The Ballad of Cable Hogue

Director Sam Peckinpah followed his epic Westerns Major Dundee and The Wild Bunch with 1970's The Ballad of Cable Hogue, a chamber piece set in a rapidly changing Old West. The story charts the rise of a man literally from the dust, through the zigs and zags of fortune and love. Jason Robards gives a magnificent performance as Cable Hogue, a failed prospector left to die without water in a merciless Arizona desert. Cajoling and admonishing God for four days, Hogue stumbles across a life-saving underground spring, which becomes not only his physical salvation but also the means for micro-success and self-respect. Establishing a crude station selling water and food to horse-drawn wagon passengers briefly stopping on a route between two thriving towns, Hogue's tiny stake in the vanishing frontier also becomes a stopover for other kinds of wayfarers, including a prostitute named Hildy (Stella Stevens) with big plans of her own, and a rather devious preacher (David Warner) who roams the world and thrives on the hospitality of others. Peckinpah presents it all like a horse-opera tale from the Old Testament, including an Adam and Eve story for the ages (with snakes never far from the action), acts of revenge and forgiveness, and a passion between lovers that runs deep. The Ballad of Cable Hogue makes its debut on Blu-ray with extras including audio commentary by Peckinpah historians, a vintage featurette on Peckinpah, and a new featurette with Stevens. Highly recommended. (T. Keogh)