Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the greatest, 27 Feb 2006
For me this rather than The Searchers or Red River is the greatest western ever.
I love it not for the violence but for the mournful tone that is omnipresent. unlike say Leone (whose work I love), Peckinpah makes films about the West rather than about other Westerns. The violence DOES remain shocking & exhilarating, despite the fact that he's been plagirised by directors in subsequent years. This is the DVD that finally does justice to a highpoint in American cinema, with a fine,loving but unsparing documentary. The film itself looks spectacular in this transfer and it comes highly recommended.
|
|
|
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Bloody eye candy, 3 Jul 2007
This bloody extravaganza made Sam Peckinpah's reputation. A kind of fantasy of machismo set along the Texas-Mexico border around 1913--yes, very late for a Western--The Wild Bunch has thrilled adolescent boys and twentysomethings for almost four decades. The slowmo shots of horses falling awkwardly, of bodies squirting blood as they fall off of roof tops or cliffs, of tough hombres talking tough while they grab loose women and bottles of booze replete with numerous other bits of acrobatic mayhem amid some fantastic scenery makes this a non-cerebral feast for the eyes. The stars, William Holden (Pike Bishop), Ernest Borgnine (Dutch Engstrom), Robert Ryan (Deke Thornton), Edmund O'Brien (Freddie Sykes), etc. are first rate and on form. The plot is a variant of the old "one last job" story which begins with Pike's not-quite over-the-hill gang doing one last bank robbery.
Needless to say something goes wrong. Interspersed between the opening credits we see Pike's gang ride into town dressed as members of the US Army Calvary. On roof tops are some rascals and scallywags with rifles, missing teeth, and murderous gleams in their eyes. They are led by Deke Thornton, who it turns out is working for the railroad. What follows is a good old fashioned shoot 'em up of rather unlikely proportions as Pike's gang exists the bank with bags of loot, dodging and slinging bullets with abandon.
Turns out...well, no I won't say because I don't want to spoil the surprise. Suffice it to say, they need to do another job, this one a good old-fashioned train robbery with a few tricks and extras, like blowing up a bridge and running a locomotive at full throttle backwards. And then across the border into Mexico and some fun and games with Mexican generals, senoritas, banditos and such.
Been there, done that. But Peckinpah's colorful yarn has a few things you might not have seen before, and some of those things that you have seen, he did first and better. The Mexican color with a lot of authentic-looking extras doing authentic-looking Mexican activities was good. The fact that the Spanish spoken was not translated (and didn't need to be translated) was good. General Mapache (Emilio Fernandez) as the drunken, power-hungry warlord bandito was good. The kids feeding scorpions to the ants and then burning them was good. Edmund O'Brien as a degenerate Gabby Hayes kind of character was a hoot and a holler. But mostly this was about grim-faced men, toughened by long hours in saddle under the hot sun who, after decades of outlawing, finally ride gloriously into that last battle. Next stop: boot hill.
I watched the "original director's cut" that runs 145 minutes. At no time was my brain involved, but my eyes couldn't stop watching.
|
|
|
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
If they move, kill 'em. , 24 Feb 2008
"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. The shootout was the result of a botched robbery attempt, and it soon descended into chaotic carnage where Pike and his titular Wild Bunch are forced to shoot their way out of an ambush, killing a good portion of civilians in the crossfire.
This classic movie was released in 1969 in response to the hugely successful gay western `Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid'. Butch Cassidy's huge success at the box office essentially green lit the way for Sam Peckinpah's vision of a changing wild west in The Wild Bunch.
It would be a travesty to think about The Wild Bunch in terms of its violence; it is a much better movie than that. It is indeed a violent movie, but it is also a solid drama that is well acted. The music (award winning Jerry Fielding), the script, editing (eg. the opening credits with the scorpions) and acting are second to none.
The story of the movie is ageless and such a similar story/plot can still be seen in contemporary cinema, i.e. in classics such as HEAT where the main characters (bank robbers) are dreaming of abandoning their violent ways and start living up to their oft-spoken ideals, after they achieve their dream of "one last job". This crime plot was never used with better results.
The screenplay by Peckinpah and Walon Green contains several other moments of brilliance. My personal favorites are the exchanges beside a campfire between the leaders of the group (Holden and Borgnine) regarding the state of their affairs. Says Holden, "I'd like to make just one last big score and then back off." "Back off to what?" replies Borgnine, implying that their violent pasts wouldn't allow them to simply settle down peacefully at this point in their lives. I also particularly enjoy Holden's commentary on his hubris-filled nemesis Harrigan: "There's an awful lot of people who just can't admit to being wrong, or to learn from it." "Pride," answers Borgnine simply and shrugs his shoulders. Other central themes in the screenplay include honor, integrity, companionship, and in the end, redemption.
In a masterstroke of casting The Wild Bunch is headed by the great William Holden (Bridge over River Kwai, Network) and supported by other great actors who are not prettyboy Refords or Newmans. In terms of editing The Wild Bunch abandons traditional sound and editing processes in favour of visionary new ones, and thus revolutionising the depiction of onscreen violence (nobody would ride a bike in a Peckinpah movie, and `Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' would not be on the soundtrack).
The Wild Bunch was released in the same year as the second greatest Western ever made: `Once upon a time in the West' (Box office flop in USA). Like Sergio Leone, Peckinpah's mission was to pay homage to the classic Western while at the same time completely eviscerating it.
Unlike Leone, however, Peckinpah's Westerns aren't parodic or surreal. The Wild Bunch is set in a particular place (Mexico as opposed to the mythic nowhere of the Dollars trilogy) at an explicit time 1913, and Peckinpah wants us to empathise with these out-of-time characters despite the fact that they are cold blooded killers. Peckinpah's greatest achievement is that he succeeds.
Despite the violence there is camaraderie between the Wild Bunch members. The movies bleak tone is lightened with scenes of boozing and whoring. There is a lot of humour in the Wild Bunch: children and the scorpions; drunken fooling around with whores in the cellar; Old Sykes laughter over the films final moments.
By the movies end it is obvious that the Bunch cannot think beyond their guns; they try to rescue their friend (Angel).
"Lets go."
"Why not?"
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
![The Wild Bunch - 2 Disc Special Edition [DVD] [1969]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R62J9S1BL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![The Wild Bunch [DVD] [1970]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MRBS78EWL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Sam Peckinpah - The Legendary Westerns Collection : Ride The High Country / The Wild Bunch Special Edition / The Ballad Of Cable Hogue / Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid Special Edition (6 Disc Box Set) [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/613imIcaGXL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Once Upon a Time in the West -- Special Collector's Edition (2 discs) [DVD] [1969]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511FVYDM2AL._SL75_SS50_.jpg)
![Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia [DVD] [1974]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/514M2CXMWSL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![A Fistful Of Dynamite (Special Edition) [DVD] [1972]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51YB0NTB43L._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid : The Movie & More (2 Disc Special Edition) [1973] [DVD]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/510bpaRA8SL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![Once Upon a Time in the West -- Special Collector's Edition (2 discs) [DVD] [1969]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/511FVYDM2AL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
![For A Few Dollars More (Special Edition) [DVD] [1965]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51AA7T2W5QL._SL500_SS90_.jpg)
