William Holden

Ernest Borgnine

Robert Ryan

Jaime Sánchez

Warren Oates

Edmond O'Brien

Ben Johnson

Albert Dekker

Strother Martin

Emilio Fernández

Fernando Wagner

Alfonso Arau

Chano Urueta

Jorge Russek

L.Q. Jones

Bo Hopkins

Dub Taylor

Paul Harper

Bill Hart

Rayford Barnes

Stephen Ferry

Sonia Amelio

Chalo González

Elsa Cárdenas

Aurora Clavel

Enrique Lucero

Elizabeth Dupeyrón

José Chávez

René Dupeyrón

Pedro Galván

Graciela Döring

Ivan J. Rado

Margarito Luna

Lilia Castillo

Yolanda Ponce

Major Perez

Ivan Scott

Señora Madero

Elizabeth Unda

Julio Corona

Archie Butler

Tap Canutt

Gordon T. Dawson

Mickey Gilbert

Robert "Buzz" Henry

Buck Holland

Walt La Rue

Matthew Peckinpah

Jack Williams

Joe Yrigoyen

Alyce Allen

Dennis Falt

Dennis Feldman

'Chico' Hernandez

Raul Madero

Erwin Neal

Bill Shannon

Jim Sheppard

Sam Peckinpah

Jerry Fielding

Lou Lombardo

William D. Faralla

Edward Carrere

Walon Green

Phil Feldman

Lucien Ballard

Al Greenway

Bud Hulburd

Don Stott

Thomas Laughridge

Crayton Smith

Bernie Abramson

James R. Silke

Clifford C. Coleman

Sonny Burke

Dan Wallin

Joel Cox

Robert L. Wolfe

Donald Harris

Chema Hernández

Joe Finnegan

Danny Sands

Edwin Neal

Bob Herron

Denny Arnold

Tony Epper

Joe Canutt

Norman Bishop

Louie Elias

Jim Feazell

Dick Shane

Roy N. Sickner

Whitey Hughes

Billy E. Hughes

John "Bud" Cardos

Bob Orrison

Gary McLarty

Billy Mauch

Keester Sweeney

Ed Scheid

John O. Young

Stanley Martin

Joe Kavigan

Bill Rivol

Bud Gaunt

James F. Reber

William Hinshaw

John Barton

Reggie Jones

Tyrus Wong

Dave Friedman

Israel Baker

Bonnie Jean Douglas

Howard G. Kazanjian

Arnold Losey

Robert J. Miller

Anatol Kaminsky

James Rugg

Norman Herzburg

Chad Evans

Phil A. Ankrom

Richard Tim Vanik

Manny Klein

Dominick Fera

Carl Fortina

Raphael Kramer

Phil Rawlins

Fred Gammon

John Audino

Alan Harshman

Laurindo Almeida

Stephen R. Ferry

Ralph Ayres

Gary Combs

Tony Terran

Shelly Manne

Western

The Wild Bunch

Warner Bros.-Seven Arts

United States of America

English

Español

Deutsch

underdog

friendship

bounty hunter

robbery

texas

mexican revolution

honor

gang

shootout

soldier

steam locomotive

righteous rage

Brutal and elegiac masterpiece.

Outlaws led by Pike Bishop on the Mexican/U.S. frontier face not only the passing of time, but bounty hunters (led by former partner of Pike, Deke Thornton) and the Mexican army as well.

In 1969 Sam Peckinpah picked up the torch that Arthur Penn lit with 1967's "Bonnie & Clyde", and literally poured gasoline on it to impact on cinema to the point that the shock wave is still being felt today. The death of the "Motion Picture Production Code" in 1967 ushered in a new era for cinema goers, it was a time for brave and intelligent directors to step up to the plate to deliver stark and emotive thunder, and with "The Wild Bunch", director Sam Peckinpah achieved this by the shed load.

The Wild Bunch doesn't set out to be liked, it is a harsh eye opening perception of the Western genre, this is the other side of the coin to the millions of Westerns that whoop and holler as the hero gets the girl and rides off into the sunset. Peckinpah's piece is thematically harsh and sad for the protagonists, for these are men out of their time, this is a despicable group of men, driven by greed and cynicism, they think of nothing to selling arms to a vile amoral army across the border.

The film opens with a glorious credit sequence as we witness "The Bunch" riding into town, the picture freeze frames in black & white for each credit offering, from here on in we know that we are to witness something different, and yes, something very special. The film is book-ended by ferocious bloody carnage, and sandwiched in the middle is an equally brilliant train robbery and a slow-mo bridge destruction of high quality. Yet the impact of these sequences are only enhanced because the quality of the writing is so good (Walon Green and Roy N. Sickner alongside Peckinpah). 

There's no pointless discussions or scene filling explanations of the obvious. Each passage, in each segment, is thought through to gain credibility for the shattering and bloody climax. There is of course one massive and intriguing question that hangs over the film - just how did Peckinpah make such low moral men appear as heroes, as the "four outlaws of the apocalypse" stroll into town, their fate to them already known?. Well I'm not here to tell you that because you need to witness the film in its entirety for yourself. But it's merely one cheeky point of note in a truly majestic piece of work. A film that even today stands up as one of the greatest American films ever made. 10/10

There are no ‘good guys’ in The Wild Bunch, only bad guys and worse guys. The titular bunch are thieves and killers, but at least they won’t rob a dead man – unlike the posse of bounty hunters, led by Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), sent by the railroad company to bring the bunch in dead or alive. Deke, himself a former bunch member, is considerably more evolved than the mercenaries railroad man Harrigan (Albert Dekker) has saddled him with (“chicken-stealing gutter trash,” Deke calls them).

There is no love lost between Deke and bunch leader Pike Bishop (William Holden), but the former has only accepted the task of capturing the latter because success means freedom (Deke has been temporarily released from jail expressly to track down the bunch; as Harrigan warns him, it’s “Thirty days to get Pike or 30 days back to Yuma”); on the other hand, Pike holds no ill will toward Deke because he would do the same were the situation reversed.

This is interesting because, according to Roger Ebert, men like Pike and Deke live (and, as it turns out, also die) by a code, and “The men provided to [Deke] by a railroad mogul are shifty and unreliable; they don't understand the code of the bunch” – but then the rest of the bunch doesn’t necessarily understand it either. Pike respects that Deke has given his word that he will chase the bunch to hell and back and hell again if need be; that the word was given to the railroad company is immaterial. But to Pike’s second in command, Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), “That ain't what counts! It's who you give [your word] to.” So the code is at best hazy even to the bunch, and perhaps only Pike and Deke are really privy to it – but, considering they have been at odds with each other since before the events of the film, it stands to reason that one of them must have broken it.

All of that notwithstanding, the code exists; maybe only in name, but it does – it has to, otherwise what do aging pistoleros such as Pike, and Deke, and Dutch, and Lyle (Warren Oates), and Tector (Ben Johnson) have left to convince themselves that they are at least the bad guys and not the worse? The only character who still believes in something is the much younger Angel (Jaime Sánchez), who wants to give some of the guns the gang plans to steal for the sadistic General Mapache (Emilio Fernández) to a band of Pancho Villa supporters (Pike and the others agree, though not before making sure Angel will forfeit his share of their earnings in exchange).

While Angel has ideals, the others have dreams – mainly of “quitting” after one “last job” –, but it makes little difference; they all pay the price for their hopes and ambitions, because they have all gone the wrong away about them. If there ever was a film illustrating that he who lives by the sword dies by the sword, this is it. And yet, those bad guys… well, they weren’t all that bad after all, were they?

Filipe Manuel Neto

**A good Western, with some problems that prevent it from being excellent.**

Personally, I think that Western is a genre of cinema focused on entertainment and action, and I think that is generally correct. I haven't seen many Western films that can be said to be great (although they exist). This film is good, it is beyond average, but it is not free from problems and imperfections.

The plot is based on a gang that carries out its latest bank robbery. They know that, in the 20th century, they are part of a dying world and times are changed. Things go wrong: it was a trap set up by the authorities, and this forces them to cross the border into Mexico and spend an insane amount of time looking over their shoulders while a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters with few scruples set off in pursuit, and get closer to their objective.

The plot is nothing special. We've seen this countless times. The epicenter and soul of Westerns is often about the duel between criminals and the forces of law, and it often shows that there is very little difference between them. However, this does not pose any problem. The film's first big problem is its excessive length and slow pace: the action is interrupted by a set of scenes of small interest or irrelevant dialogues: after an hour of running time, I simply wanted them to kill everyone. Some part of these scenes was an attempt to better develop a core of main characters. However, the effort fails because they are unable to be interesting, the connection that binds the audience to them does not exist.

Directed by Sam Peckinpah, it's a regular film which relies on good action scenes with some sensationalism. Good actors with vast experience give us an elegant and committed effort, particularly William Holden, Albert Dekker, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan, and it is worth seeing the way they bring the characters to life. The action is there and is explosive, there is no concern about sparing civilians and the result is complete carnage. Cinematography is quite good, the effects too, the filming locations are very effective. The soundtrack is understandable, but it is not pleasant.

The Wild Bunch( 1969)

Unchanged men in a changing land

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A review by John Chard

Written by John Chard on Fri Feb 10 2017

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