The Wild Bunch 1969 Review

"If they move . . . kill em."

The heart and soul of this movie is about betrayal and the death of a friendship told in the context of the end of an era (the old West). The band of old-time bank-robbers knows it's time for them to retire and so before they break up they plan one last bank robbery.

It goes terribly wrong and they are pursued by a sleazy posse organized by an ex-partner, who is saving his own skin by working with Railroad executives who are far more brutal and reckless than the outlaws ever could be. Of course big business is on the right side of the law even if there are unintended casualities.

Heading into Mexico the gang makes a deal with a sadistic Mexican general.  He has less honor than the criminal gang does but when you are so out-manned it just doesn't seem possible to get some instant kharma.

Don't worry, the bad guys are not charming or likeable. They are a true motley, unkempt at times, a nasty Wild Bunch of criminal ruffians.  The live lawlessly and with violence around them and they will of course have to die violently.   But we wish it could be a little different, none-the-less.   And the back-story lets us see that maybe it didn't have to be this way.  Their biggest fault, their worst mistakes are not being able to change and adapt to how the times are a-changing. 

A lot of films have copied The Wild Bunch, particularly the violence.  Mostly they fail miserably and unfortunately in the process demote this film from the brilliant masterpiece it is, to being thought of as a very violent, modernized western film.  Dispell anything you have heard about the film by seeing it for yourself.

Let me assure you everything thing about this  revolutionary, groundbreaking film is as meticulously exacting and artistic as a film gets- Acting, direction, screenplay, lighting, staging,pacing, photography, editing, music.

Finally in 1981 it was restored to it's original glory and then in 1995 it was expanded with new footage censored from the original film.   It is not as shocking as it once was, but that has not diminished the power, meaning or beauty of this American classic.

The opening, the bridge, the Mexican whorehouse and the finale  are 4 of the films several highlights.  A once in a life-time cast including some of Sam's wonderful rogue company of actors. 

Robert Ryan, William Holden, Ben Johnson, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates and believe it or not Ernest Borgnine are superb.   Some of the acting styles imay be old school, but THIS is a 38 year old film set at the end of an era.

Appreciate  the opening of the film where the sound of a heartbeat blends into the snare drum and cymbals of a marching band as the gang prepares their daring bank robbery.  The sounds of the various rifles, pistols and gattling guns; The sound inside the steam baths, riding the deserts of Texas, crossing the Rio Grande and into Mexico is as full of distinction as the characters we meet.

And what characters we meet. The good guys employ dangerous felons and bottom feeders and are willing to kill innocent civilians to defeat the bad guys who have honorable traits and a solid sense of ethics.

It's just past the end of an era. The old ways are rapidly changing in 1913. The West was changing rapidly and there was no longer any room for bands of outlaws. The Times were a changin', just as they were when Peckinpah filmed his masterpiece in 1968. Ah, but some things never change. Greed even when legal is capable of destroying many innocent lives. Just as their is good in all men, there is also bad. When lines are drawn too rigidly, when compromise is not recognized as means to a solution the good, and the innocent are as likely to be in the crossfire as the bad.

The film opens with children laughing, poking at a pair of Scorpions who are being stung slowly to death by hordes of red ants. The Scorpions aren't permitted to even attempt an escape since the Children will foil any escapes with pokes from a stick. Later on as what's left of the Wild Bunch rides out of town, the kids will be laughing and lighting the Scorpions and ants on fire with straw. A child will also fire a lethal shot in an unforgettable scene later on in the film.

The scene was inspired by something Peckinpah saw and immediately improvised and added into the film. It was a stroke of genius to recognize how perfect its inclusion would be to the film. It foreshadows the ending of the film and sets a tone for us.

There are so many layers to this film, several viewings are necessary to appreciate and catch all of them. I won't attempt to embrace everything that I admire and enjoy in the film because I would be doing so for possible 50,000 or more words. I will never be satisfied with anything I will write about this film, and it has sparked some truly inspired critical analysis in many others. 

The film is authentic in its period details, and it's dusty, grimy sun baked locations are so vividly captured the audience feels all the textures captured by Lucian Ballard's exquisite cinematography, Peckinpah's flawless direction and Peckinpah's and Waylon Green's at times surprisingly literate screenplay. Listen closely and you'll hear memorable lines of (almost) minimalist poetry. The film is also blessed with a wonderful Jerry Fielding score that mixes period influences in with the requisite orchestral themes. It may be a ground-breaking film but it doesn't completely de-construct the Western Film itself. Instead it uses images the audience knows and turns them into something most had never seen or experienced before. Pekinpah's vision was a unique one and it's
realized best in this, his finest film.

It is a very violent film, but the violence is meticulously stylized.   It shocked and sickened audiences in its day but some found it beautifully done.  Peckinpah and Ballard shot scenes at different film speeds so at time it appears part of the scene is in slow, or more accurately --altered motion.   You see motion in a difference exaggerated way.  It makes the moment more powerful and dramatic  It becomes visually operatic.   Yes, at times the violence is a choreographed poetic dance-but it is not to glorify it, but done for dramatic effect.  This technique has been copied in inspired ways by  John Woo (The Killer, Hard Boiled); and Steven Speilberg (Saving Private Ryan) and Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill) and unfortunately it has been ripped off and copied in many cheap bad exploitation kind of films.

The actors of Wild Bunch were well known to audiences, but no one was prepared to see Holden, Ryan, Borgnine and O'Brien like this.

 This was a full realization of the NEW breed of Hollywood film-makers. Rule breakers who defied the censors and broke out of the restrictions of how films were made under the aegis of Hollywood's moguls and the Hayes Code.   This was the continuation of  what Arthur Penn explored in Bonnie and Clyde-but to a higher level.

When the restored director's cut was re-released in 1995, the ratings board wanted to slap an NC17 rating on it, mainly for the expanded scenes in the Mexican Whorehouse which included additional nudity and sex.   There was a protest and a demand that it was reassessed.  The violence by the way is far less and far less graphic than in the R rated Hostel or Saw films.

Many might note several similarities between this film and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They were being made at almost the same time and both were released the same year.. Never have two films been more different. Butch Cassidy is an overly romanticized almost sweet bit of audience pleasing revisionistic Western cotton candy.   It established forever the cliche of the buddy-buddy pictures that are the core of so many action movies. However, it was also creating an instantly  phony mythology. It's an entertaining, even romantic, comedy western adventure.  I thing it's a very well done fun and entertaining film, but it does not compare to THE WILD BUNCH .   Butch's influence can be seen directly on good entertaining films like  Midnight Run and Rush Hour.   Wild Bunch's influence is seen in everything from  Hard Boiled, The Unforgiven, Saving Private Ryan to Goodfellas.

The Wild Bunch is a work of art which has become even more than what it's makers intended and has stood the test of time better than most films -- even after it's techniques and once ground-breaking violent action scenes have been used, stolen and updated by dozens of film-makers.  It is a one of a kind masterpiece where repeated viewings reveal additional layers subtexts, themes and ideas. 

Re-visit it soon.

The Wild Bunch  1969  Directed by Sam Peckinpah