Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (Criterion) 06/24 Blu-ray (Rental)

Sam Peckinpah’s cycle of genre-redefining westerns came to a close with this blood- and dust-caked elegy for the American West, which marries his renegade style with a fatalistic sense of finality. As newly minted lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) stalks the outlaw Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) across the plains, their old friendship is twisted into rivalry, and mythic ideals of freedom come up against an emerging ruling-class order—all to the strains of a haunting soundtrack by Bob Dylan (who also appears as the mercurial Alias). Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid—presented here for the first time in three separate versions—stands as perhaps the maverick auteur’s richest, most mature work, a world-weary ballad that bears the solemn weight of history passing into legend. TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New 4K digital restoration of the 50th Anniversary Release, supervised by editors Paul Seydor and Roger Spottiswoode, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack New 4K digital restoration of the Original Theatrical Release, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary for the 50th Anniversary Release featuring Seydor, Spottiswoode, and critic Michael Sragow New 2K digital master of director Sam Peckinpah’s Final Preview Cut, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Dylan in Durango, a new interview with author Clinton Heylin about the film’s soundtrack Passion & Poetry: Peckinpah’s Last Western, a new documentary by Mike Siegel about the making of the film Archival interview with actor James Coburn Trailer and TV spots English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by author Steve Erickson