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Peckinpah's Women

A Reappraisal of the Portrayal of Women in the Period Westerns of Sam Peckinpah

Bill Mesce author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Scarecrow Press

Published:3rd Oct '01

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Peckinpah's Women cover

At his peak, from the late 1960s through the early 1970s, Sam Peckinpah was hailed as one of the new masters of the Western film, while simultaneously becoming one of the most controversial American directors of the era. In a time of great social turmoil, Peckinpah's on-screen orchestration of physical and emotional violence drew adamant praise for what some considered fearless realism and vehement criticism for what others called tasteless gore and brutal misogyny. Debate over the violence and sexual themes of Peckinpah's films often eclipsed aesthetic appreciation of his work. A favorite target of 1970s feminist critics, feminist social debate, combined with the director's own combative persona usually prevented reasoned evaluation of his films. A prevalent auteurist view did not recognize how Peckinpah was subject to the whims and character of an industry in which he rarely navigated successfully. While the passage of time has muted the initial shock value of his filmed violence, no similar reappraisal has ever dealt with those initial misperceptions of misogyny, and looked to reevaluate his on-screen treatment of women. Peckinpah's Women examines the confluence of factors that worked with, and often against, Peckinpah's cinematic voice to divine a recurring positive theme regarding women in those films that form the heart of his body of work: his period Westerns.

...a thoughtful, compelling, and insightful analysis....Peckinpah's films are reappraised in Peckinpah's Women in order to better understand the multitude of conflicting factors that affected one man's silver screen stories and how he told them. Especially recommended reading for those with a strong interest in the history and future of western film studies in general, and the cinematic work of Sam Peckinpah in particular, Peckinpah's Women is a scholarly, critical book, and a welcome addition to personal, professional, and academic Film Studies reference collections. * Midwest Book Review *
Groundbreaking…illuminating…Mesce reignites and broadens the debate over gender in the films of the era's most celebrated director of Westerns. * Western American Literature *
Mesce's book offers more than its title promises, on several accounts....Mesce provides an excellent biographical sketch that makes no bones about Peckinpah's failings as a person and at the same time praises the aesthetic value of some of his films....A valuable introduction to Peckinpah and the controversy that surrounds his work, the book includes excellent scholarly apparatus and is recommended for all collections. * CHOICE *

ISBN: 9780810840669

Dimensions: 224mm x 143mm x 18mm

Weight: 376g

248 pages