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The Wild Bunch (1969)

Western | 145 minutes / 144 minutes (director's cut)
3,75 879 votes

Genre: Western / Action

Duration: 145 minuten / 144 minuten (director's cut)

Country: United States

Directed by: Sam Peckinpah

Stars: William Holden, Ernest Borgnine and Robert Ryan

IMDb score: 7,9 (94.681)

Releasedate: 17 June 1969

The Wild Bunch plot

"Unchanged men in a changing land"

Pike Bishop is the leader of a group of elderly outlaws who want to rob a railroad office one more time in order to retire. When this heist fails, they are forced to flee to Mexico while being chased by their ex-partner Deke Thornton. Once there, they plan a robbery on a train in order to be able to stop.

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Many people here stumble upon the over the top laughter scene; I myself would rather question the fact that you are ultimately looking at (and expected to identify with) totally immoral "heroes". Nevertheless, this is and remains a brilliant film, thanks to the lively character drawings (including the mutual tensions, as with Tector who hates "that old goat" and his brother who is annoyed by Pike's display of leadership), the "full- blooded" renditions of the actors, each suited to their roles, the power of individual scenes (the nocturnal conversation between Pike and Dutch: "I wouldn't have it any other way", the broken stirrup, the practically "silent" robbery on the train, and the melancholy final scene: “Ain't like it used to be, but – it'll do.”), the occasional humor (“Boys... I want you to meet my fiancée!”, or the scene where everyone except Lyle is handed the whiskey bottle), the lack of sentimentality and the visual splendor. And if I hadn't already given this film a full five stars for all of this, I would have awarded a full star for the walk, because after all these years and all those viewings I get that arvan still got the shivers.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van memorable

memorable

  • 173 messages
  • 1657 votes

A real western with luminous accents. Sam Peckinpah is constantly trying to give us a message. When he zooms in on a bunch of ants crawling, you know that it conveys a far-reaching meaning. However, these types of styling aids are by no means cheap. Kind of like Lynch taking a shot of life under the turf in Blue Velvet, or Coen in Barton FInk taking us to existence behind the walls, in the waterpipes. Grotesque it certainly is, but not trite. But few directors are able to do that, so if you manage to bring it convincingly like Peckinpah here, you can rightly be called one of the greats.

The film is full of these kinds of strong examples of effects, too many to mention. The clip that struck me the most was towards the end of the film when Pike meets a prostitute. She, with her kind expression tries to give him warmth, to establish human contact with him. He is very much aware of it, after all, he has a heart, but he cannot transfer it. On the one hand it is the inevitable generation gap that hangs between them, on the other it is a man who has been through something. Pike is aware that such things are not ahead of him, it is over and it will never come back. He too has done bad things, and now takes no affection for himself. It is irreversible, and doom is all that awaits him now. That pretty much captures the theme of the film. A bombastic, charged operetta about the loss of an era, of a generation. Big bet, big paid.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van Sir Djuke

Sir Djuke

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Sam Peckinpah's 'The Wild Bunch' is a symbolic film, in which the theme (an outlaw gang at age does its last trick) more or less coincides with the end of the western as a genre. The brutal reality of the Vietnam War on the news has long since passed shooting in most cowboy movies. The notion of good versus evil (the basic theme of the westerns) has been called into question by the same war. Peckinpah therefore sees no obstacles to softening the violence in his film and does not unambiguously choose one of the camps in the story. The dynamics of 'The Wild Bunch' are breathtaking with a montage that alternates between slow and extremely fast, the use of telephoto lenses and close-ups and a finale that will leave you on the edge of your seat.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original