The Wild Bunch (1969)

The Wild Bunch
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Written by Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah, and Roy N. Sickner
1969/US
First viewing/Amazon Instant
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

[box] Pike Bishop: We’re not gonna get rid of anybody! We’re gonna stick together, just like it used to be! When you side with a man, you stay with him! And if you can’t do that, you’re like some animal, you’re finished! *We’re* finished! All of us![/box]

This bloody, violent Western holds out little hope for humanity.  Maybe not the thing for the disgusted during Lockdown.

The year is 1913.  The place is somewhere near the Mexican border.  Pike (William Holden) leads a gang of railroad and bank bandits.  The most prominent members of the gang are played by Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, Ernest Borgnine and an unrecognizable Edmund O’Brien who steals every scene he is in.  After a botched attempt to “do one last” job on a train, they take off for Mexico with Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) and his gang of bounty hunters hot on their trail.  Their plan is to hijack a train carrying guns and ammunition and sell the loot to a corrupt revolutionary general’s army.

Pike and his men have nothing but trouble in Mexico.  Thornton is still after them and the Mexicans they deal with are drunken, whoring, sadists who can’t be trusted.

This movie is famous for its violence.  That it definitely has in spades.  I cannot stand the way Peckinpah shoots massacres in slow-motion.  I wasn’t a fan of the ethic stereotyping either.

Those niggles aside, it is clear why it was an “important” film for its time.  The action is beautifully choreographed.  The film also benefits from its superb cast.  Holden and Ryan showed they were still at the top of their game.  Once is enough for me but I’m glad it is on the List and that I have finally seen it.

The film is usually classified as in the “death of the Old West” category.  In many prior films this is symbolized by encroaching “civilization”- families, farms, churches etc.  In this one, the death of Holden and his gang is caused by corruption and debauchery.  The New West looks a lot worse than the Old West in this version.  I should have waited until after Lockdown.

The Wild Bunch was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced and Best Music, Original Score