The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch (1969)

Runtime: 145 minutes

Directed by: Sam Peckinpah

Starring: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates

From: Warner Brothers/Seven Arts

Here is another review I've copied and pasted from when I talked about it on Letterboxd a little earlier. I will be back Monday night, although in the meantime I'll watch again something I already reviewed here, but it'll be something new when I talk about it on Letterboxd.

Of course I have seen The Wild Bunch before but the last viewing was a long while ago so I was happy to watch it late last night on Turner Classic Movies HD. I was also happy to watch a great film again and enjoy its engrossing story, visceral violence and its groundbreaking editing style which would change filmmaking forever.

Set in 1913-when the Old West was changing forever and entering the age of modernity-& the old outlaws were becoming obsolete, the tale is about a group of aging anti-heroes who look for one last score before moving on in an evolving world and hopefully getting to relax and leave their old lifestyle behind. After an early attempt goes awry (this happens at the beginning of the film and sets the tone almost immediately, from how everyone acts to the aforementioned way the action stuff is edited, which was revolutionary at the time. They then end up in Mexico and deal with a feud in a small town between a corrupt military and the town's poor citizens; this is mixed in with bounty hunters and the United States Army after them.

The movie is still great 45 years later, what with its colorful band of rogue characters, including the title group that don't always get along but they still live by their own code of ethics, memorable setpieces, a pretty sweet beginning and an incredible ending with the period of epic bloodletting in American cinema still in its infancy. This was drastically different from the typical sanitized American western that people had seen for the past few decades, so this created quite a stir but thankfully since then people have recognized its greatness.

Alongside the violence and the quality filmmaking that everyone remembers best from the film, the performances from the cast (especially William Holden as Pike Bishop, the leader of the gang and Ernest Borgnine as his right hand man Dutch Engstrom), the musical score that captures the flavor of each area they go to, and an always interesting story where all the men have to deal with various issues and serious conflict as they try to pull off that one last heist, which proves to be a difficult task.

As a random aside, after I watched this I realized that this was an obvious influence on the great game known as Red Dead Redemption, from the general idea of a veteran cowboy having to deal with a changing Old West that's become more civilized and modern (the game's set in 1911) to some similar weaponry, to other ideas.