop: progress. Completed before The Wild Bunch was released, and replete with comical and even musical interludes, Peckinpah's gently picaresque telling of Hogue's rise and fall stands in distinct contrast to the visual violence of its predecessor. The underlying message about the cost of modernity, however, equals The Wild Bunch in seriousness. The callous randomness of Hogue's fate is as shocking as the Bunch's final blaze of glory; as in Robert Altman's McCabe and Mrs. Miller from the same period, a tool of "civilization" provokes a most uncivilized end for an Old West dreamer. Although the film was as light-hearted in approach as the 1969 smash hit revisionist western Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Warner Bros. mishandled the release and it did barely any business; Peckinpah returned to his trademark gore in his next film, the controversial Straw Dogs (1971). Still, The Ballad of Cable Hogue is less an anomaly for a master of violence than an ironically charming chapter in Peckinpah's career-long elegy to the western. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 (Alternate Wide Screen)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV, Color
• Subtitle: English, French, Spanish
• Features:
  • • cc Commentary by Peckinpah biographers/documentarians Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle
    • New featurette The Ladiest Dam'd Lady: an afternoon with actress Stella Stevens
    • Vintage featurette Sam Peckinpah West: A Study of the Filmmaker
    • Sam Peckinpah trailer gallery

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Sam Peckinpah

• Producer:

  William Faralla, Phil Feldman, Sam Peckinpah

• Screenwriter:

  Edmund Penney, John Crawford

• Cinematographer:

  Lucien Ballard

• Composer (Music Score):

  Richard Gillis

• Songwriter:

  Richard Gillis

• Composer (Music Score):

  Jerry Goldsmith

• Songwriter:

  Jerry Goldsmith

• Editor:

  Lou Lombardo, Frank Santillo

• Art Director:

  Leroy Coleman

• Set Designer:

  Jack Mills

• Costume Designer:

  Robert Fletcher

REVIEW:

• The Ballad of Cable Hogue seems an uncharacteristic movie for Sam Peckinpah, one of the masters of screen violence. In fact, the timing of this likable fable is remarkable, sandwiched between Peckinpah's two most disturbing examinations of violent human frenzy, The Wild Bunch and Straw Dogs. Not that Cable Hogue is exactly a walk in the flower garden: it features back-stabbing, murder, prostitution, greed, and a crooked preacher. But, as with Junior Bonner two years later, there is no denying the warm-hearted nature of this outing. In fact, for someone who had supposedly buried the revisionist western the year before with The Wild Bunch, Peckinpah keeps things nice and light, even in the darkest moments. Visual jokes and even slapstick are not out of bounds here. A lot of credit for keeping the balance of this tone must go to Jason Robards as Cable, who always has a surly, jocular look on his face. David Warner, Peckinpah staple and one of the most underrated actors of the Seventies, is also superbly waggish as the devilish man of God, Joshua Sloane. ~ Brendon Hanley, Rovi