Peckinpah's Iconic Hollywood Backdrop

Whatever criticisms could be leveled at Sam Peckinpah, no one could question his dedication to a film project once it was under way. He labored away at it like a fiend. It became the thing; nothing else much mattered. He was too deep into his alcoholism to give up drinking altogether, but he cut way back. Compared to his consumption during the previous hunting trip in Ely, Nevada—when he took his nephew to the local whorehouses to get laid and Sam wound up dead drunk on wire spools in the back of a truck—he was almost a model of sobriety. He limited himself to drinking beer at night after work was complete. Contrary to the reputation he developed in the 1970s, he was never drunk on the set while he was working on The Wild Bunch. Too much was on the line for him, both professionally and artistically. His intensity was unmatched by anyone else's. He was at his creative best as he created The Wild Bunch, the story that had obsessed him for more than a year now.