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.
In this season
Cinema
Cross of Iron + intro
Set in 1943, this explosive epic centres on Corporal Steiner, an accomplished but war-weary combat veteran leading a group of German soldiers on the Russian…
Cinema
The Getaway + intro
A recently released ex-con and his loyal wife go on the run after a heist goes awry.
Cinema
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
When a Mexican land baron puts a million dollars on the head of the man who seduced his daughter, two money-hungry men recruit a small-town…
Cinema
The Wild Bunch + panel discussion
Arguably the greatest of all modern westerns, Peckinpah’s seminal film made the western genre accessible for a new generation of filmmakers in the 1970s. A…