exception of the rather silly slapstick, director Sam Peckinpah handles all these elements superbly, particularly the social commentary, spiritual elements and love story. Much credit is due to a fine cast, particularly actress Stella Stevens and actor David Warner, who both deserved Oscar nominations. Stevens, as the prostitute, "Hildy," mines the "...heart of gold" and hits the mother lode. Hers is one of the all time great performances by an actress. Warner's manipulative preacher, "Josh," manages to be alternately witty, lecherous, noble and profound, without missing a beat.The best I can say about Jason Robards as "Cable" is, if you loved his character, "Cheyenne" from "Once Upon a Time in the West," you love his "Cable Hogue."Don't read the plot of this movie. Go in as I did in 1970, not knowing what to expect. You'll be amused, touched, aroused particularly if your a male and saddened. It's all here. How many films can you say that about?I give "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" a "10."

them time. I used it in a class I taught on the History of Religion at the college level. The movie examines religious values, hypocrisy and piety in a very interesting way. This is by far one of the best films ever made. A timeless classic. Everyone should see this movie.

be someone out there that has not seen the movie yet, but I highly recommend this movie. It is pure enjoyment and I am hoping that it is re-released in DVD with Dolby stereo enhancement, cause the music at the beginning is very moving. You will be humming that tune for the rest of your life. Thank you for reading my input. I would appreciate an email if the movie will be out on DVD someday.

has to find water, which he does, then establish a business for the stage line, which he is able to do, and show a profit. All this happens, and after several years of waiting, the two former friends do happen onto his way station, and a touch of revenge is extracted by Cable upon the two who left him in the desert.This film has some remarkable elements; a great supporting cast led by Stella Stevens, playing Hildy, David Warner portrays a lecherous preacher who becomes Hogue's partner in the desert, and Strother Martin and L. Q. Jones add the touch of villiany this film needed. Also, the musical background will stay with the viewer long after the final credits have rolled. This movie is a fantastic portrayal of the fading era of the west, and Peckinpah left the public with a classic. 9/10, easily.

collapses during a sandstorm and finds mud on his boot, after digging down for a while he finds the miracle of water though Hogue badly misspells this on his advertisement . An encounter with preacher Joshua convinces Hogue to go patent his spring and make a killing selling water to the passing stagecoach trail that runs by his newly found oasis. After striking a deal in the town of Dead Dog, Hogue is set up nicely while into the bargain he falls for gorgeous prostitute Hildy. The film cheekily just like Hogue has established itself as a fine piece by the time it takes it's dark turn. It seems that revenge is the new found recipe on the Cable Springs Menu.This was Sam Peckinpah's favourite film from his own CV, it's his most personal, he apparently saw a lot of himself in Cable Hogue, and with that in mind the film does gain a bit more emotional heart. But strikingly, it's the humour in there that shouldn't be understated, this was the director at one with himself, and the result is lyrical deftness. The cast are great, Jason Robards is wonderful in the title role, Stella Stevens as Hildy shows a fine actress at work. So much so it only makes me lament that she didn't have a great and industrious career post Cable Hogue. Peckinpah faves Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones & Slim Pickens reward their loyal director with impacting shows, while David Warner as the confused preacher Joshua practically steals the film with his hedonistic leanings.Don't go into this film expecting a blood and thunder Western and you will be pleasantly surprised at it's heartbeat. Different sort of Peckinpah, but it's also essential Peckinpah. 9/10

Peckinpah not only had poetic depth; he also had wide range in talent. This little film showcases the lighter side of Sam Peckinpah. "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" may be a Masterpiece of film-making that is overlooked for its simplicity, jagged haggard look and lack of violence. It appears that Sam Peckinpah used 'Cable Hogue' to explore the experience 'Change' in a lonely man who's life long creed is:Treat everybody the way you want to be treated, as he gets second chance at life and seems to be reaping the karma from the good he has sowed throughout his miserable life. After we first meet Cable Hogue Jason Robards giving one of his BEST screen performances , his 'partners' shoot him for his water in the desert and leave him for dead. He survives; meeting the likes of a wayward reverend played to the hilt by David Warner! Cable accidentally finds he's above an oasis of water. He goes to the nearest town and purchases the land, when meets an angelic prostitute Hildy, played by Stella Steven in her most acclaimed role of her career! Although she'll be damned if she knows why, they fall head of heels in love with each other. He builds his well for a watering stop for the stage coaches and his home he hopes Hildy will share with him in. Then his partners, who left him for dead, return. I hope with the DVD release of one of Sam Peckinpah's finest achievements in film-making gains the wide audience it deserves.

become an endearing Hogue standard, he brushes aside four days of hell, and brags to the heavens: "I did it! Me…Hogue…"Peckinpah's comic Western is a surprisingly moving eulogy to the fading West of old, whose badge of honor is worn by the title character, a walking anachronism whose base, day-to-day self-preservation is in fierce conflict with a newfound sophistication granted by new modes of transportation and the construction of the town as an epicenter of commerce. Poor Hogue's time has hopelessly passed; we see how out of touch he is when he rides into town to register a claim for his two-acre would-be oasis. The final moments suggest the impossibility of rustic living, as the film mourns the passing of a certain kind of self-dependence. By contrast, this new order, by imposing tyrannies of interdependence and civility, puts an ironic strain on the formerly dignified if not harmonious relations between men. Because men are primitive and dissolute by nature, Peckinpah might as well cry, one can only discredit these inclinations by prettifying them and pretending they don't exist.

to die out in a desert three years earlier. Hogue wants revenge. Taggart and Bowen, of course, do eventually show up.But the film is uninterested in violence, vengeance, and the genre's usual assortments of gun-play, money grubbing and double-crossing. Instead, Peckinpah turns the film into something more unconventional. Though it's primarily a comedy – Peckinpah's trademark slow-motion bloodbaths become fast, sped up comedy routines – the film is also very moody, lyrical and romantic. Peckinpah's more concerned with lingering on Robard's tired, bearded face, the loving glint in Cable's eyes and the charming way this rough and tumble mountain-man does his best to act gentlemanly and proper around a local hooker called Hildy. She's "the ladiest lady" his eyes have ever laid upon, you see.Contrasted with the chivalrous Hogue is a character called Joshua brilliantly played by David Warner , a sex obsessed preacher who uses Christ and Bible as an excuse to get close to any woman he can. The film's dialogue is great – Robards, always a likable actor, has some endearing moments – but it's Warner who gets the best lines. Whenever he's on screen he's waxing poetic about female body parts, or finding some way to twist Biblical prose into pornography.Peckinpah was always a Romantic. His heroes are all misunderstood outcasts, wounded macho-idealists who flee hell only to end up in worse hell holes. Without hope or future his heroes are content with what little time and pleasures they have left, the latter often amounting to nothing more than some nickle, land, or a fine lady at their sides to help lick their wounds. These women tend to be hookers and whores, not because Peckinpah's a pervert or misogynist, but because, like Van Gogh, he and his heroes identify with the beaten and downtrodden.Peckinpah called "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" his most autobiographical film. There are no drugs or heavy boozers here Peckinpah was a notorious alcoholic and addict , but Cable does echo Peckinpah's life in other ways. He abandons the towns and cities, moves off into the wilderness, finds some land for himself, becomes a ragged pauper king and then muses about his legacy before dying. "Was I a violent man or a kind man?" Hogue broods, "a killer or a lover?" Peckinpah, of course, grew up on ranches, was virtually kicked out of Hollywood, made a home in the scrublands of Mexico, had a temperament that bounced from violent king to kind, quiet artist, became worried about his films' portrayal of violence, then found himself resorting to dumb, impersonal action thrillers to keep his career alive. He sees the best and worst of himself in Houge.Regardless, "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" is Peckinpah's gentlest, most introspective film. Like "Two Mules For Sister Sarah", a western released the same year by Peckinpah's mentor, Don Siegel, it's also unashamedly offbeat and free-spirited. If the film treads wrong, it's in an overly literal climax, in which an automobile runs over Hogue, mechanisation and the "new", "civilized" world literally heralding the death of the cowboy. This tired cliché and banal observation is found in virtually every post "Liberty Valance" western.8/10 – Worth one viewing. Some more excellent, unconventional westerns from this period: "Bad Company", "The Beguiled", "Two Mules For Sister Sarah", "The Long Riders", "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid", "The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean", "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson", "The Shootist" etc.

central themes in previous as well as subsequent Peckinpah westerns, of changing times in the west at the turn of the century. It's a character study, with the Hogue himself symbolizing the life and death of the old west.Peckinpah's favorite of his films, it appears at least to me he tried to replicate the feel of this three years later, in Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, with mixed results.