Robert Altman vs. Sam Peckinpah

Altman for me too - they are a very good comparison point (to me)  because their best work was uniquely American and if you watch them closely you see a lot of thematic overlap.

Altman I always say was the most reflective (not the best but one of them) director of the 70s in the same way that Nicholson was the most reflective actor (not the best but one of them). Most people would pick Nashville for Altman and Wild Bunch for Peckinpah but I always like to pick less obvious ones for ones that represent it - although Altman has a ton......

McCabe & Mrs. Miller was an example of a certain kind of American vision in both the director and the central character and a corruption of the character in a specifically American way - how myths and monuments get preserved apart from men themselves. The man is more like a ghost.....in America and it's a brilliant observation.

Peckinpah had that too but one example of that I'd pick for him in how it comes out of it differently is Straw Dogs - which by setting it in England drew a great contrast between what it meant to be a (American) man at all, in terms of intellect, power, sexuality, money, intimacy and the shifting relationship between philosophical and actual.

Don't care much for either, but at least Altman isn't obsessed with hypermasculine rape and violence so I guess him.