Sam Peckinpah's last western has the director retreating from the bloodbath of The Wild Bunch while he pursues a revisionist history that is no less devastating. Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) is advised by his old friend, Pat Garrett (James Coburn), to leave Fort Sumner for Mexico; he fails to heed the advice and is betrayed. For his first album in three years, Bob Dylan scored the music to the film; he also plays Alias, a bizarre character that joins Billy after his infamous escape from a Lincoln County jail. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" became a huge hit, and Dylan's work led him to record and then tour with The Band. The quiet elegance of Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid is echoed in I'm Not There's western segment—which features a Richard Gere who calls himself Billy and longs for the simplicity of the Old West. 35mm Cinemascope
1973, color, 1 hour 55 minutes, USA