Review of The Wild Bunch (1969) by Chase K — 17 Dec 2008

[font=Georgia][color=black][i]The Wages of Fear[/i] is directed by Henri-Goerges Cluzout and it's now a new favorite of mine. The plot solely revolves around 4 men who sign up (under heavy competition) to drive two trucks loaded with nitroglycerene for an American Oil Company that has a rig now ablaze.[/color][/font].

[font=Georgia][color=#000000]It's absolutely brilliant, white-knuckle, bold filmmaking -- I'd like to compare it to [i]Fitzcarraldo[/i] in the way that it so simply depicts an impossible act for a near 2 hour and 30 minute running time that, amazingly, wins us over. After 30 minutes, I thought it would be a chore to get through, but it's a masterpiece -- one of my new favorites. [/color][/font].

[font=Georgia][color=#000000]Some people dislike the ending, which I would tend to agree with at first, but after thinking about it and letting it settle in, it makes perfect sense and I tend to like it now looking back. [/color][/font].

[font=Georgia][color=#000000]Meanwhile, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch is yet another renowned American Western (not unlike [i]The Searchers[/i]) only this one is pretty damn good. It's not a sunset, romanticized, sweeping Western -- more in-your-face, machismo, whiskey-sippin' stuff. I'd like to sum it up as a decent film with three great, extended scenes -- therefore giving you a fine end result. [/color][/font].

[font=Georgia][color=#000000]Peckinpah films the action scenes -- which are plentiful -- with lots of blood, slow motion, zooming and hyper-editing, suffice to say, they are ultra-stylized in the best of ways. I wish I could say that about the rest of the film, but it remains a really solid Western.[/color][/font].