for the 2005 restored version, a new score was composed by christopher caliendo. this score was composed and recorded with a small studio orchestra to authentically sound the way director peckinpah might have approved it had he been alive at the time of the film's restoration, and the way the music might have been done in its original 1965 release as opposed to today's larger orchestra-type scores. the new score is regarded by some critics as being better than the original, which was disliked by film experts and featured the title song performed by the mitch miller sing-a-long gang, though many concede the new music is far from perfect; for example, there has been criticism of caliendo's decision to leave unscored several sequences which did have music in the original version.