Trivia / Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

• Breakaway Pop Hit: "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan.
• Creator Backlash: According to Kris Kristofferson, Sam Peckinpah was so angry at MGM's re-edit of the film, that he actually urinated on the screen.
• Dawson Casting: Kris Kristofferson was 36 when he played Billy the Kid, who lived to be 21. It should be noted that James Coburn was older than Pat Garrett lived to be.
• Deleted Scene: The film was heavily cut in its original theatrical release. TV airings of the movie through The '70s and The '80s (prior to the release of the Preview Cut) trimmed more explicit scenes of sex and violence, but often included incidental scenes (for instance, Dub Taylor and Elisha Cook Jr.'s cameos as aged prospectors) deleted from the original version to compensate.
• Executive Meddling: Sam Peckinpah was eventually forced out of the production, and MGM President James Aubrey had the film severely cut from two hours and four minutes to one hour and forty-six minutes, resulting in the film being released as a truncated version largely disowned by cast and crew members, and was a critical and financial failure.
• Hostility on the Set: Kris Kristofferson and Sam Peckinpah had several heated arguments during the making of the film, and others on the set often thought it would end up in a fight. Peckinpah, always very confrontational, wanted to fight Kristofferson but said that he feared Kristofferson, a former Army Airborne Ranger, would "kill him". Kristofferson answered, "Yeah, Sam, I think you're right". In spite of this, Peckinpah referred to Kristofferson as a "fucking great guy" and said that working with him was "one of the greatest experiences of my life".
• Romance on the Set: Kris Kristofferson fell in love with on-screen love interest Rita Coolidge and the two were married shortly after filming.
• Troubled Production:
  • The movie filmed almost entirely on location in Durango, Mexico. Dust storms, hot weather and defective cameras delayed shooting from the start. Much of the cast and crew came down with influenza. Peckinpah's severe alcohol problems created tensions with coworkers. In this case though, Executive Meddling proved the most persistent issue: penny-pinching MGM honcho James Aubrey repeatedly slashed the budget and refused to sanction re-shoots for several key scenes. After which the movie was cut from 124 minutes to 106 minutes, smuggled quietly into theaters and flopped. The film sunk into ignominy (aside from its Bob Dylan soundtrack) until the preview cut resurfaced in TheNineties.
  • Dylan recording the soundtrack was something of a mess as well. For one thing, he clashed quite a bit with Jerry Fielding, Peckinpah's usual Associated Composer, who'd been pushed aside into the role of "music supervisor" and wasn't too happy about it. He first attempted to record the music at a studio in Mexico City during a filming break, with an odd mix of American and Mexican musicians, but the sessions didn't produce much usable material (only "Billy 7" made it onto the soundtrack). The remainder was completed in two days in California a month later, with an All-Star Cast of session musicians highlighted by Roger McGuinn on guitar.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Monte Hellman was supposed to direct the film as a follow-up to Two-Lane Blacktop (which was also written by Rudy Wurlitzer). His first choice to play Billy was James Taylor (who starred in "Blacktop").
  • At various stages of the film's gestation, there was talk of Marlon Brando and Jon Voight, Robert Redford and Sam Shepard, and Jack Nicholson and John Denver playing the lead roles.
  • Charlton Heston, Robert Mitchum and Paul Newman were offered the role of Pat Garrett, while Peter Fonda, Don Johnson and Malcolm McDowell were offered the role of Billy the Kid.
  • Al Pacino told a German interviewer in 2014 that he was offered the role of Billy the Kid, but it didn't work out because he couldn't ride a horse. He was also wary of Sam Peckinpah's hard-living reputation.
  • In the original script, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid never met onscreen until the film's conclusion.

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