Review of The Wild Bunch (1969) by Dave J — 23 Jul 2013

Wednesday, July 24, 2013.

(1969) The Wild Bunch.

ADULT WESTERN.

Another one of cinema's most influential films since Peckinpah's use of slow motion and male bonding. To me personally, I'd give this film either an 80 or 90% but because I've seen many films that has used this film as a basis for their own films particularly John Woo's Hong Kong gun movies for instance it deserves a very high rating for if it wasn't for The Wild Bunch we wouldn't have got John Woo's Hardboiled and A Better Tomorrow. The movie centers on 5 rustlers also called "The Wild Bunch" who has just robbed a bank, a shooting spree occurs with a parade happening in the center. Of course, several innocent civilians are being shot during the crossfire since they were oblivious what was going on. It appears that the person who chose to start shooting were one of the bounty's working for the sheriff who was hiding on the roof who didn't want to wait for the parade to be over. While The wild bunch is trying to escape to Mexico, they're being pursued by Pike Bishop and his bounty hunters.

What is monumentally great about this film, is that not everything have to be so black and white often portrayed in John Wayne movies whereas in this case the audience tend to be more sympathetic to the people who're robbing the bank than the people who're pursuing them for the only thing on their minds is to get the bounty no matter how many innocent civilian it kills as a result for they seem to be more uneducated and disgusting. Just like 1967 Bonnie And Clyde we get to relate to the bond within the bunch and be able to sympathize more with them more even though they had just robbed the bank saying that not everybody who rob banks would resort to wanting to kill innocent pedestrians as well. And although, Peckinpah has made movies before this such as "Ride The High country" and "Major Dundee", he didn't start to use slow motion until after he made this film.

4 out of 4 stars.