The Ballad of Cable Hogue

It's 1908. The West has changed. Grizzled frontiersman Cable Hogue (Jason Robards) hasn't. Despite the fortune he's made selling water to thirsty desert travelers, he lies in wait. Someday two no-account desert rats -- who long ago robbed Hogue and left him to die in the baking Arizona sand -- will drop by for a drink. After the violence of The Wild Bunch, director Sam Peckinpah shifted moods with this memorable fable, less a tale of revenge than it is a lyrical, touching tribute to the last days of the West's pioneering spirit. Stella Stevens and David Warner lead an excellent supporting cast that also includes L.Q. Jones and Strother Martin as Hogue's old enemies.

• comedy
• western