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Ballad of Cable Hogue
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Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0085391129837
Format: Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
Label: Warner Home Video
Languages: English (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Warner Home Video
Release Date: August 02, 1993
Running Time: 122 minutes
Studio: Warner Home Video
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Editorial Review:
What does it tell us that Sam Peckinpah's most joyous and life-affirming movie is also his most underappreciated? The Ballad of Cable Hogue was made in that singular moment when, having just completed The Wild Bunch, Peckinpah knew he was back in the game as a feature-film director; and before anyone (including Peckinpah himself?) had an inkling of how completely he was about to redefine the Western genre, contemporary American filmmaking, and his own personal legend.
Cable Hogue is a splendiferous entertainment: a grufty Western tall tale, a lusty comedy, and also (in critic Kathleen Murphy's phrase) "a musical about the economic and emotional complexities of capitalism." Its title character--Jason Robards in a great, exuberant gift of a performance--is an ornery varmint left by two scurrilous partners (L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin) to die in the desert. Through pure cussedness and what may be dumb luck, may be divine intervention, he "finds water where it wasn't" and survives. Nothing to do now but settle back, let his waterhole--the only one on the stage line between Deaddog and Gila--make him a rich man, and await the day those two old partners drop by his waystation.
Besides such Peckinpah regulars as Slim Pickens, R.G. Armstrong, and Gene Evans, the movie features Stella Stevens in her career-best role as Hildy, Hogue's best reason for getting into town now and again, and David Warner, an itinerant preacher and full-time lech who becomes his soulmate. Lucien Ballard photographed, and there's a charming song score (by Richard Gillis) whose neglect is as mystifying as that of the film. Above all, there is Sam Peckinpah exulting in the lyrical, heart-filling possibilities of making a motion picture, trying just about anything, and finding it beautiful. This film was his personal favorite. --Richard T. Jameson
Sam Peckinpah's light-hearted, rambunctious ode to the dying Wild West, with Jason Robards as a rascally prospector who transforms a desert water-hole into big business. Year: 1970 Director: Sam Peckinpah Starring: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Not without merit despite juvenile comedy and Peckinpah's misogyny
Confounding expectation, Peckinpah's follow up to "The Wild Bunch" is a broad comedy. The humour is on a pretty juvenile level though and a scene in the middle where a drunken priest (David Warner) consoles a grieving woman is particularly idiotic and demeaning to women (one could write a whole thesis about Peckinpah's misogyny and generally warped attitude to women). Despite this, Peckinpah does recreate the atmosphere of an old Western town and extends the boundaries of the Western genre.
Rating:  - Dying Of Thirst In The Desert? Stop By And See Cable Hogue!!!
I enjoyed The Ballad of Cable Hogue alot. It's quite a wonderful, lesser-known cinematic gem from 1970 and certainly not your typical western, which is a good thing. Out of all of director Sam Peckinpah's numerous westerns, this one is probably the most viewer-friendly and identifiable.
The story concerns titular frontiersman Cable Hogue (the great Jason Robards) doing his best to live out a minimalist existence while resisting change out on the western Arizona/Nevada plains in the ... Read More
Rating: - Great . . . but
As other reviewers have pointed out, this is a feel-good gem (unlike so much of the director's movie work---not TV, though): great cast, great acting, well directed, lovely story, if a trifle "episodic". Meaning too long. Could'a been about a half hour shorter.
Rating:  - Thirsty for a good western? Here it is.
This is a great western. Nontraditional? Yes, but in a good way. The story is a quick tale of revenge and regret. A window into how a man's soul can be spoiled be hate and greed. All in all, not a bad example of the 60s western. I would suggest everyone see this one.
Rating: - Love Stella Stevens
Oh My; Stella Stevens! How do I love you!? Let me count the ways! Love this film.
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