The Revisionist Western was born in a post-WWII world where people and movie makers alike began to question the reality of movies. To a country emerging from a long bloody war with a new found understanding of the reality of conflict and the price of violence, these themes seemed unrealistic. Peckinpah himself was a marine who witnessed the dark realities of war and violence.
Perhaps the first major difference between a traditional western and The Wild Bunch we realize is the fact that Pike Bishop, the protagonist, is an outlaw. From the very start of the movie we are made to question whether Bishop is a good or bad character. This is a far cry from the traditional Western in which the protagonist is a do-good sheriff or cowboy who fights only to protect himself and others. By making Bishop, his gang, and practically every other character in the movie morally ambiguous, the audience is given a more compelling and realistic portrayal of Western life.
It is up to the audience to decide who the good guys and who the bad guys are. The opening shootout is one of the most important and telling scenes in the movie. We are introduced to both Bishop and his gang as well as Thornton and his gang of bounty hunters who are after them. However we are also introduced into some of the key aspects and themes of the movie which persist through its entirety.
One of the most important themes in the movie which is often overlooked is the destructiveness of violence. This is evidenced in the large number of civilians who are killed after being caught in the crossfire of the two groups. Both sides seem to have no regard for the lives of the innocent civilians caught in the midst of their battle.
This is undoubtedly a criticism on war in general which Peckinpah meant to highlight. War and violence are rarely confined and almost always lead to the deaths of civilians and others not involved. It should be recognized that The Wild Bunch was filmed and released while the Vietnam War was raging, a war which was unpopular among the majority of Americans, and many interpreted the movie as an allegory for the war [1]. The violence of The Wild Bunch is not neat and deserved like the Westerns of old but on the contrary, quite messy, and seemingly random.
This notion is perpetuated by the actual on screen deaths. Peckinpah made it a priority to make the on-screen deaths gruesome, and they are.
When someone is shot in The Wild Bunch they explode with blood, often times in slow motion. Slow motion at the time was a brand-new technique and Pekinpah was one of the first to utilize it. There are no quick or romanticized deaths in the movie but instead many characters are left to slowly bleed to death in agony. Peckinpah was criticized for this by some but defended his excessive use of gore by claiming he wanted to show the reality of violence.
The killing of civilians including women and children as well as the excessive use of gore are integral aspects of The Wild Boys that portray the dark reality of the violence once glorified by Westerns. Fernando Wagner Cmdr. Frederick Mohr. Sam Peckinpah Director. Walon Green Writer. Roy N. Sickner Writer. Sam Peckinpah Writer. Phil Feldman Producer.
Jerry Fielding Original Music. Lucien Ballard Cinematographer. Lou Lombardo Film Editor. Edward Carrere Art Direction. View All Critic Reviews See Movies in Theaters.
There are no approved quotes yet for this movie. Best Horror Movies. Worst Superhero Movies. Best Netflix Series and Shows. Go back. More trailers. Dexter: New Blood: Season 1. The Shrink Next Door: Season 1.
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South Side: Season 2. Paris in Love: Season 1. It was party time, and not the right venue for what became one of the most controversial films of its time--praised and condemned with equal vehemence, like " Pulp Fiction. After a reporter from the Reader's Digest got up to ask "Why was this film ever made? But no one saw the minute version for many years. It was cut, not because of violence only quiet scenes were removed , but because it was too long to be shown three times in an evening.
It was successful, but it was read as a celebration of compulsive, mindless violence; see the uncut version, and you get a better idea of what Peckinpah was driving at. The movie is, first of all, about old and worn men.
They have been making a living by crime for many years, and although Ryan is now hired by the law, it is only under threat that he will return to jail if he doesn't capture the bunch. The men provided to him by a railroad mogul are shifty and unreliable; they don't understand the code of the bunch. And what is that code? It's not very pleasant.
It says that you stand by your friends and against the world, that you wrest a criminal living from the banks, the railroads and the other places where the money is, and that while you don't shoot at civilians unnecessarily, it is best if they don't get in the way. The two great violent set-pieces in the movie involve a lot of civilians. One comes through a botched bank robbery at the beginning of the film, and the other comes at the end, where Pike looks at Angel's body being dragged through the square, and says "God, I hate to see that," and then later walks into a bordello and says "Let's go," and everybody knows what he means, and they walk out and begin the suicidal showdown with the heavily-armed rebels.
Lots of bystanders are killed in both sequences one of the bunch picks a scrap from a woman's dress off of his boot , but there is also cheap sentimentality, as when Pike gives gold to a prostitute with a child, before walking out to die.
In between the action sequences which also include the famous scene where a bridge is bombed out from beneath mounted soldiers , there is time for the male bonding that Peckinpah celebrated in most of his films. His men shoot, screw, drink, and ride horses.
The quiet moments, with the firelight and the sad songs on the guitar and the sweet tender prostitutes, are like daydreams, with no standing in the bunch's real world.
The land had changed. They hadn't. The earth had cooled. They couldn't. Did you know Edit. Trivia In an interview, Ben Johnson said that the Mexican women who "frolicked" with him and Warren Oates in the huge wine vats weren't actresses but prostitutes from a nearby brothel, who were hired by Sam Peckinpah so he could tell people that Warner Bros.
Goofs Every time the gang crosses from Texas into Mexico, the river is running to the west. The Rio Grande actually flows in the opposite direction.
Quotes Crazy Lee : Well, how'd you like to kiss my sister's black cat's ass? Alternate versions There have been at least four different "official" versions of The Wild Bunch since its initial release in Connections Featured in Precious Images User reviews Review.
Top review. The definitive end of the west Western. An incredible performance by Bill Holden is the high point of this sensational, landmark film. Holden made a whole career out of laid-back, easy-going, what-the-hell sort of characters but here, at his zenith, he departs from type and plays a character so mean and so embittered that in some ways he even out-Bronsons Bronson himself. The Wild Bunch is a group of disillusioned outlaws who are out of time and they know it. When Sykes says that they've got one of those things a car up north that can fly, they gloomily accept that this new-fangled 20th Century is not for them.
It is a movie all about values and about a man's loyalty to his companions. Holden brilliantly declares that if you cannot stand by a man who rides with you, you are like some kind of animal. In the end, that is all these hunted men have: their loyalty to each other.
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