Originally posted by wpqx
I do see the similarities between this and Peckinpah's Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, shame in many ways that more people aren't chanelling Peckinpah, I fear his brand of films are going to steadily become more and more out of date.

By "brand of films" do you mean westerns? You're probably right. They've become almost extinct for decades. But maybe Brokeback and Melquiades prove the genre will not completely disappear. Then there's Wenders' soon-to-be-released Don't Come Knocking. Some artists continue to find fresh stories within a western context, it seems. As far as Peck, I'm very excited to finally get to watch (on dvd) his The Ballad of Cable Hogue. Anyone's seen it?

As a side note, I will possibly argue to the death that Ordinary People is the best film of the 80's.

There I go disagreeing again. It's a good movie, but I can think of several movies released in 1980 that I like a lot more: Resnais' My American Uncle, Scorsese's Raging Bull, Kurosawa's Kagemusha, Jaime de Arminan's The Nest, Errol Morris' Gates of Heaven, Polanski's Tess. And several others I like at least as much: Demme's Melvin and Howard, Malle's Atlantic City, Lynch's The Elephant Man, Rush's The Stunt Man, Ivan Zulueta's Arrebato, Kubrick's The Shining, Truffaut's The Last Metro, Breaker Morant,...

I feel the same way about Braveheart and Dances with Wolves. They are good and I'm glad I saw them, but I didn't find them memorable or particularly special. I guess I would fit somewhere in the middle between your admiration for these two movies and Chris' opinions about them.