Review of The Wild Bunch (1969) by Johannes J — 03 Jul 2010

After seeing Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia I was intrigued by this director named Bloody Sam and decided to see the film which is often considered his best. I am not disappointed even though I had rather high expectations, this is definitely one of my favourite westerns ever.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

The film begins in a small town where a trap has been laid by a group of bounty hunters employed by the Railroad. The victim of their trap is to be the Wild Bunch, a notorious group of bandits who have been terrorizing Texas for years. The leader of the bounty hunters used to be a member of the Wild Bunch but was arrested and incarcerated and so reformed and decided to stop the Wild Bunch.

After a disastrous shootout in the middle of the town only five members of the Bunch escape alive: Pike the leader, Dutch the second in command, Angel a Mexican villager, and the brothers Lyle and Tector.

These five escape to their friend Sykes and all six of them head of to Mexico, upon arriving in the hometown of Angel they are informed that a local warlord General Mapache has taken control over the area and is fighting Mexican revolutionaries.

The Wild Bunch propose to work for Mapache and are tasked with stealing a US arms shipment, they succeed but this action launches them into a very complex and violent chain of events that involves Mapaches men, the Revolutionaries, the bounty-hunters from the beginning, a group of US soldiers and even a couple of German officers!!

The film ends in a massive and disastrous gun-fight which claims the lives of most characters.

The direction by Peckimpah was amazing, especially during the gun-fights, the gun-fights which can even be considered violent by todays standards are pretty spectacular. The action scenes are very well spread out throughout the film (unlike in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia) with a large on in the beginning, a great one in the middle and the best in the end! Overall I couldn't find anything wrong with the direction.

The acting was good all around, with some performances better than others. I thought William Holden did a great job as Pike, Warren Oates was great as Lyle and Emilio Fernandez was excellent as General Mapache. Overall this is not an "actor film" but is more dominated by the direction and the great plot!

The characters were all very well developed and all had very distinct personalities. The members of the Wild bunch were all ready to stop their life of crime if only they could succeed in getting enough money together, but I also got the feeling that many of them new that their lives would end violently. The character of Deke, the bounty hunter pursuing them, was probably the most complex for he used to be a member of the Wild Bunch and really wants to join them again but can't due to his fear of prison.

The soundtrack was very good, the bits that really stood out were when they where attacking the train and the final gun-fight, the music just adds to the greatness. I thought it was better than the traditional western music in many ways.

The dialogue was better than I had expected with limited amounts of cheesiness, I found it to the point, and pretty sparse but it expresses some strong opinions. Some rather contradictory arguments are laid out such as when Pike says:"10,000 dollars cuts a lot of family ties." then later in the film: "When you side with a man, you stay with him. Otherwise you are just some animal.".

The plot was very interesting and much more complex than is to be expected from a western. The film takes place at the turn of the century and the men and their way of life are having to adapt to the new times, the times of cowboys and bandits are long gone.

I also found Peckimpah's attitude towards violence very interesting:"The point of the film is to take this façade of movie violence and open it up, get people involved in it so that they are starting to go in the Hollywood television predictable reaction syndrome, and then twist it so that it's not fun anymore, just a wave of sickness in the gut ... It's ugly, brutalizing, and bloody awful; it's not fun and games and cowboys and Indians. It's a terrible, ugly thing, and yet there's a certain response that you get from it, an excitement, because we're all violent people." Peckinpah used violence as catharsis, believing his audience would be purged of violence, by witnessing it explicitly on screen. He later admitted to being mistaken, that the audience came to enjoy rather than be horrified by his films' violence, something that troubled him.

The theme of Betrayal is also very much explored in this film: Pike can be considered to have betrayed Deke when he was captured and Pike can also be considered to have betrayed one of his gang who he left behind during the opening gun-fight. Also the fact that the Wild Bunch survivors then find it impossible to leave one of their number to his fate so go and attempt a rescue.

Overall this is a very original and interesting western or possibly Zapata western (takes place during the Mexican revolution). But is also much more than just a western filled with shoot-outs, many interesting ideas are developed.

Very highly recommended to pretty much everyone, even though you might have to avoid if your not a fan of western or if your overly sensitive towards violence on-screen.

Cinematography 10/10.

Acting 8/10.

Plot 10/10.

Screenplay 8/10.

Soundtrack 9/10.