Bob Dylan redeems the otherwise forgettable Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid

There's one reason, maybe, to go back and watch Sam Peckinpah's "Pat Garret & Billy the Kid," and that's the startling performance by a young Bob Dylan as a slow-witted would-be gunslinger - and also to enjoy the Dylan musical score, including some instrumental passages, some rarely heard songs, and the classic (composed for this movie) Knockin' on Heaven's Door. As to the movie, in its day it was considered extremely violent - seen today it looks goofy and fake compared with the violence we see in so many shows, e.g., The Wire - but that said, despite the obvious fake blood, there's an incredible almost absurd amount of shooting and fighting, all "choreographed" really well, you can't help but be impressed by Peckinpah's ability to bring this off - but in the end, why did he? And why would anyone put up with it? After about 10 minutes of watching the blam-blam-blam of bullets hammering into walls, doors, animals, people - I thought Peckinpah must have been a truly disturbed guy. So we didn't watch through the whole movie (I'd seen it years ago), but checked out some of the funny Dylan scenes, such as his first words: Who are you?, Garrett asks. That's a good question, says Dylan (called "Alias," I think). The greatest scene of all is when Garrett protectively wants the baby-faced Dylan out of the way when he blasts away at a few guys, so he tells Dylan to take an inventory of the country store. Garrett's shooting is punctuated by Dylan's ingenuous recitation: beans, beans, succotash, quality salmon, beef stew! This scene alone redeems the movie.