A striking use of Japanese characters on this poster for Sam Peckinpah’s 1973 take on the true story of lawman versus outlaw, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. The film starred James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson and featured American musician Bob Dylan in his first film role. Dylan also composed several songs for the soundtrack and released an album of the same name that year, which featured the classic song ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’.

This was Peckinpah’s third western and it’s said that he wanted the film to be the definitive statement on the genre. Sadly, multiple problems beset the production, including budgetary and time constraints, malfunctioning equipment and sick cast and crew members. This led to a falling out between the director and the studio (MGM) and ultimately saw the film being removed from Peckinpah’s control. The footage was roughly edited and cut down before being dumped into cinemas, with an unsurprisingly poor critical and commercial outcome.

In 1988 a director’s cut of the film was released and led to it being given a favourable reappraisal from critics and many now hail the film as one of Peckinpah’s best. In 2005 a third version was released onto DVD, which combines the two cuts and adds in some new material whilst still running shorter than the director’s cut.

The original trailer is on YouTube.

I’ll admit to not having seen this 1975 political spy thriller starring Dirk Bogarde, Ava Gardner and a pre-Bond Timothy Dalton, but going by the lack of information, reviews and discussion of the film on IMDb, I am not alone. It doesn’t appear to have been released on DVD and I could only find evidence of a UK VHS release (on Amazon).

One of the only reviews I could find has this to say:

Permission to kill has got to be one of the WORST films ever made, The directing from Frankel is appaling, The story is needlessly complicated and confusing, and the actors (especially Bogarde) look like they’d rather be somewhere else, but above all absolutely NOTHING happens.

Even if the film is not one to seek out, this poster, with artwork by American artist Robert Tanenbaum, is definitely an interesting one. I really like the composition and use of masking within the shadow of the mysterious ‘Mr Curtis’. Tanenbaum clearly has a thing for horizontal ladies, as evidenced here and on his poster for A Boy and His Dog. The colours work well against the grey background and the title logo is also fairly unusual for the time period (being hand drawn and brightly coloured).

To see other posters I’ve collected by Robert Tanenbaum click here.

The original trailer (with Danish subs) can be found on YouTube.

One of my top three Coen brothers films (with ‘Fargo’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’) and probably my favourite Nic Cage performance (the other contender being ‘Wild at Heart’), I like the simplicity of this US one sheet. I’ve been unable to find out the artist so if anyone knows could you please get in touch or leave a comment.

You might spot a strange looking stain on the bottom of the poster. I’m unsure of its origin, but I like to think Leonard Smalls had something to do with it.

The original trailer is on Youtube here, although it doesn’t do the best job of selling this classic film.