Sam Peckinpah

Sam Peckinpah (1925–1984) was an American filmmaker whose Westerns and action films — including The Wild Bunch (1969), Straw Dogs (1971) and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974) — combined visceral violence with elegiac formal control and a sustained critique of American mythology. Straw Dogs remained one of the most controversial films in British censorship history, refused a video classification certificate until 2002. Peckinpah was the subject of a BFI Distribution reissue programme in 1995.

  • BFI Avant-Garde Catalogue 1994, front cover, close-up of porcelain doll face, two pink circular film stills overlaid BFI Distribution New Releases 1994/95, front, bold typographic title, black-and-white still captioned Eyes Without a Face

    BFI Avant-Garde Catalogue 1994, with Distribution Materials, British Film Institute, London, 1994

    BFI Avant-Garde Catalogue 1994, with Distribution Materials, British Film Institute, London, 1994