The Wild Bunch - Restored Director's Cut

Rating:
Summary: This Bunch Is Not So Wild Anymore
Review: A funny and sad thing happened to me as I watched Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch". I realized how much of a detriment my age really is. I'm 21 years old, and for the life of me I'm unable to see what makes other call this film a masterpiece or one of Peckinpah's best.

After seeing the movie I read Roger Ebert's original 1969 review of the film and was able to see what drew people to the film back then. Apparently it caused something of a controversy. The images were seen as ulta-violent. But, now over 30 years have passed and the film seems average in its use of blood and gore. It's nothing I haven't seen before.

But this is the perception killer that comes along with youth. I think "The Wild Bunch" and movies like it such as "Bonnie & Clyde" and the Sergio Leone\Clint Eastwood films are all entertaining but I'm not struck by their violence. In fact I'm impervious to it. People of my generation are use to these images. We see them in commericals, TV shows and video games.

In Ebert's review he says the fighting scenes are the most realistic he had seen at the time. And I'm unable to put myself in that mind frame.

I agree with others that you should infact see this film. The movie carries Peckinpah's visual style. And the acting is great. I don't think I've ever seen Bill Holden as aggresive in a movie. It's a completely different Holden when compared to "The Country Girl" or even David Lean's "Bridge on the River Kwai". But that's not my problem with the film.

I guess what all my reviews what you're getting is a modern interpretation. And when compared to what we see nowadays "The Wild Bunch" just isn't that wild and shocking. It's standard fare. I must admit I found the images in "Straw Dogs" more startling.

"The Wild Bunch" does have moments of fine acting, good cinematography, and Peckinpah's usual flare. And for that you should see it. *** 1\2 out of *****

Bottom-line: Effective Peckinpah film that has lost its edge when compared to what we see today. See worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: MY TAKE ON THIS FILM
Review: This Peckinpah western set around World War One in Mexico is certainly a sort of new age western. The opening credits part of the story which show kids playing with insects then the image freezes and turns white is certainly a sign of new cinema. I really refuse to think this film honestly represents the western genre (as another poster here feels) as it is more modern in feeling and seems more like the new western that were to come rather than High Noon. The cast is all brilliant though Robert Ryan and William Holden are practically the same actor. I love the opening shot when the bunch (dressed as soldiers) help the lady across the street. Real poignant for the film's really bad guys to do something so kind. Effective use of romantic flashbacks for Holden's character opening up the possibility that that's just the way he remembers it not the way it actually happened. The "gore" in the film doesn't bother me a bit as it isn't real blood. Not much more to add except I also appreciate the film's occasional humour and I love the DVD extra features containing behind the scenes footage.

Rating:
Summary: The Wild Bunch
Review: One of the best movies--western or otherwise--ever made. More than just another shoot-em up, the story is really about a group of outcasts with their own special brand of honor, loyalty and mores. This is a world where a person's word means something.

Rating:
Summary: "Ten thousand in gold cuts an awful lot of family ties."
Review: Pike Bishop: We've got to start thinking beyond our guns. Those days are closin' fast.

The kid gloves came off in Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" and Westerns never were the same again. The singing cowboys and romantic notions of frontier life were all done away with for good thanks to a visionary redefining of the genre.

As the Old West starts to fade away around them, an outlaw bunch led by Pike Bishop (William Holden) begins to question their purpose in a world that is moving forward without them. They soon discover they have little time for inner ruminations when they find out a posse has been hired to hunt them down. Complicating matter is the fact that the posse is being led by Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), a former member of the bunch who Pike betrayed in the past. After managing to barely stay ahead of Thornton, circumstances lead the bunch to make a final and defiant stand against a group of Mexican rebels.

"The Wild Bunch" is filled with typical Peckinpah masculinity from start to finish. The bunch is an exclusive male-only club where women or the weak need not bother to apply. While the film gained its notoriety due to its elevated level of violence back upon its initial release, it is now more noteworthy as a fascinating study of the male psyche and its attitude towards changing cultural norms in the late Sixties. When Pike and his cohorts express their dismay over the encroaching modernization of the Old West, they are serving as the mouthpiece for men in the real world who saw their traditional gender roles evolve in light of the advancements made by women during that time period. Yet, the impressive aspect of "The Wild Bunch" is that its discourse does not overwhelm its narrative to the point that it keeps the film from being entertaining. Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, Edmund O'Brien, Ben Johnson, and Robert Ryan deliver standout performances and Peckinpah keeps the energy at a high level from the first frame. For Holden and Peckinpah in particular, "The Wild Bunch" is a sparkling standout entry in their filmographies.


Rating:
Summary: Essay, The laughter at the end of the movie
Review: Fan Wang
Response Paper on the Wild Bunches.

Laughter is a funny thing, especially when the laughter comes before someone steps into the gate of death. But that is exactly what the Wild Bunch did. After hanging out with the Mexican girls, the Bunches get out, and they smile at each other before going for the Mexican soldiers. And not just here, even in the first scene of the movie, before the Bunches were to strike out from the tavern, there was a light mood of humor in the air.

On the one side, this lightness of heart before death could be viewed as an example of the lack of humanity of the outlaws. And indeed, this is partly true, because to the outlaws, the lives of others did not matter. In the first scene, the passing band of old and young townspeople did not prevent them from begin their shooting, instead, the Bunch used the passing band to create a chaos which made it easier for them to get away. In the last scene of the movie, the lives of General Apache's Mexican revolutionary army were of no concerns to the Bunch either. The Bunch shot them away without any show of sympathy or hesitation, as the soldiers died in what seemed like the hundreds. This insensitivity to others' lives is immoral, for surely those soldiers were not the masterminds behind any evils, and surely those people in the town only wanted to march in peaceful songs.

However, a most intense force of humanity counterbalanced this lack of humanity at the same time. Although the Bunches cared nothing about others, they cared about each other within the Bunches. And they believed that as long as they stood by each other and their words, they perfectly had the moral rights to be oblivious to all else. This camaraderie of theirs was also all encompassing. This was apparent from the fact that they would save at the cost of their lives a Mexican, someone from a race that they did not particularly esteem. They went for Angel because Angel stood by his words to his native people, who he gave munitions to, and because they gave their words to Angel. Angel proved himself worthy to be a man of honor, and Bunches had to be true to him.

The laughter throughout the movie and especially at the end was an outward show of this esteem for honor. Although not a word was uttered, all the four of the Bunch that were left knew exactly what they had to do as guardians of honor. This heart-felt unison naturally resulted in a laughter that acknowledged their unspoken fraternal rule of morality. It is like when two smart people are talking to each other, and before either has said a sentence, the other already knew what would be said. However, the other people around them have no idea of what they are thinking about. The smart people laugh slightly to each other, not because their vanity for knowing something special, but almost as a way to comfort each other in their lofty lonely place. In the same way, only the wild Bunchse understood the Wild Bunches, for the day of the Outlaws were passing away, and the Bunches were becoming the only one who still followed the old code of honor. There was in fact nothing more appropriate for them to do except to laugh, by which they are comforted and become united. However, this laughter binds them together as much as it draws them apart from the rest of mankind who view them as evil.

The wild bunches were heroes to themselves, and their stubborn adherence to their version of the wild west side demand some respect. For in reality, the audience of the 21st century cannot impose our own reality and views of justice upon them. Today, we can stand up to a podium or march onto the streets to chant for an end to killings, but we can only do this because of the security that most modern political systems offer. Back in the time of the Wild Bunch, there was no law to follow, for clearly, Thornton and his "police force" was worse than the bandits at pillaging. To survive in their environment, the Wild Bunch really had to hold onto no one but themselves, and killing sometimes was in a sense required because else they would have been killed by others. In this sense, their laughter was not immoral but necessary.

So before they passed down forever into the pages of history, the wild bunch laughed with each other. They laughed because of their honor, because they were the last ones to keep those honors, and because they knew that they would rather die with their honor for each other then living on in a world whose language they did not speak nor understand.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Western Ever Made
Review: My personal opinion is that THE WILD BUNCH is the best Western ever made. It's one of those rare films where everything comes together--the writing, the acting (the casting is absolutely flawless), definitely the directing. I was fortunate enough to have seen the restored Director's Cut on one of the last giant movie screens in the West (the Cine Capri in Phoenix).

When the film opened in 1969, it created a lot of controversy with its stylized violence and Peckinpah got some flak from critics. As Peckinpah (and William Holden) struggled with hangovers while facing the press, Roger Ebert stood up to defend the film and to call it a genuine American masterpiece. It wasn't long before the rest of the critics were on board.

There are many great Westerns, but THE WILD BUNCH in my opinion best represents the genre.





Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: I remember hearing Charlton Heston once remark about Sam Peckinpah that the man had a great career and vision but then sadly "started blowing off heads." Heston may be right in his analysis of Peckinpah's intense dedication to dramatic violence, as one need look no further than the closing sequences of the seminal "The Wild Bunch" to see a death toll of truly shocking proportions. If you simply watch this movie for the sake of the violence, however, you will miss out on the larger themes Peckinpah was trying to get across. "The Wild Bunch" is a story about the ending of one era of American history and the start of another, the shift from the days of the violent taming of the Old West frontier to a new time of civilization and industrialization. And in all epochal changes, whether on a microcosmic or macrocosmic scale, there are always those poor individuals caught somewhere in between, people from the old times who simply cannot adjust to the new world. What happens to these people? Where do they go and what do they do when their era fades into history? Can they change with the times or will the times crush them? Peckinpah's film examines these questions in minute detail.

The Wild Bunch is a gang of outlaws operating in a rapidly diminishing frontier region in the early years of the twentieth century. The strongest personality in the gang is Pike (William Holden), a taciturn, aging bank robber always looking for the one score that will set him up for life. Riding with him is Dutch (Ernest Borgnine), Lyle Gorch (Warren Oates), Tector Gorch (Ben Johnson), Angel (Jaime Sanchez), and occasionally a real old timer named Sykes (Edmond O'Brien). Unfortunately, tough times loom in the future for the criminals. A bank robbery in a small town goes horribly awry when one time member of the gang now turned bounty hunter, Thornton (Robert Ryan), stages an ambush outside the building. Everyone escapes the conflagration except for Wild Bunch associate Crazy Lee (Bo Hopkins) and roughly twenty or thirty civilians caught in the crossfire. The near escape frazzles nerves, but not as much as the discovery that the bags removed from the bank contain lead washers and not the expected loot. Eventually, everyone has a good laugh over the ridiculousness of the situation, but the need for that last big score hangs heavy in the air. As for Pike, he knows he cannot go on for much longer. His increasing age translates into problems getting into the saddle, not a good thing when relying on a horse for a quick get away.

Then the perfect opportunity comes their way. Always looking to stay ahead of the vengeful Thornton, the gang learns of an opportunity to supply guns to Mexican revolutionaries. Not only will the deal allow the Wild Bunch to earn a boatload of gold, the machinations involved in trading the weapons will get them out of the United States for awhile. Everything goes off without a hitch until Angel pulls a fast one and involves his fellows in the struggles of poor Mexicans seeking to obtain weapons for armed struggle. The general leading the army balks when he learns a case of guns is missing from the prearranged total. What does he do? He discovers Angel has something to do with the disappearing case of rifles and promptly abducts the outlaw. When Pike and the rest of Angel's compatriots learn about this indignity, they head over to the general's fort to forge a deal. To their horror, they see first hand the tortures inflicted on their partner. As Thornton closes in for what must be the final time, the Wild Bunch collectively makes a decision that seals their doom. Hence, the fantastically gory finale shot in operatic slow motion.

A lot more happens in the movie than I summarized above. As I watched "The Wild Bunch," I wasn't completely sure I understood what Peckinpah was trying to say. Only later, after reflecting on the film, did I come to a conclusion about the movie's messages. First, as I stated above, Peckinpah attempts to show us the closing of one age and the beginning of another. The scene where Pike and a few of his companions observe an automobile shows us how out of touch these guys really are in the new world. They've only the vaguest idea of a car, and Pike further mentions he's heard about "flying machines" that move really fast way up North. What dinosaurs! But they're still alive and their time hasn't run out yet. When it does, it makes sense that the boys go out in a blaze of gunfire. What Peckinpah does is to condense all the violence of the Old West down into one personalized event. The Old West was violence; it must pass away with violence. Moreover, the frequent displays of machismo between members of the gang showcase the rugged humor and manners of the Old West in opposition to the cultivated urbanity of the new era.

I didn't come up with all of this on my own, unfortunately. An extra on the disc entitled "The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage" explicates some of these themes. Too, this documentary shows how Peckinpah's crew pulled off many of the stunts in the film. Other extras include production notes, cast biographies, and a trailer. The DVD version I watched claims to include footage left out in previous cuts, always a bonus when watching an unmitigated classic of this caliber. If you enjoy westerns in any way, you absolutely must add this one to your collection. The performances spellbind, the atmosphere leaps off the screen, and the cinematography excels in ways few other pictures do. "The Wild Bunch" is a must see film.


Rating:
Summary: Disappointed by the quality of the DVD
Review: I am very disappointed by the quality of this DVD. I bought it with my eyes closed because I actually loved the film. I fully agree with those who consider it a masterpiece, but... I wish I could have my money back. The letterbox format is an handicap for those like me that like to enjoy movies with a projector, but even on an average tv screen the quality of the picture is pretty bad. (The number of stars refers to the dvd and not to the movie)