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The Wild Bunch [DVD] [1970]
 
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The Wild Bunch [DVD] [1970]

DVD ~ William Holden
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.98 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this item with Once Upon a Time in the West -- Special Collector's Edition (2 discs) [DVD] [1969] DVD ~ Henry Fonda

The Wild Bunch [DVD] [1970] + Once Upon a Time in the West -- Special Collector's Edition (2 discs) [DVD] [1969]
Price For Both: £9.96

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Product details

  • Actors: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates
  • Directors: Sam Peckinpah
  • Writers: Sam Peckinpah, Roy N. Sickner, Walon Green
  • Producers: Phil Feldman, Roy N. Sickner
  • Format: Director's Cut, PAL, Widescreen
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: English, Arabic
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: Warner Home Video
  • DVD Release Date: 1 Jun 2005
  • Run Time: 138 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00004CY4P
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 9,826 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Here's how director Sam Peckinpah described his motivation behind The Wild Bunch at the time of the film's 1969 release: "I was trying to tell a simple story about bad men in changing times. The Wild Bunch is simply what happens when killers go to Mexico. The strange thing is you feel a great sense of loss when these killers reach the end of the line." All of these statements are true, but they don't begin to cover the impact that Peckinpah's film had on the evolution of American movies. Now the film is most widely recognized as a milestone event in the escalation of screen violence, but that's a label of limited perspective. Of course, Peckinpah's bloody climactic gunfight became a masterfully directed, photographed, and edited ballet of graphic violence that transcended the conventional Western and moved into a slow-motion realm of pure cinematic intensity. But the film--surely one of the greatest Westerns ever made--is also a richly thematic tale of, as Peckinpah said, "bad men in changing times." The year is 1913 and the fading band of thieves known as the Wild Bunch (led by William Holden as Pike) decide to pull one last job before retirement. But an ambush foils their plans, and Peckinpah's film becomes an epic yet intimate tale of betrayed loyalties, tenacious rivalry, and the bunch's dogged determination to maintain their fading code of honor among thieves. The 144-minute director's cut enhances the theme of male bonding that recurs in many of Peckinpah's films, restoring deleted scenes to deepen the viewer's understanding of the friendship turned rivalry between Pike and his former friend Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who now leads a posse in pursuit of the bunch, a dimension that adds resonance to an already classic American film. The Wild Bunch is a masterpiece that should not be defined strictly in terms of its violence, but as a story of mythic proportion, brimming with rich characters and dialogue and the bittersweet irony of outlaw traditions on the wane. --Jeff Shannon


Special Features

2.35 Wide Screen
DVD 10
English
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Dolby Digital 5.1
Interactive Menus
Production Notes
Scene Access
Documentary
Arabic
English
See all Reviews

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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Peckinpah's Masterpiece, 26 Sep 2005
By Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This is among the classic westerns, one which must be seen only in the 145-minute director's cut version to be fully appreciated. Yes, it is an exceptionally violent film but none of the graphic violence seems to me gratuitous, unlike in some of director Sam Peckinpah's other films. Pike Bishop (William Holden) heads a gang which robs banks and trains. Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) is a former member whom railroad owner Harrigan (Albert Dekker) arranges to be released from prison on the single condition that Thornton lead efforts to kill or capture Bishop and his gang. If he fails, he will be returned to prison. The quality of all performances is outstanding, as are Peckinpah's direction and the cinematography provided by Lucien Ballard.

The primary plot involves Thornton's efforts to complete his assignment but there are several interesting sub plots, notably one involving Coffer (Strother Martin) and his fellow scavengers. (Martin once observed that he and Dub Taylor specialized in portraying "prairie scum.") The opening scene shows a scorpion being consumed by fire ants. Coffer and his motley crew hope to have a similar opportunity to feast on what remains of the Bishop gang. I was also fascinated by the interaction between the Bishop gang and the Mexican federales (headed by General Mapache played by Emilio Fernandez) who also pursue them. Time eventually runs out. Bishop and his associates must decide: Either quietly depart with their tails between their legs or take a stand and probably be killed.

In my opinion, the final sequence justifies all of the violence which precedes it. Many of those who have seen this film are offended by its especially graphic portrayal of bloodshed. They have a point unless they take into full account the frontier culture in 1913 in which Bishop and his associates challenge all manner of conventions (as does Peckinpah) while fulfilling their destiny as robbers and killers. They are what they are. They have no self-delusions. None. Thornton is the only sympathetic character, Bishop's reluctant and weary adversary. In the last scene, his body language is especially eloquent. He and we feel spent. Enough. No more. It's over.

Question: Given the recent advances in technologies of various kinds, why does the visual and/or audio quality of DVDs often vary so much? Why can't "they" get it right every time?

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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Great Film, Poor DVD, 17 Jun 2001
By A Customer
The Print has an unnacceptable level of graininess, some of the scenes look great, some don't look remastered at all, compare this to the Warner Brothers release of Deliverance and the trnasfer is vastly inferior to that film. I will wait for another re-issue If I were a fan of this film.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Peckinpah's Greatest Masterpiece, 14 Dec 2000
By A Customer
I first saw this movie in 1970 and was stunned by it. I had seen nothing like it before. Unlike the Hollywood westerns of old, characters are not simplistically divided into "good" and "bad" men, heroes and villains. Instead, they are fully rounded, reflecting all the moral ambiguities of real people faced with desperate situations. The violence too, for which this film was controversial, is not the sanitised violence of earlier times. Although aestheticised (after all this is a work of art), it unflinchingly depicts the consequences when guns are fired and bullets strike human flesh. One of the finest films ever made about men in battle, and arguably the greatest of all westerns. A movie of tremendous power, far more moral, and honest, than todays mindlessly violent, special effects driven Hollywood actioners. See it!

The DVD is a restored 'directors cut' and is superior to the version which most movie goers will have seen at the cinema. My only criticism is that it is not anamorphic.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Film
The Wild Bunch is a very good film directed by Sam Peckinpah. Having read some criticism of it I was expecting a shoot-fest from beginning to end but I was very pleasantly... Read more
Published 6 months ago by HBH

5.0 out of 5 stars "If they move, kill em....."
"Its time we started thinking beyond our guns, those days are closing fast," muses Pike (William Holden) shortly after the bloodiest shootout in cinema history. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Brendan O. Clarke

5.0 out of 5 stars The dark side
The Wild Bunch is a brutal masterpiece of a western. It depicts the end of the western era (the film is set in 1913) through a group of ageing outlaws who just want to pull off... Read more
Published on 19 Oct 2007 by S J Buck

5.0 out of 5 stars A comedy western
Although I did really enjoy the film, it probably wasn't for the same reasons that most other people did. Read more
Published on 27 Jun 2007 by JumpingGoats

4.0 out of 5 stars Peckinpah's masterpiece? Hmmm ... eh, well probably!
Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece, according to many. After the Hollywood Western's pummelling at the hands of the Spaghetti Western, this was THE film "... Read more
Published on 1 Aug 2005 by MarmiteMan

3.0 out of 5 stars Great film........Rubbish DVD
There's no need to really write much about this film other than to say that it's an excellent 5 star revisionist western. Read more
Published on 12 Jul 2005 by Phoust

5.0 out of 5 stars Ultra-violent gang-bang...
This is probably the best western ever made, simply because of the brilliant story and great gunfights, not to mention the blood, and believe me, there lots of it! Read more
Published on 16 Feb 2005 by Shkandrij

5.0 out of 5 stars Great cinema
The UK DVD has English subtitles (2 types) and Arabic. The Amazon.com USA disc has Spanish and French but I don't think it's anamorphic. Read more
Published on 28 Nov 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A question about this edition
Could anybody tell me please if this dvd edition has subtitles in spanish? It's hard to believe for me that there are only subtitles in english and arabic. Thanks a lot :)
Published on 25 Aug 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars good old western
This classic movie tells the story of decent outlaws in the end of the outlaw era. Three notable scenes in this movie: the loud, realistic and hyper violent gun battles, the... Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2003 by beovar

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