Ride the High Country

Join us on Bloody Sam: A Peckinpah Fan Podcast for an in-depth discussion of *Ride the High Country* (1962), Sam Peckinpah's underrated early Western masterpiece starring Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott. In episode 2 of our 14-month journey through all of Peckinpah's feature films, host Scott Murphy is joined by writer and film expert Pierce Duncan to explore themes of aging gunfighters, changing times, moral codes, redemption, and the shift from classic to revisionist Westerns.We dive into the film's two distinct halves: the clean, traditional setup and the darker, grittier Coarse Gold sequences that foreshadow Peckinpah's later violent style (The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid). Discover behind-the-scenes facts, the actors' career swan songs, the Hammond brothers as proto-Gorchs, and why this 1962 gem earned a spot in the National Film Registry.Whether you're a Peckinpah completist, a classic Western fan, or new to his work, this episode unpacks why *Ride the High Country* remains essential viewing.