interesting (if arguable) Alex Cox take on the Death of the Western

"It's fun to speculate on the conversation Peckinpah, Leone and Hellman - the three great directors of anti-westerns - might have had (via an interpreter). But did they speak? Did they get along? In the photo, Peckinpah and Leone don't look at each other. Leone is gazing out, past the camera, his glasses reflecting movie lights. Peckinpah is looking at Hellman, his director. The significance of the second photograph, I think, is what Leone and Peckinpah are doing. Neither is directing. Leone is a visitor to the set. He has time on his hands. Peckinpah is an actor, in a battered coat and hat, playing a supporting cowpoke in a work-for-hire directed by a friend.

By 1978, neither had a western of his own to make. Each would direct one more feature, but the men who had killed off the western had pretty much written themselves out of a job..."