The Gothic Peckinpah

This book argues for the importance of Gothic in understanding one of the key elements within the films of Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984). Although occasionally noted in the past, the Gothic has been generally overlooked when most critics consider the work of Sam Peckinpah with the exception of the Freudian based Crucified Heroes (1979) by Terence Butler. This work not only examines the films made after that date, especially the often dismissed The Osterman Weekend (1983) and the two music videos he made for Julian Lennon, but also places the director within the context of the developing work on Gothic that has since appeared.

Peckinpah has been identified as the director of one undisputed masterpiece, The Wild Bunch (1969). By focussing on the key role Gothic plays in most of the director’s work, this book offers a way to see Peckinpah beyond The Wild Bunch and the Western, viewing him as a director who had the potential of evolving further, had circumstances permitted, to continue his critique of American life within the developing lens of the Gothic.

Tony Williams is a film scholar whose previous publications include: Larry Cohen: The Radical Allegories of an American Filmmaker. Revised Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co, 2014; Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film. Updated Edition, Jackson, M.I.: the University of Mississippi Press, 2014; George A, Romero: Knight of the Living Dead. Second Edition. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015; James Jones: The Limits of Eternity. Lanham, MD.: Rowman and Littlefield, 2016; and Hong Kong Neo-Noir. Co-edited with Esther C.M. Yau. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2017.