THE DOG BROTHERS
In 2001, following its successful campaign to have the ban imposed by the British Board of Censors upon Sam Peckinpah’s The Straw Dogslifted, FremantleMedia approached the late documentary filmmaker Nick Redman to put together a group of Peckinpah experts to do a commentary track to be added to the soon-to-be released DVD. Calling upon Peckinpah authors Simmons, Paul Seydor, and David Weddle, Redman moderated what turned out to be a lively free-form discussion of the film which now appears on the UK version of The Straw DogsDVD released in 2002.
Meeting to celebrate the DVD’s success, The Dogs Brothers were born. Given that FremantleMedia’s release of The Straw Dogs had become an instant best-seller in Britain, Nick was able to book the Dog Brothers to do audio commentaries on the majority of Peckinpah’s films as they became available on DVD.
To date, The Dog Brothers have done the audio commentaries on the following Peckinpah DVDs:
Ride The High Country
Major Dundee
Noon Wine
The Wild Bunch
The Ballad of Cable Hogue
The Straw Dogs (UK version only)
Junior Bonner
The Getaway
Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
The Killer Elite
Convoy
Osterman Weekend
Due primarily to problems pertaining to clear rights of ownership, The Deadly Companions and Cross of Iron remain to be done. Hopefully, at some point in the not too distant future, all of Peckinpah’s films will be available on DVD complete with commentaries by The Dog Brothers as well. Watch this Website for future announcements.
As a result of working together on these commentaries, Simmons, Seydor, Weddle and Redman began meeting for dinner once a month to discuss upcoming projects, films, ideas and the price to be paid for pissing against the wind. By their third meeting, they were joined by Irish writer and Peckinpah aficionado Jesse Graham bringing their number to five. Eventually, film director Ron Shelton would join us as well. The Dog Brothers can be seen appearing together in Nick Redman’s documentary A Simple Adventure Story: Sam Peckinpah, Mexico and The Wild Bunch (2005).