One of the great westerns...

...in fact it's my personal favorite. Slow and majestic, yet gritty and tough with plenty to say about how the times were/are a-changin' (there's certainly parallels to be drawn with Peckinpah and the studio system). This director's cut is an improvement in many ways over the studio-butchered original, but, sadly, we do lose the scene where Slim Pickens' character dies to the soundtrack of Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". A pity.

Dylan, by the way, gives an enjoyably eccentric (Chaplinesque?) performance, but the real stars here are Kristofferson and Coburn (which, as they're playing the title roles, is as it should be). Both are first class.

Highlights include the Kid singing to the townsfolk of Lincoln after he's tricked the guards, and the scene where Garrett makes Alias read out the labels of a whole shelf of canned goods. And the inevitable finale still manages to be wonderful cinema.

"What you want and what you get are two different things!" - Well, Peckinpah certainly found that out when the film was first released, but this cut is something else. Rent or buy as soon as you can.

Did I rent the wrong version?

While recently reading Howard Sounes' "Down the Highway - The Life of Bob Dylan," I rented this movie at my local video place. The "baby-faced" Kris Kristofferson is well worth the price of rental. Dylan's performance is one long wry wink at the Western genre. I watched the movie three times and still never heard Bob *SING* "Knockin' on Heaven's Door." Sure, there's a haunting instrumental version accompanying Chill Will's death walk to the creek bed, but I thought I remembered Bob singing it in the theatrically released version?

this needs to be on DVD!

This is a wonderful Western. Extremely stylish. Both Colburn and Kristofferson are cooler than cool. You might also want to check out the Last Days of Frank and Jesse James. It lacks Peckinpah's style and is a tv movie, but it's on DVD and Kristofferson is great as Jesse James.