Convoy: Limited Edition (4K UHD Review)

Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
Review Date: Sep 25, 2025
Format: 4K Ultra HD

Director

Sam Peckinpah

Release Date(s)

1978 (December 4, 2024)

Studio(s)

EMI Films/United Artists (Imprint Films/Via Vision Entertainment)

Film/Program Grade: B-
Video Grade: A-
Audio Grade: B+
Extras Grade: A+
Overall Grade: A

viavision.com.au

Review

[Editor's Note: This is a Region-Free Australian 4K Ultra HD import.]

When Sam Peckinpah agreed to direct Convoy for EMI Films in 1978, he was at something of a crossroads in his life. His previous four films Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, The Killer Elite, and Cross of Iron had all either been troubled productions or box office failures—and usually both. He needed a hit and some smooth sailing, and with Convoy, he ended up getting one of the two. That’s because he had already passed another crossroads in his life after being introduced to cocaine during the making of The Killer Elite, and once he started down that dark path, forever did it dominate his destiny. Peckinpah was never one to shy away from addiction, but while he had been able to work through his alcoholism, cocaine was whole different cross for him to bear. Convoy did indeed prove to be the hit that he needed, but it was another troubled production, and it proved to be too little, too late for the equally troubled director. He didn’t realize it at the time, but he only had six years left to live and one more film to make before he ended up dead in 1984 at the age of 59, shortly after completing the underappreciated (if no less troubled) The Osterman Weekend.

While Convoy can’t really be called a proper Sam Peckinpah film by any stretch of the imagination (especially since he was fired during post-production), his fingerprints are still visible all over the final results—for good and for ill. The material certainly wasn’t in his normal bailiwick, especially since the whole film is based on the improbably successful 1975 novelty song by C.W. McCall (actually a pseudonym for co-writers Bill Fries and Chip Davis). That’s an awfully thin framework on which to hang a feature film, but Peckinpah was never as interested in an overarching story as he was in the incidents that occurred along the way—something that came back to bite him on the set of Convoy, where he let himself get bogged down for days shooting individual scenes that should have been little more than throwaways. The script for Convoy was by B.W.L. Norton, but Peckinpah wasn’t all that interested in it either, rewriting some of it himself and having his cast improvise dialogue on the fly.

The story, such as it is, features Kris Kristofferson as the Rubber Duck of the titular McColl song. He’s an independent trucker travelling through Arizona who joins up with fellow truckers Love Machine (Burt Young) and Spider Mike (Franklyn Ajaye) while on the road. The three of them end up being pulled over by Sheriff Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine), and then have another fateful run-in with the law at Rafael’s Glide-in, after which the three of them end up on the run. On the way out the door, the womanizing Rubber Duck picks up Melissa (Ali McGraw) before hitting the road with Love Machine, Spider Mike, and other truckers like Widow Woman (Madge Sinclair). Together they head for the border with Wallace and the State police in pursuit. Before long, the convoy grows and the whole thing snowballs, garnering the attention of Governor Haskins (Seymour Cassel), with the media along to document everything. Yet it’s not just another media circus, because the stakes are quite real for Rubber Duck.

The key words in all of that, as far as Peckinpah was concerned, were “independent trucker.” While little about the McColl song would have interested him otherwise, the anti-establishment nature of Rubber Duck’s impromptu convoy aligned perfectly with Peckinpah’s natural love of outlaws, renegades, and his other fellow outcasts from society. The problem is that the making of Convoy turned out to be impromptu as well, so none of that is particularly well defined in the film. As a result, Rubber Duck, Love Machine, and Spider Mike are little more than rebels without a cause who end up becoming a grassroots phenomenon completely by accident. They’re just trying to escape the consequences of a relatively minor disagreement with the law that escalated until it got out of hand. The other drivers who join them along the way have their own axes to grind that are at best tangentially related, and even their wildly enthusiastic supporters can’t quite articulate their fascination with the outlaw convoy. Rubber Duck does his best to define the phenomenon when Melissa questions him about what’s been happening around them, but as thematic underpinnings go, it’s slim pickings:

“I’m really interested in knowing what it is you think you’re involved in. Because I’m beginning to think I got no idea.”

“People falling in behind us. And I think I’ve figured it out. The only reason they’re coming in behind us is who the hell else they got? Nobody, that’s who.”

Unfortunately for Peckinpah, EMI didn’t come in behind him, and they had plenty of other options. After suffering through his erratic behavior on set, as well as his failure to bring the film in on time and under budget, EMI executive Micheal Deeley fired him during post-production and brought in editor Graeme Clifford to recut everything. Whatever thematic coherency may have existed in Peckinpah’s workprint went out the door, as did some of the satirical bent that he had brought to the proceedings. Yet some of that satire still slipped through, especially in terms of Peckinpah’s view of media exploitation and the lack of media literacy in the public at large (the latter angle being something that he also explored in The Osterman Weekend).

That’s most apparent when Peckinpah makes a cameo appearance during the scene where a television news crew drives a truck alongside the convoy to interview the truckers. Other than the actor playing the reporter, it’s not a television news crew at all, but rather the actual Convoy film crew, and Peckinpah is only there because he’s directing the scene. They’re using the production’s 35mm Panavision cameras because they’re filming the reverse shots at the same time, not the kinds of cameras that would be used by a television crew, and it’s clearly one of the production’s camera trucks. The whole scene breaks the fourth wall, but Peckinpah knew that he could shoot it that way and audiences would accept it as being realistic since they have no real conception of how films are produced. While he never understood his own limits in terms of addiction, he clearly understood just how far that he could bend the film medium without letting it break.

Sadly, Convoy ended up helping to break Peckinpah. While it proved to be the biggest hit of his entire career, it didn’t prove that he was a reliable filmmaker, and the offers dried up until independent producers Peter Davis and William Panzer took a chance on him with The Osterman Weekend—and that experience didn’t pay off for anyone involved. Convoy wasn’t the first troubled production that Peckinpah worked on, and it wouldn’t be the last, but while it will never gain the cachet of other legendary troubled productions like Major Dundee and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, there’s still far more going on with it than may meet the eye. No, it’s not really a Sam Peckinpah film, but it’s still a film that was made by Sam Peckinpah, and that’s more than enough.

Cinematographer Harry Stradling, Jr. shot Convoy on 35mm film using Panavision cameras with anamorphic lenses, framed at 2.39:1 for its theatrical release. This version utilizes a 4K master supplied by StudioCanal. The original camera negative was scanned at 4K in 16-bit resolution by Illuminate Hollywood in the U.S., with digital cleanup and grading performed by Silver Salt Restoration in the U.K. (both Dolby Vision and HDR10 are included). While any optical work like the opening credits display the expected softness, the rest of the film is as sharp and detailed as those Seventies Panavision lenses would allow. (As a side note, for all of Peckinpah’s love of slow motion, there is at least one example of step printed slow-motion during the unplanned crash of Widow Woman’s rig, so opticals like that don’t look as high-quality as the other slow-motion shots.) Everything is clean and free of damage, too.

Colors, contrast, and densities all look great (as far as the camera negative footage is concerned, anyway). There have been some perhaps inevitable complaints about Silver Salt’s grade leaning towards teals and/or yellows, but while this definitely isn’t an old-school telecine job with its familiar magenta push, none of the colors here seem unnatural or out of place. I don’t have an unfaded IB Tech print as reference material to prove that it’s an accurate grade, but none of the people who are complaining have one to prove that it’s an inaccurate grade, either. Regardless, most viewers will be more than pleased with this 4K presentation of the film.

Audio is offered in English and French 2.0 mono LPCM, with optional English SDH and French subtitles. Convoy was originally released in mono, and while there has been a 5.1 remix available on other editions, it’s just processed fake stereo, so it’s no major loss here. This mono track is perfectly satisfying, with clear dialogue and some energy provided by Chip Davis’ score and the eclectic songs. It’s not exceptional, but it gets the job done.

Via Vision’s Region-Free Limited Edition 4K Ultra HD release of Convoy is #368 in their Imprint Films line. It’s a three-disc set that includes one Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the theatrical cut and a second Blu-ray with the extended cut. The film discs are housed in one Amaray case and the extras disc is in its own case. (Neither of the inserts are reversible, but they both have production photographs from the film on other side.). Everything comes housed in one of Imprint’s rigid Hardboxes that opens up at the top. The following extras are included:

DISC ONE: FEATURE FILM (UHD)

Commentary by Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, and Nick Redman
Commentary by Mike Siegel
Interview with Franklyn Ajaye (HD – 25:26)
The Lost Convoy (HD – 21:19)
The Duck Trucks (HD – 8:34)
Convoy Color Stills (HD – 11:02)
Filming Convoy Part 1 (HD – 10:31)
Filming Convoy Part 2 (HD – 11:04)
Filming Convoy Part 3 (HD – 11:18)
Original U.S. Trailer (HD – 8:16)
U.S. TV Spot (HD – 1:10)
U.S. Radio Spots (HD – 3:31, 4 in all)
Three Lost Scenes (Upscaled SD – 5:52)
In-Jokes, Friends, & Cameos (Upscaled SD – 6:04)
Trucker Notes from Norway (Upscaled SD – 3:18)
Promoting Convoy (HD – 9:49)

DISC TWO: FEATURE FILM (BD)

Commentary by Mike Siegel
Passion & Poetry: Sam’s Trucker Movie (HD & Upscaled SD – 71:25)
Three Lost Scenes (Upscaled SD – 5:53)
In-Jokes, Friends & Cameos (Upscaled SD – 6:05)
Trucker Notes from Norway (Upscaled SD – 3:19)
Passion & Poetry with Peckinpah in Portugal Part 2 (HD – 21:52)
Promoting Convoy (HD – 9:49)
Convoy in Color (HD – 11:03)
Filming Convoy Part 1 (HD – 10:32)
Filming Convoy Part 2 (HD – 11:06)
Filming Convoy Part 3 (HD – 11:18)
Theatrical Trailer (HD – 4:31)
U.S. TV Spot (HD – 1:06)
U.S. Radio Spots (HD – 3:32, 4 in all)

DISC THREE: EXTRAS (BD)

Convoy: The Extended Cut (HD – 116:19)
The Lost Convoy (HD – 21:20)

Since there’s some overlap between the extras on all three discs but no real consistency in how they’re arranged, we’ll address all of them together rather than trying to break them down in the order that they’re presented on the discs. The most significant extra of all, needless to say, is the inclusion of the extended Japanese premiere cut of Convoy. EMI had to rush a print overseas in order to meet a deadline, but that was before Clifford had finished editing, so it’s approximately five minutes longer than the final theatrical cut. Since that Japanese print had burned-in Japanese subtitles, it’s presented here in a hybrid version that appears to be a scan of Mike Siegel’s own 35mm print of the theatrical cut with only the missing footage included from the Japanese print (the presence of the subtitles makes it easy to spot). As a result, none of it is fully restored, so there are plenty of scratches and other signs of damage visible. It’s an important archive of something that’s at least a bit closer to Peckinpah’s original intentions for the film, but no, it’s still not a true director’s cut. Most of the extra footage consists of character beats that Clifford removed to streamline the final cut, and while none of them are essential, they still make Convoy into a richer experience. The extended cut is presented here at the proper Panavision aspect ratio with English 2.0 mono LPCM.

Via Vision has also included two different commentaries for this release, one new, the other archival. The latter is with the classic Peckinpah commentary team of Paul Seydor, author of Peckinpah: The Western Films – A Reconsideration (among others); Garner Simmons, author of Peckinpah: A Portrait in Montage; and the late great record producer, documentary filmmaker, and Twilight Time entrepreneur, Nick Redman. It was originally recorded for Kino Lorber’s 2015 Blu-ray. They delve into the production down to the last detail, including some of their own experiences seeing Peckinpah’s original two-and-half hour cut, and they don’t shy away from all of the problems that occurred on set and off (including the drug usage). The new commentary features genuinely obsessive Peckinpah fan Mike Siegel, who also produced most of the other extras in this set. He admits up front that he already covered a lot of information about the film in his other extras, but he does his best to avoid repeating any of it too much. There is some inevitable repetition anyway, but he dives much deeper into the historical context surrounding the making of the film and the cinematic context as well, including other films that were inspired by popular songs, and the real reason why Convoy was made in the first place: the success of Smokey and the Bandit the previous year.

Some of the remaining extras were originally produced for StudioCanal’s Region B Blu-ray releases of Convoy in 2013 but have been revised and/or updated since then, while others are new to this edition. Passion & Poetry: Sam’s Trucker Movie is a making-of documentary that was written, produced and directed by Siegel. It collects new and archival interviews with Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine, Ali McGraw, Garner Simmons, James Coburn, EMI executive Michael Deeley, and Peckinpah’s assistant Katy Haber. (Peckinpah himself appears via archival audio interviews, with one brief filmed segment.) It traces the origin of the project and how Peckinpah got involved before digging into the chaotic nature of the production. It’s a warts and all portrait of that chaos, too, including Peckinpah’s issues with drugs and alcohol. (Simmons says that alcohol actually helped the director, but cocaine destroyed him.) The post-production challenges during the editorial process are chronicled as well. Passion & Poetry is an invaluable collection of stories from Peckinpah’s friends and collaborators (the two didn’t always overlap), and it’s even got a couple of bonus performance from the late Kristofferson as well.

The Lost Convoy is a video essay by Siegel that examines the complicated editorial process, drawing a distinction between three different versions of the film: the script; what Peckinpah shot and edited; and Graeme Clifford’s recut theatrical release. Siegel demonstrates how Peckinpah changed some of the dialogue from the script, generally for the better, and also compares some abbreviated dialogue in the theatrical cut to the extended versions of the scenes in the longer Japanese premiere print. It’s not a comprehensive breakdown of all the differences, but it’s a good overview of the most significant ones. (Siegel keeps making the Freudian slip of referring to Widow Woman as “Black Widow”, but to be fair, he admits that his English isn’t the best.)

Aside from the theatrical trailer, radio spots, a TV spot, and an extensive collection of image galleries, the rest of the extras are brief featurettes and interviews that were also produced by Siegel. Three Lost Scenes is a reconstruction of three different scenes that Peckinpah shot but weren’t included in either the final cut or the Japanese premiere cut: The Hitchhiker, The Aftermath of Alvarez, and The Governor of Texas. They’re reconstructed here via stills and script pages. In Jokes, Friends & Cameos explains all of the various obscure references that Peckinpah planted throughout the film, as the cameos by many of his friends and associates (including his own fourth wall-breaking appearance). Trucker Notes from Norway is an interview with Norwegian Convoy uberfan Anders Løfaldli, who talks about his love of the trucks used in the film. Speaking of which, The Duck Trucks looks at what happened to the various production vehicles from the film after shooting, including Dan Bruno’s reconstruction of the 2nd unit Mack RS731LST Gerd Albrecht’s Mack RS 700 replica version. (Some of the footage here was shot by Løfaldli.)

Finally, there’s also an interview with Spider Mike himself, Franklyn Ajaye, and footage from a Peckinpah retrospective that took place at the 2022 Encontros Cinematográficos festival in Portugal, where Siegel also presented his full-length documentary Passion & Poetry: The Ballad of Sam Peckinpah. Taken together, Via Vision’s set unquestionably offers the most comprehensive collection of extras for Convoy to date, although it’s no longer quite complete. Kino Lorber has added a commentary with Steve Mitchell for their own North American release, but they omitted the Ajaye interview, the Portugal featurette, and most importantly, the extended cut. So, Via Vision still has the clear edge in terms of extras. It’s not cheap, especially if you have to import it, but it’s definitely the one Convoy to own. Do you really need a 4K Ultra HD version of Convoy in your life? Absolutely, if you’re a Sam Peckinpah or Kris Kristofferson fan. All others will be on a case-by-case basis. It’s an oddity any way that you look at it, but it’s also never looked better than it does here. Heartily recommended for those who can handle the steep price of admission.

-Stephen Bjork

(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).