Genre: Action/Western Director: Sam Peckinpah
Producer: Phil Feldman
Writers: Walon Green (story) and Roy N. Sickner (story); Walon Green (screenplay) and Sam Peckinpah (screenplay)
Cast: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, Warren Oates, Jamie Sanchez, Ben Johnson, Emilio Fernandez, Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Albert Dekker, Bo Hopkins, Dub Taylor, Paul Harper, Jorge Russek
Music: Jerry Fielding
Cinematography: Lucien Ballard
Editing: Lou Lombardo
Distribution: Warner Bros.-Seven Arts
Release Date: June 18, 1969
Running Time: 145 min
In choosing the first western to review for The Classics Corner I was faced with a tough choice, I could backtrack and review a John Ford film, or take a look at one of Sergio Leone’s flicks, but in the end I decided after re-watching The Wild Bunch this afternoon it was a good place to start. Here is a film which after forty years still stirs controversy; the level of violence in the final shoot-out is enough to make Quentin Tarantino cringe. However The Wild Bunch is more than an action western, it’s an almost poetic take on the myth of the old west and electrifying cinema of the highest order.
Sam Peckinpah is an interesting filmmaker; he got his start in the sixties with a string of successful revisionist westerns that quickly established him as one of Hollywood’s most creative and bloody filmmakers, though he found most of his success in Europe. Peckinpah however was not an easy man to work with, he was a drug addict, an alcoholic and had a violent temper and by 1967 he was out of work. He took on The Wild Bunch out of desire to return to filmmaking. He was inspired by Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde and wanted to infuse the western with a realism not yet seen all while taking on the Vietnam War. Naturally the film was a hit with the young audiences who were flocking to see the films of the New Hollywood directors. After The Wild Bunch Peckinpah began to fall from grace and though he made many more great films it wasn’t until his rise as a cult figure years later that he got the respect he deserved.
The Wild Bunch follows a gang of outlaws led by Pike Bishop (William Holden) in 1913 at the end of the era of the old west. They sense that their world is coming to an end, and after a botched job that leaves them on the lam the gang heads to Mexico where they find they’re being trailed by their old accomplice Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) who is working for the law as a way to escape prison. In Mexico the bunch finds themselves caught up in the Mexican Revolution and in the employment of a corrupt Mexican general that they’re going to rob arms for. However their past is about to catch up with them in a final bloody confrontation that leaves none spared.
The Wild Bunch is told in a dry manner, the characters we meet are the slow to burn masculine men that Hollywood loves, but instead of what we get today in film the bunch is the real deal. The film has a nostalgic undertone, the world of the bunch is being eaten away by modernity and as an audience we get the feeling that these people have been places, they’re tough battle hardened men, but they’re also three-dimensional characters. The two most fascinating are Pike and Thornton, and the conflict between them. Pike is a man sick of the life he’s living but finds it too difficult to leave, and Thornton is a man that wants to bad to return to the life he once lived but the law has choked the life out of him. There are also plenty of supporting characters as well each with their own conflicts, but the most fascinating is Angel, a Mexican who wants so bad to liberate his people from the dictatorship. Then there’s the dialogue which has something of a poetic quality to it. It’s always blunt and to the point. The film has some memorable lines such as “If they move… kill e’m!” The story is dramatic, complex, funny, and exciting, it’s what filmmakers strive for today but can’t find.
The acting from all parties is fantastic. William Holden clearly understood the part of Pike Bishop and plays him well capturing a wide range of emotions. He has a sad look to his face that fits the role of Pike well. He gives us the impression of a rugged man who’s seen it all. There’s so much we learn just from Holden’s facial expressions and the way he talks with that melancholic tinge in his voice. The supporting cast is great as well; Ernest Borgnine is great as Pike’s right hand man and Robert Ryan as Thornton. The other actor that impressed me was Jamie Sanchez as Angel, he doesn’t give a fantastic performance per say, but he does his job well as the character we can emotionally link to without being overly melodramatic. The acting all around is great, and works on many levels.
The aesthetics in The Wild Bunch was groundbreaking for its time. Consider the famous twenty minute opening sequence as the bunch rides through town disguised as army officers. We have a great score playing to immediately add to the mood. The bunch rides past children at play, they seem innocent at first but when we cut over we see they are torturing scorpions. The build-up to the raid is filled with suspense. We witness the action at several different angles, and Peckinpah avoids using much dialogue for the opening allowing the camera to tell the story for him. When all hell breaks loose, all hell breaks loose. The action is bloody, but Peckinpah never lets up, his use of multi-angled editing and slow motion come in to play even more here. Words cannot describe just the opening scene; it must be seen to be believed. There are other great moments, the widescreen cinematography is used both to give us a feeling of the open spaces, but also works in more intimate moments where the lighting is always just the right tone of red. The score by Jerry Fielding is fantastic, it isn’t Morricone class, but it fits the tone of the film well. The Wild Bunch is as tightly directed as a film can get.
Overall The Wild Bunch may very well be one of the greatest westerns, it tells a great story, has a great cast, and plenty of great scenes. I’m ZGDK, and they sure don’t make ‘em like they used to.
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