“If they move, kill ’em” – Sam Peckinpah and Action Cinema

Sam Peckinpah is perhaps one of the most innovative and influential action orientated directors in the history of cinema. 

His inclusion of viscerally kinetic sequences in genre films created new benchmarks for how filmmakers in Hollywood and beyond created on-screen action.

Combining montage film editing techniques with other formal elements such as slow motion, stunt work, special effects and sound, Peckinpah and his creative teams continually re-imagined the art of cinematic action and in doing so re-invigorated established genres such as the western, the war movie, and the heist film. 

This season showcases the range of Peckinpah’s work across genres, and invites audiences to reconsider the filmmaker’s influence on contemporary action movies from John Wick to RRR. 

Season curated by Andy Willis, Professor of Film Studies at University of Salford and Senior Visiting Curator: Film at HOME.