ShangLuda Admirable film.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

lawrenceconwayvulcan The Wild Bunch is film that has become known for it's highly visual (the opening bank robbery, the train robbery and the final shoot out cum massacre) action set pieces that it is easy to forget the more subtle character performances that rank among the stars (William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan) best. Holden is Pike a man who always talking about keeping a code of honour yet never really holds to it, Borgnine is Dutch who always backs up Pike no matter the situation and Ryan is Thornton Pikes former right hand who finds himself hunting his former comrade with a bunch of trigger happy morons. Why The Wild Bunch has stood the test of time is through it's of character study and staging of razor sharp action set peices that i0 testament to the skills of Director Sam Peckinpah.

lasttimeisaw Sam Peckinpah's revisionist Western epic is venerated for its astute end-of-an-era nostalgia, the hard-boiled action spectacles, a trenchantly felt brotherly camaraderie and the go-for-broke self-assurance that bluntly depreciates mortality into triviality. Bestriding the frontier between USA and Mexico, THE WILD BUNCH takes place in the early 20th Century when a modern revolution is heralded by the advancement of railroads, a novel machine gun and an archetypal automobile, that soon will drive horse-riding to the verge of obsoleteness. The Mexican desert is still expansive and awe-inspiringly impressive, particularly against the golden rays of a westering sun in a panoptic arrangement, but its inhabitants are dogged by civil wars, and our titular bunch of gringo trigger-happy gunslingers (save for one Mexican, Angel) are aiming for one last bountiful swag before time is running out on their old games. Opening with a grandiosely rowdy shootout when the bunch robs a railroad office, Peckinpah makes on bones about decimating innocent bystanders during the helter-skelter crossfire, and often shows the carnage through children's excited eyes, cross-cut with the shots of a scorpion dropped onto an anthill, devoured by ants, then set on fire altogether by these rubbernecking kids, Peckinpah hammers home to us that violence is an elemental impulse that resides inside every human being, a constituent of our original sin, the process of deglamorizing and demystifying it is very much against the tenet of the genre it denotes, and contributes a perspicacious tonic to give the dying form one last hurrah!After the ambush, only six living souls have survived, with a posse of bounty hunters breathing down their necks, led by Deke Thornton (Ryan), the erstwhile parter of the gang's leader Pike Bishop (Holden), it all seems like the usual cat-and-mouse chasing game, but it isn't. The sextet crosses the Rio Grande and soon hatches a plan to steal a shipment of weaponry from a USA army train and sell them to General Mapache (Fernández, crassly rebarbative) of Mexican Federal Army in exchange of gold coins, a time-honored ploy of selling massive-killing weapons to an embattled country for monetary gains, a scourge attendant with the entire human history. The team makes a triumphant derring-do to wrest the arms even with Thornton's posse giving chase unexpectedly (culminated by a bridge detonation money shot), but bad blood (both personally and politically) between the young Angel (Sánchez, doesn't degrade his character into a racial cliché) and General Mapache turns their success into a jittery impasse when Angel is captured and physically tortured under the order of the callous Mapache, with paycheck securely in their hands, will the rest of the bunch leave one of them in the lurch? At one point, Peckinpah archly teases us that it would be the case, since Pike has no qualms in deserting his long-time gang member Freddie Sykes (O'Brien) when the latter is shot (not fatally) by one of Thornton's men. But inexplicably, or maybe under the influence of post-coital blues, the remaining gang of four: Pike, his right-hand man Dutch Engstrom (a game Borgnine) and the two Gorch brothers (Oates and Johnson, often saddled with comic crassness), valiantly makes their final request of releasing Angel, which ultimately set off a kamikaze 4-versus-200 pitched battle (consonant with Peckinpah's philosophy on violence, human shields are frequently employed, a luscious girl can be liquidated if she dares to shoot behind one's back), but before all that, an utterly left-field moment crops up which perfectly elucidates what is the unthinkable and almost droll calm before the tempest, this is Peckinpah's most staggering coup de maître! A robust ensemble made of nearly exclusively by men, William Holden exhibits a true leader's flair competently and compassionately, weather-beaten, bedeviled by the guilty of choosing expediency in the face of danger, he makes the death wish roundly poignant and rousing which otherwise very likely would plunge into empty heroism if someone hams it up. Robert Ryan, counterpoising his ostensible villain designation, is pregnant with a sublime tint of self-resignation, world-weariness and fatalism, only seeps a vestige of hope amid the plaintive coda, of a pièce-de-résistence which finds the perfect equilibrium between idealism and praxis.

gab-14712 Western films were very popular in early American cinema because of actors like John Wayne. But as the decades came and passed, the popularity of the western began to decline. One of the last memorable westerns from the olden days was this film, 1969's The Wild Bunch. It has received ecstatic reviews and it has been praised for its realism and its themes. The violence portrayed in the film was, and remains controversial. From this era, it's my understanding this is one of the most violent films you'll see. As for myself, I respect the film very much especially when it comes to the realism aspects and the gritty performances. I actually disliked the film on my first viewing, but my second viewing changed my mind rather drastically. Still far from a perfect film, but I understand why people called this film a classic and I found myself really warming up to it after my second viewing.The themes are very interesting and I believe these themes that affects everyone, old and young. It's about a clash of old versus the new. The setting of the film is right after the turn of the 20th century in the years leading up to the first World War. The wild bunch aka the main outlaw gang are old, worn out, and ready for retirement. Times are changing and it's not all about the horses and the guns anymore. Technology is beginning to be pivotal at this point in America. One of the bunch remarks after seeing a car, "they're gonna use them in the war, they say." Because of changing times, new generations come into play. In the very opening scene, we see the bunch passing a group of children playing with scorpions and eye contact is made between the leader, Pike and one of the children. I think that is important because it sets up the last few scenes of the movie. In a sense, the passing of the torch from the older to newer generation. I thought these are very powerful scenes and the film uses them very well.One of the controversial things about the film is the use of the violence. The violence gives the movie its sense of realism. Director Sam Peckinpah meant to use the violence as an allegory to the Vietnam War, in which Americans were seeing on their television sets every night. Peckinpah wanted to show that violence was awful, and not a pleasant thing to witness. Most western films glorified the violence and made it bloodless. But Peckinpah's vision was different. Such gun battles were common on the American frontier, and they were extremely bloody. The last act of the film makes a fine example of that statement when Pike's gang decides to take on a Mexican village whom kidnapped one of their members. So be forewarned, the film does not shy away from it's violence.This outlaw gang led by Pike (William Holden) is on the brink of retirement. They know their time is up and its up to a new generation to take over. They plan on doing one last score before they settle down. However one of their own is kidnapped by the Mexicans and although the group knows it is a suicide attempt, they decide to possibly do their last hurrah by staging a rescue mission. I think the plot was pretty good, and once again the themes are prevalent throughout this story. They ain't young men anymore.The performances are very effective from everyone, but its the three leads who steal the thunder. William Holden is an amazing actor and I felt he was perfectly cast as Pike. He brought good leadership qualities to his character. He is a man who knows when it is time to move on. His first mate, in a sense, was played by Ernest Borgnine. He also delivers a quality performance as Butch. I also loved the performance of Robert Ryan, the former gang member turned bounty hunter who is charged with bringing Pike to justice. I loved seeing the dynamics of Ryan's character who was a former friend of Pike and is now going after him.There are two giant violent action set pieces-once in the beginning and once at the end. While I think the action itself was done well, I didn't like the treatment of civilians, especially during the first one during a failed bank robbery. There was a mighty gun battle with Ryan's character, Deke on a rooftop shooting down at Pike's gang in the bank, but with no regard to the civilians. I mean the man is on the side of the law, so I was bewildered by that. But it's not really a major issue. The second part is pretty much a "blaze of glory" act. I won't give what happens here away, but rest assured there are many, many bullets used in this sequence.The Wild Bunch is a good western and it was mostly a fun if somewhat grueling watch. The violence can be hard to watch sometimes, especially during that final gun battle. Peckinpah wanted realism, and well he got it. He said his mission was to show people the feeling of being gunned down, and I did get that feeling a few times. The film is not a light movie. It's about betrayal, violence, and the realization that your time is up. The movie does not shy away from its messages and it will hit you hard. I loved the realism of the movie, which many older Westerns are devoid of. Peckinpah's screenplay does serve the film justice and so does the look of it. I often got the feeling I was out there amongst the sand with the people in the movie. The movie is not for the light-hearted, so consider yourself warned.My Grade: B

punishmentpark I've been looking forward to this one a long time, expecting a brutal western full of senseless bloodshed and what not... and I can't really say I'm disappointed!Putting William Holden in the lead was a great idea - looking like a civil enough guy. Ernest Borgnine has always been one of my favorites 'old-timers' anyway, so it was fun to see him here as well. Warren Oates played a terrific role, even if (or exactly because) he got the short end of the stick here all the time.The opening scene is instantly classic. I don't know if anyone had done such a thing before (freezing frames and switching between present and past), but I'm sure lots of directors got their inspiration here.Apparently, some people don't care for the heavily accentuated characters and humour at times (who gets that last drop of whiskey?), but it didn't feel out of place to me. The finale could be dismissed for the same reasons, but I don't think it deserves to be - at all.A big 8 - or a small 9 out of 10... what do you think?