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The Wild Bunch
An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writers: Walon Green (screenplay), Sam Peckinpah (screenplay),
Stars: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan |
Storyline
In the Wild Bunch the movie opens with a group of aging outlaw's final score, a bank robbery. The event concludes with a violent and overtly bloody shootout that would generally mark the finale of a movie. This is correct in that it marks the finale of an era, for the characters and the world they live in. They simply can no longer keep up, the times are changing, technology advancing, and they're style of life is getting left behind in the dust that they spent so long galloping through. They abandon their careers for the simpler life of retirement. They enjoy this time, they live their fantasies. During this time the law is always on their tracks, bounty hunters. The further into their fantasy they get, the closer their demise seems to get. When one of their own is captured they are faced with the choice of escape or what is certainly a suicide mission to attempt and free their fallen behind comrade. For them it is not a choice.Movie Review
The "old" West was
changing, and director Sam Peckinpah recognized those changing times. By
1969, Sergio Leone and his "Spaghetti" westerns were the real deal, but
when Peckinpah brought forth his film, "The Wild Bunch," that same
year, it ushered in a whole new wave of films as its vision was simply
landmark. Building on the violent stylistic template and chic of "Bonnie
and Clyde" (1967), "The Wild Bunch" begins and ends with two of the
bloodiest screen battles ever envisioned, and it tells the story of an
aging group of outlaws, led by William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, as
they attempt one last score, with Robert Ryan as an ex-Wild Bunch member
in hot pursuit. They become involved with Mexican rebels and from that
point on, we get an engaging story as the outlaws party with the Mexican
army, their hookers, and their alcohol - all of this leading up to the
notorious ending where the Wild Bunch man their guns and duke-it-out
with their enemies. "The Wild Bunch" has obtained a notorious reputation
for being one of the most violent movies ever made and is credited for
being the movie that changed the way we looked at the "old" West and
action cinema in general. Sam Peckinpah was a true revolutionary during a
time when America was not so innocent, as proved by "Bonnie and Clyde"
two years before it.
