- Ride the High Country
The fine folks behind the Northwest Chicago Film Society are wrapping up their winter programming on Wed 4/24 with a screening of the Sam Peckinpah film Convoy. (Luckily for us, NCFS is diving straight into its spring/summer offerings the following week; check out the complete schedule here.) Peckinpah’s reputation as an alcoholic with a notoriously irascible personality tends to take precedence over his films, which is truly a shame considering the singularity of his work. Convoy, the second Peckinpah film screened at the Portage in recent months (the first was Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia), strikes me as an odd but no less worthwhile selection. It’s by no means a perfect film, but as the NCFS website notes, “Convoy is one of those rare films that manages to be weirdly moving and simultaneously kick-ass,” a joy for fans of subversive and strange filmmaking and essential for any Peckinpah completest.
In honor of the screening, you can catch my five favorite Peckinpah films after the jump.
