Sam Peckinpah / USA / 1969 / 145 mins / 35 mm / Cert 18
(Thu 22nd / £3 / 8pm)

Live ORCHESTRA CUBE rescore of Sam Peckinpah's elegiac western, charting the shift in attitudes at the turn of the 20th century marked both a radical departure in the look and tone of action films. Back when slow-motion was a radical aesthetic choice and not an action scene obligation, and brutal violence was largely the staple of Vietnam news bulletins rather than big budget movies, Peckinpah's viscerally ultra-violent poetics were perhaps a little too resonant with contemporary audiences. Now hailed as a classic of the genre, and a watershed of modern film, this fully restored version reveals not only a distinct portrait of the era from which the film hails, but also the genesis of a new way of experiencing action that was to shape a generation of filmmakers and film fans alike. Essential.