Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973): A return to the western genre that Peckinpah does best, this was originally chopped up to fit into two hours at the expense of plot; see it in the uncut three-hour version if you see it at all. While it's not at the level of the brilliant Wild Bunch/Cable Hogue/Straw Dogs trinity (Peckinpah's undeniable peak), it's still a classic. As a bonus, it contains Bob Dylan's excellent soundtrack, including "Knockin' On Heaven's Door".
Grade: A-
Pickpocket (1959): Tightly focused French film that borrows loosely from Crime and Punishment (with a bit of Camus' The Stranger), the existential anti-hero of director Robert Bresson's examination of the petty criminal life is a nobody, an average man of average looks, brains, and talents, which makes it all the more ironic that he justifies his daily thefts at the racetrack and on the buses as the permissible actions of an exceptional man beyond morality. There's not much more than enough dialogue to push forward the plot and give a brief window into the souls of the pickpocket Michel and the people that surround him, and the spareness adds to an intriguing sense of dislocation: Michel, a bookish sort who could get a job easily if he tried, remains alienated and inscrutable to even himself. Why does he continue to commit such pathetic, lowly crimes? He derives no obvious pleasure from them, and could make more money working an honest job. The film doesn't give any answers to this question, and who ultimately Michel is behind his blank, cunningly anonymous face (the better to slip out of a crowd unnoticed) - perhaps because, troubling as the thought is, there aren't any.
Grade: A-