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7''Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'' is a 1973 film directed by Creator/SamPeckinpah, starring Creator/JamesCoburn and Creator/KrisKristofferson.
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9New Mexico Territory, 1881: Pat Garrett (Coburn) rides into the town of Fort Sumter to find his old friend, legendary outlaw UsefulNotes/BillyTheKid (Kristofferson). After a friendly greeting where they reminisce about old times for a little bit, Garrett delivers some news: he has been appointed county sheriff, he has been ordered to chase Billy out of Lincoln County if Billy doesn't leave in the next six days, and he intends to do it.
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11Billy doesn't leave, so six days later Garrett and his posse surround Billy's hideout and take him prisoner. Billy, however, escapes from the Lincoln County Jail, killing two deputies in the process. Garrett, offered a bounty of $1000, then goes hunting after Billy.
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13A famous TroubledProduction. Peckinpah re-wrote the script, and argued with Creator/MetroGoldwynMayer throughout about cost overruns. Peckinpah's alcoholism was also a big problem on the set. MGM took the film from Peckinpah in post-production and cut 18 minutes off the 124-minute run time. A DirectorsCut of 122 minutes was finally issued in 1988. A slightly shorter version of 115 minutes was reedited for the DVD release in 2005.
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15The AllStarCast includes Creator/RichardJaeckel, Creator/ChillWills, Creator/BarrySullivan, Creator/JasonRobards, Creator/KatyJurado (who 20 years prior had starred in another Western classic, ''Film/HighNoon''), Creator/SlimPickens, Creator/CharlesMartinSmith, Creator/HarryDeanStanton, Creator/ElishaCookJr, and none other than Music/BobDylan, who plays a hoodlum named Alias. Dylan also composed the soundtrack, which includes [[BreakawayPopHit one of the biggest hits of his career]], "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".
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18!!Tropes:
19* AbnormalAmmo: Billy kills Sheriff Olinger with his own shotgun filled with sixteen dimes used as slugs. Olinger had been taunting Billy about it leading up to it.
20* AntiHero: Pat Garrett is an ex-outlaw pressured by political and business interests to turn against his old friend Billy. Billy himself, though, is a borderline sociopath who seems to enjoy killing people.
21* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Like most fictional works about Billy the Kid, it exaggerates the closeness of his friendship with Pat Garrett. Billy and Garrett certainly knew each other, but their relationship probably wasn't closer than occasionally drinking and gambling together at the same saloons in Lincoln. Certainly there's no evidence that they were close enough that Garrett felt he was "betraying" Billy by tracking him down. Historians believe that Garrett exaggerated his closeness to Billy to [[RuleOfDrama make his memoirs more compelling]], which fictional treatments like Peckinpah's further embellish.
22* AttemptedRape: Chisum's mooks are whipping a Mexican man to death and are about to rape his wife when Billy swoops in and shoots them. He saves the wife but the husband dies.
23* BondOneLiner: Having shot Sheriff Olinger with a gun loaded with dimes, Billy quips, "Keep the change, Bob".
24* BringMyBrownPants: After Garrett kills an outlaw in an inn, the innkeeper says "You just made me have a bowel movement in my pants, Garrett. I ain't ever gonna forgive you for this."
25* ButForMeItWasTuesday: At one point a group of gunmen try to take on Billy's gang, led by one in particular who keeps insinuating that he knows Billy, but won't reveal how he knows The Kid. The ensuing shootout is a CurbStompBattle in favor of Billy's gang, and afterward Billy wonders who the men were. He concludes that it's far too soon since his latest escape from prison for bounty hunters to be after him, and says, "I guess it really must have been something personal." He thinks about it for another few seconds before he gives up trying to figure out who the guy was and goes back to eating lunch.
26* CreatorCameo: Screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer appears as Tom O'Folliard, one of Billy's gang members.
27* TheDyingWalk: Sheriff Baker does this at the end of a gunfight where Garrett, Sheriff Baker, and Baker's wife/deputy raided the hideout of some outlaws with links to Billy the Kid. After being shot several times in the fight, Baker (who had earlier told about how he was going to sail away on a boat he was building once he retired) walks away from the fight and staggers over to a tiny creek, where he watches the sunset until he dies. Easily the most famous scene from the movie, helped by the fact that Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (which was composed for the movie) plays in the background.
28* FaceDeathWithDignity: The mortally wounded Sheriff Baker staggers away from a gunfight and dies watching the sunset by the river.
29* {{Fingore}}: Poe attempts to cut off Billy's trigger finger as a keepsake. Pat violently prevents him from doing so.
30* HowWeGotHere: Starts with Pat Garrett being murdered on his ranch in 1909.[[note]]A mistake, as Garrett was actually murdered on Feb. 29, 1908.[[/note]] Then the story picks up in 1881.
31* ImColdSoCold: In Spanish! Billy rescues a Mexican husband and wife from Chisum's goons, but it's too late for the husband, who says "Siento mucho frio", then says "Como te sientes tu, Billy" ("How do you feel?") right before he dies.
32* InTheBack: Billy shoots Deputy Sheriff J.W. Bell in the back while escaping. He begs him not to have to do it, but the man runs, forcing Billy to shoot him.
33* TheKenBurnsEffect: Panning and zooming over stills from the film as the credits roll.
34* MinorCharacterMajorSong: Both in the sense that Music/BobDylan composed the music but played the relatively small role of one of Billy's hangers-on, and the film's BreakawayPopHit "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" being written from the point-of-view of Sheriff Baker as he dies.
35* MoralityPet: Paco, whose scenes give Billy a more sympathetic side and motivation for his revenge against the Santa Fe Ring.
36* NameAndName: ''Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid''.
37* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunfight: Garett shoots Holly when he attacks him with a knife.
38* PartlyCloudyWithAChanceOfDeath: Sheriff Baker somewhat reluctantly accompanies Pat Garrett to raid a bandit's safehouse in an attempt to learn where Billy is holed up, and gets wounded multiple times in the ensuing gunfight. [[TheDyingWalk He walks away from the fight]] to sit beside a small stream and wordlessly look out at the sunset while Music/BobDylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (which was written specifically for that scene) plays in the background.
39* PopStarComposer: Bob Dylan's first attempt at a film score.
40* PriceOnTheirHead: Garrett is offered a thousand dollars for the capture of Billy the Kid, with five hundred dollars upfront. Garrett rejects the money saying they can pay him in full when Billy is brought in.
41* PyrrhicVictory: By the end of the film, it's clear that Garrett realizes that he will lead a conflicted, unhappy life and will be chiefly remembered for killing his friend. Billy, meanwhile, will have most of his bits of sociopathy forgotten by an adoring public (to an extent, this extends to other portrayals of the two, including ''Film/YoungGunsII'').
42* RageAgainstTheReflection: Garrett shoots at his reflection right after shooting Billy.
43* RashEquilibrium: Billy and a deputized ex-crook get into a TenPacesAndTurn kind of duel. When they start taking steps, Billy immediately turns, draws his gun, and waits. When the deputy tries to turn and shoot a couple of steps before reaching ten, Billy's ready for him.
44* ReCut: The film was a particularly infamous case of ExecutiveMeddling, culminating in Creator/{{MGM}} actually taking the film away from Peckinpah and releasing a considerably shorter version that nearly the entire cast panned and refused to be associated with. A director's cut version was shown once, but didn't make it to the general public until 15 years after the film's initial release. And just to make things more confusing, the DVD has 3 different versions.
45* {{Retirony}}: Shefiff Baker was planning on building a boat and sailing away upon retiring. He doesn't get that chance, but he does at least die near water.
46* RidingIntoTheSunset: PlayedWith, as Garrett rides off into the sunrise. It doesn't symbolise a new beginning: Garrett's life is completely ruined, nothing left except remorse and loneliness. It symbolizes the death of the Old West and also the whole genre.
47* RobbingTheDead: Garrett angrily hits Poe for attempting to cut off Billy's trigger finger.
48* ShirtlessScene: Billy is shirtless in his final moments.
49* TenPacesAndTurn: Billy gets in a duel and when they start counting, he simply turns, draws his gun and waits. When his opponent doesn't wait till ten before turning, Billy calmly shoots him.
50* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Where Mrs. Baker keeps her bullets. She plucks several out of the Compartment during the shootout with Black Harris.
51* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Although it's the kind of movie where there's no real heroes or villains, Billy is largely presented as a sociopathic murderer and bandit who is nevertheless widely admired by the populace as a folk hero and rebel outlaw.
52* WouldHitAGirl: Garrett roughs up a prostitute named Ruthie Lee to gain Billy's whereabouts.
53* YouWouldntShootMe: Billy has retrieved a hidden gun and gotten the drop on Bell the deputy. Bell says "You wouldn't shoot me InTheBack, Billy," and turns to flee. Billy shoots him in the back.

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