The film casts an unsparing eye on the characters’ hypocritical notions of honor.

Even in the maimed state in which it has been released, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is the richest, most exciting American film so far this year. There are moments and whole sequences here that stand among the best Peckinpah has ever achieved.

Unfortunately, a number of things, such as a clutch of clichés merely remolded to sound different, mar and flaw the otherwise interesting, certainly visually attractive, interpretation by Peckinpah.

A grisly and ruminative film even compared to the rest of Peckinpah’s nihilistic Rogue’s gallery.