MovieChat Forums > The Killer Elite (1975) Discussion > Peckinpah Misogynistic Scum Bag

Peckinpah Misogynistic Scum Bag


Sam Peckinpah is a misogynistic bastard, and a scum bag, his films are full of women hating venom that is a throw back to some rancid dark ages that is better buried rather than celebrated. Look at crap like 'Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia,' wherein a prostitute at the piano bar is gratuitously clocked and knocked to the floor with a bloody mouth; what is THAT all about? Later on violence is visited upon Sonia Braga, also for no good reason. Jump to Peckinpah's so-called masterwork, 'The Wild Bunch' and the way the prostitutes here are treated -- with unaccountable viciousness. Jump again to 'The Getaway' and the way that Steve McQueen manhandles Ali MacGraw, slapping her around, belittling her; it is pointless woman-hating treatment. In both the 'Osterman Weekend" and 'Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid' there are scenes of routine brutality inflicted on women, to no real purpose other than to feed Peckinpah's sadism. Moreover it is a well-reported fact that while filming 'Pat Garrett' Peckinpah's crew buried live chickens up to their necks in sand, only their heads were visible, and then used these poor live animals for target practice, shooting their heads off. Since it was in Mexico, there was no animal protection. Any way you look at Sam Peckinpah, he is a real jerk, an embarrassment. Critics seem to be in love with Sam Peckinpah, and there are moments in a few of his films that stand out like the blown up bridge scene in 'The Wild Bunch.' However the great majority of what Peckinpah fobs off as exceptional is sub-par trite pedestrian. Look once more at 'The Wild Bunch' the scene where one of the gang has to be left behind and Ernest Borgnine goes on about 'saying a prayer, having a church supper, etc.' Any way you look at it, it is absurd, and frankly stinks on its face. It is common knowledge that Sam Peckinpah was a burned out coke-head and virtually unemployable which is obvious from the films-as-garbage that he was responsible for. If he was just a hack it would be one thing, but that he used his pictures to showcase his vicious treatment of women is unpardonable. More cinematic vomit like the Killer Elite with its repetitious shots of topless women (for no purpose), and the Osterman Weekend, which both resorted to slo-mo death scenes demonstrate how out of it Peckinpah really was. BTW he was thrown off of the movie the Cincinnati Kid, since he insisted on using a bunch of nude scenes which had zero to do with the story. He was a real jerk and any honest analysis of the rotting manure pile of his films will reveal that.

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You have a great deal of issues, but you dealing with them in the wrong way....I beg you..Please, please get some help!

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Maybe you have never been married,try it an you will feel the same way.

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[deleted]

I'm still laughing!

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Sonia Braga was not in Alfredo Garcia; the actress was Isela Vega.

It's been chronicled in Peckinpah biographies that the chickens killed onscreen in Pat Garrett were then cleaned and cooked for a meal served to the production's cast and crew. I eat chicken and I think it's pretty darn tasty. Somebody has to kill 'em before they go into the stew. I suppose it might have been nicer if those same chickens had been decapitated manually at some nearby slaughterhouse, then sent to the set for lunch, eh?

A depiction of nasty behavior in a motion picture isn't always intended to be an endorsement of nasty behavior. Some viewers could perceive it as such. Others might not. One of the goals Peckinpah had as a filmmaker peddling morality tales was oftentimes to get his points across via negative example, particularly in the case of Alfredo Garcia.

The slapping scene between McQueen and MacGraw in The Getaway, while shocking, was not pointless. McQueen's character doesn't do it 'just because'; he's reacting, in an admittedly harsh manner, to the realization that his wife cheated on him in order to free him from prison. Taken in the context of that moment in the story, his violent outburst has a point to it-- it's who that character is, like it or not. Gratuitous on the part of the filmmakers? Perhaps. But pointless? Not quite.

And regarding the misogyny charge, think about it: Peckinpah showed far greater numbers of men than women being brutalized and slaughtered onscreen in his films. Which would make him not a misogynist, but a misanthrope (i.e. hates everbody).


Please Clean Up After Your Pet Peeves

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Looks like another film school drop-out, having to - finally - admit he has zero talent and is still living with mommy and needs an outlet for his frustrations.

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What do you have against topless/naked women?

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You say all that as if those are bad things. What's wrong with you?

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[deleted]

I was about to jump all over the OP, but, Cheapthriller79 did an excellent job.

The OP was all broke up about the chickens? Seriously? What about the poor scorpion in th eopening credits of The Wild Bunch? Oh, the poor scorpion!

As for treatment of women, he should watch the scene in the Cross of Iron when the female Soviet bites off the German's penis....

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[deleted]

Susan George said that during the filming of STRAW DOGS, Peckinpah directed the rape scene involving her by sitting cross-legged next to the bed. She said he was very supportive, gentle and did not leave her side during the shooting of that scene. Peckinpah probably was a jerk during the shooting of many of his films, but so is James Cameron.

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I suggest you see a psychiatrist about your problems. They go far deeper than some movie. Then maybe you should get a life.

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Look on the right side of your keyboard. See the key marked "Enter". On old typewriters (there are no other kind these days) it was called a "Carriage Return".

If you hit that key at the right time, it'll break up your text into things called paragraphs.

Try it, please. We're begging you.

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