The Wild Bunch - Restored Director's Cut

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Summary: Great Sam Peckinpah,exellent film
Review: Sam Peckinpah always shores unfortunate,wreched people in his films.This is unfortunate people's epic story. I wish other exellent film of "Cross Of Iron" has a clear DVD format.According to me these films are collectible.

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Summary: A masterful piece of cinema
Review: The Wild Bunch is a film that has refused to go away. Upon its release in 1969, the film generated such controversy that it was quickly swallowed up in all of its own media coverage, and as a result didn't fare as well as it might have. That the film has survived for this long is tantamount to its power: only one other film, "Unforgiven", has ever come close to deconstructing the mythology of the old west in the way that "The Wild Bunch" does. Sam Peckinpah, always regarded as a master film maker, never again came close to what he achieved with this film: every shot is carefully structured, every scene is placed with great care, every editing cut is made with masterful precision. The story is by now familiar, but still powerful -- the tale of an aged group of outlaws, realizing that their way of life is now out-dated, that they themselves are outdated, and yet it is the only life they have ever known. The outlaw life for them is both necessary and destructive: though they know it will birng about their own downfall, they refuse to let it go. To be a criminal is their only stable link to the world that they know; the new world, populated with international politics, automobiles and airplanes is foreign to them, and frightening. To that end, they will cling to their old ways, to their somewhat elusive code of honor, and they'll drag as many people down with them as they need to before they let it all go. Every actor in the film (the cast reads like a who's who list of the "manly" actors of the fifties and sixties) are all in top form: William Holden, Ernest Borgine, Robert Ryan, and Peckinpah regulars Warren Oates and Ben Johnson. This film doesn't romanticize these men, their lifestyle or their actions: indeed, everything and everyone in the film is presented as ugly, sweaty and distasteful. The film bears strong streaks of misogny and self-destructive behavior: that is, it bears the marks of director Sam Peckinpah, who was himself known to be a chauvinist and borderline alcoholic, never satisified with his life, himself or his work. The story is told on a epic scale, following the Bunch as they travel through Texas and Mexico with the law, represented by a former member of their gang, hot on their trail. Besides masterful cinematography, editing, sound and performances, the film also boasts some of the most memorable action sequences ever filmed. The climactic showdown, in particular, in which four members of the bunch march into a ruins and take on a sizeable force of Mexican soldiers, is among the most remarkable I have ever seen: bloody, intense, loud, and brilliantly orchestrated. While not to all tastes, "The Wild Bunch" is a remarkable piece of cinema, a textbook example of every aspect of the craft of filmmaking being masterfully utilized to create a motion picture experience as poignant, powerful and unforgettable today as it was 31 years ago.

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Summary: how to describe?
Review: My words cannot do this movie justice. One of my top 5 favorites of all time. Great directors today learn and copy from this movie. The ending is fantastic, of such magnitude only an incredible movie from start to finish could sell it and make you believe. Very good resolution and sound.

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Summary: The Wild Bunch: We Must Think Beyond Our Guns
Review: First of all, "The Wild Bunch," with restored footage, is a masterpiece, possible the best western ever made. Sam Peckinpah loved the west and the passing of his mythic west. Yes, the battles in this movie are gory, and Peckinpah wants us to "feel" the killings. There is real pain, real suffering,and the feeling of real loss. This film, for all its touted violence, is a poem of loss, how aging outlaws come to the sad fact that they have "outlived their guns." After the harsh beginning, the movie settles with a beautiful rythum, of visits to a Mexican village, where the killers are given flowers as they leave. The cast is great. Wiiliam Holden has never been better. Ernest Borgnine is also superb. Ben Johnson, that great cowboy from many John Ford films, and Warren Oates are fabulous, as the infamous Gorch Brothers. They steal almost every scene they are in. The added footage makes clearer a few things but I preferred the original cut, for it was swifter, more furious, if that is possible, and left me with more regret. The cinematography is wonderful, and you can almost taste the flavor of the dust of Texas and Mexico. Peckinpah gives free rein to his supporting actors; the bounty hunters are a startling bunch themselves,led by a guilt-ridden Robert Ryan, who wishes he were with the bunch he is tracking. There are poetic flashes everywhere: the scenes in the viiliage where a young senorita makes little boys out of the Gorch Brothers, the first battle, going haywire on both sides, until there seems to be no right or wrong but just a slaughtering of innocent townsfolk caught in the crossfire. the bunch arguing then laughing, bonding them together, the blown up bridge cracking and the horses falling as if forever falling into the muddy river, and before the final battle, the bunch with protitutes, sad, knowing this is their last day, a lone bird fluttering on the floor. And then the Climax, a rousing, blood-letting, fight to the death and beyond anything seen on the screen before and in my opinion since,for this battle, everytime I watch it, lasts only ten or so minutes but seems to last forever, as each member of the bunch reaching out for each other, knowing that this is the end, maybe of their kind, but something greater;the gift of living life to the fullest and in the end, the great musical score of Jerry Fielding framing the bunch as they ride into legend. One of my top ten films of all time.

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Summary: The Wild Bunch - Improves With Age
Review: I have seen this film well over a half dozen times going back to it's original theatrical release. The writing, cinematography, editing, scoring, directing and acting are superb. The film not only holds up beautifully over the years (decades!) but deepens as you - the viewer - ages. I simply cannot recommend this masterwork enough. The restored director's cut in wide screen is the only way to view it. There are scenes of William Holden's face and bits of dialogue that will haunt you forever.

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Summary: Next to Once Upon a Time in the West, My Favorite Western
Review: Much has been said of how this movie opened the door for gore and violence. Depending on your point of view, that may be a good or bad thing. Regardless, on its own it is a brilliant film if a bit hard to watch at times. It brings the death of the west home almost as well as Sergio Leone's masterpiece. William Holden makes the movie happen. Down to the way he gets on his horse, Holden's performance is worth the price of admission alone.

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Summary: A Groundbreaker
Review: I think that one thing many of the reviewers haven't caught is this movie was released the same year as Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. In a strange way this movie is almost a dark sequel to that other movie - also one of my favorites. In Butch and Sundance one has a story which is also about changing times but it's cloaked in a romantic viewpoint. The two characters are having a ball and the viewer is along for the ride - also having fun. The grungier aspects of living on the other side of the law are mostly glossed over. Butch and Sundance are just a couple good old anti-establishment boys. In the Wild Bunch one gets a story of what might of happened had the Wild Bunch survived well into the Twentieth Century. Now the good times are few and far between. The "Establishment" is huge and crushing. Life is changing rapidly and the outlaws code of ethics are outmoded. In contrast the "possee" on the Wild Bunch's trail are nothing but psychotic vultures, caring only about the reward and lotting the personal effects of the men they kill. In other words they are modern. Personally I find the restored footage to be a godsend to the movie. Without it the men have absolutely no reson or motivation for their actions. The movie really is a pointless exercise in violence and nobody has any admirable characteristics. I'm sorry but Sam Peckinpah didn't do those kind of stories. He wasn't a nihlistic filmmaker. As far as the last battle where the four characters absorb a terrific amount of bullets and all their opponents go down after being hit once I believe the director was making a point. Those men have made a concious decision to end their lives, but not before they take as many with them as they can. The general's men have no such motivation. They are an army of predators. At the end the Wild bunch are heros - tarnished heros certainly, but heros. All in all I find this movie gets better as I get older. Like The Outlaw Josey Wales I have come to appreciate it more as the years go by. On the other hand I find Van Damme and Segal's movies to be increasingly tiresome. Those movies are nothing but comicbooks. The Wild Bunch is totally different.

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Summary: Groundbreaking, but?
Review: Another film I just don't understand why it gets such great ratings. It is ground breaking in terms of violence and gore, lot of blood spurting, but I otherwise I didn't get much else from it. Not one I could watch over and over again. I didn't buy the motivations. At one point they are very ruthless then they have some kind of honor among thieves. The opening battle is very good and shows the ruthlessness of the characters. The final battle seemed to be to see how many squibs they could fire off in a minute. The violence here seemed extremely gratuitous. I know they are the heroes, but I can't understand why everyone else gets hit once, goes down and stays down while the heroes get hit at least five plus times and still don't go down. The acting I thought wasn't particularly great and the plot rather slow at times. As far as the DVD goes, very good video transfer which is unusual for films of this age. It looks like new. A very interesting documentary that I thought was better than the film itself.

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Summary: Probably The Greatest Western Of All Time.
Review: Everything about this movie have become American Landmarks in the film industry, from the performances and direction, to the cinematography and editing. Probably the greatest western ever ('The Searchers' is the other candidate). Sam Peckinpha's best film shows us that he can choreograph violence like no other director. The Wild Bunch's last stand is one of the most rewarding action sequences ever filmed. William Holden and Ernest Borgine are the most memorable from the buch and turn in career-defining performances. Great western, enormously entertaining and rewading viewing. One of the all-time greats. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 10!

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Summary: The Greatest Western Ever
Review: This film not only broke the boundries and stretched(more like broke in half!) the rules for violent cinema, it is a GREAT movie. AFI obviously looked only at its influence on later pictures when they ranked it 80th on their Top 100 list. It has the trademarks of a true western, only backwards. You pray that the robbers, the anti-heroes of the film, will win the final battle scene, but you know that its hopeless. The bounty hunters represent the evil in the film, except for their leader, an ex-robber himself.Some have called it the best American film ever made, and that may be. All I know is it's a fine piece of film-making.