1969 Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Aging outlaw, Pike Bishop prepares to retire after one final robbery. Joined by his gang, Dutch Engstrom and brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch, Bishop discovers the heist is a setup orchestrated in part by a former partner, Deke Thornton. As the remaining gang takes refuge in Mexican territory, Thornton trails them—resulting in fierce gunfights with plenty of casualties.
William Holden Ernest Borgnine Robert Ryan Edmond O'Brien Warren Oates Jaime Sánchez Ben Johnson Emilio Fernández Strother Martin L. Q. Jones Albert Dekker Bo Hopkins Dub Taylor Paul Harper Jorge Russek Alfonso Arau Bill Hart Rayford Barnes Stephen Ferry Sonia Amelio Chalo González Santiago Eduardo Urueta Elsa Cárdenas Aurora Clavel Enrique Lucero Elizabeth Dupeyrón José Chávez René Dupeyrón Pedro Galván Show All…
Robert J. Miller Dan Wallin Billy Mauch John O Young Joe Kavigan Stanley Martin Bill Rivol Ed Scheid
Il mucchio selvaggio, La Horde sauvage, Grupo salvaje, 日落黄沙, 野战群, Meu Ódio Será Sua Herança, Dzika banda, 와일드 번치, Дивата орда, Det vilda gänget, The Wild Bunch - Sie kannten kein Gesetz
Part 1 of Catchin' up on Westerns
The clashing cathartic depths of violence in Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch eventually settles into the aftermath of rage and personal selfishness. Never have I seen such carnage celebrated and relished in until the buzzards fly in and the women come out to pray. Every character is battling the slowly-fading lifestyle of their bravado nature, and Peckinpah lets every character dwell not in nostalgia but in remembrance. The final 15 minutes lets loose in its purity and its depravity, but in an honest way that recalls why such stories are told.
I usually don't care for westerns, but this was just incredible.
Aging outlaws out for the last score before it's over & coming to the realization that the world is moving on without them. Sam Peckinpah’s controversial, melancholic & ultra-violet western, The Wild Bunch takes place at the end of the era, serving as his own Western swan song. With its unflinching depictions of brutalities, the last minutes are glorious.
Sam Peckinpah deftly directed one of the all-time outstanding entries in the western genre with The Wild Bunch. The movie is gifted with a brilliant screenplay, which was co-written by Peckinpah, and features an extraordinary ensemble cast, including William Holden, Robert Ryan and Ernest Borgnine. Holden displays enormous power and draws on the relaxed and easy-going, and possibly insensitive, characters he commonly portrays, but here he's imbued with a tough indignance and embitterment.
The editing possesses a variety of impetuses such as the comprising of slow-motion; which have come to be imitated to the level of cliché nowadays in exaggerated action sequences. It was released during the heights of the Vietnam War and provoked unfavourable and inhospitable reactions from many audiences, but even the movies more controversial sequences contain an imaginative style of expression, and the conclusive consequences make for a mesmerising and outstanding film.
Two extraordinary action scenes - opening and ending - enclose the narrative of The Wild Bunch. In fact, the film opens with a furious shooting and ends with a shocking carnage. In between, assassinations, destruction, betrayal, torture and looting follow one another with the intention of offering the rawest and most elaborate description of violence ever seen on screen. Although already two years before Bonnie and Clyde had indicated the way for a different treatment of the themes of death and physical violence, it is precisely The Wild Bunch that fully welcome these new visual coordinates. Sam Peckinpah perfectly blends the atrocity of the bloodiest scenes with a tale that abandons that Manichaeism - good on the one hand, bad…
Let's talk nihilism. Philosophically I generally subscribe to the nihilist principle that life has no meaning. I'm also pessimistic and deeply cynical. However nihilism is not a justification for immorality. The Wild Bunch seems to miss this. It presents a world without hope or redemption, just harsh temporary survival leading to an inevitable death. Where the film missteps for me is that it replaces the nihilistic setup with a hedonistic tone, revelling in the violence to play things as a macho male fantasy. The Wild Bunch is openly sadistic in its prolonged violent sections. The storytelling is both misogynist and racist, without reason. There's also clear animal abuse, especially regarding horses. Although always unforgivable, such mistreatment doesn't always ruin art for me.…
"When you side with a man, you stick with him. If you can't, your like some animal"
That line is spoken by Pike Bishop (William Holden) halfway through the film and to me it sums up the code of honour these men live by, it may not always make sense but to them it's a way of life and they are far to old and Stubborn to change.
The Wild Bunch is Sam Peckinpah's final nail in the coffin of the traditional western, it's bloody and violent, a film inhabited by real men's men, there's no hero's here, only grizzled veterans who have done whatever it takes to survive in this unforgiving period of history.
One of the best cast…
Mini-Collab with plaidflannel because, once again, we are ashamed we have not seen it! Although, I have seen this one, many times throughout my teen years with my grandfather. It has been over 10 years since I’ve viewed it last. Check out plaid’s review here!
What is there to say about a film that has so many things to say about it? I feel overwhelmed with numerous aspects: the landmark that it is, what the film means to the Western genre, how Peckinpah encapsulates so many damn feelings in a film about gruff and ugly dudes, the violence, what this film means to me, and how this is potentially top contender for one of the finest edited films of all time. Do you…
I’m angry at myself, I really am. When I bought this a time ago this was my most anticipated film, by far. Look, I see the greatness in this, and I can live with the knowledge that I’m just a hack that doesn’t appreciate the admittedly insane action-scenes and violence, but there’s no single character I rooted for in this film. Barely any character progressions, barely any character arcs, barely any reason to make me care or emotionally invested. And like some who read my “reviews” know already I couldn’t be more a fan of emotions in movies.
The story in The Wild Bunch is incredibly complex, in a good way, and I could see myself calling this a favorite…
"It ain't like it used to be, but it'll do."
What struck me first about The Wild Bunch (like Ride the High Country) is its commentary on aging, both in terms of people growing old and of history shifting gears. The titular Wild Bunch is a group of old men who are struggling to live in a changing world which no longer needs them, a world in which they are no longer the heroes they once were. They are scorpions with powerful stings slowly being devoured by the fire ants of the next generation. This theme also fits perfectly into the symbolism of the western: these aging men embody the wildness (literally) of the frontier, slowly receding into the horizon…
