The Wild Bunch [Blu-ray]

The ending

For the past few years, I have been interested in Western novels and films and am using the mandated time staying home to watch Westerns I haven't seen before. I am more interested in the earlier Westerns from before the time the genre fell out of favor. But I greatly enjoyed to see this famous "revisionist" Western from 1969, directed by Samuel Peckinpah, "The Wild Bunch", Although still controversial, "The Wild Bunch" is on virtually every list of top Westerns and top films. It is on the National Film Registry selected by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant."The film includes a large cast of outstanding, aging actors headed by William Holden as Pike and Ernest Borgnine as Dutch, the leaders of the wild bunch, a small violent, tightly-bonded group of aging outlaws. The film is set in 1913 at the outset of the Great War and opens in a small town in southern Texas, but most of the film takes place in Mexico and was filmed on-site.The film depicts the tired outlaws at the end of their careers after a life of crime and the rise of a more technologically advanced society with automobiles and dreadful sophisticated weaponry, among other things. The small aging band is looking for its last main chance. After a disaster in Texas it tries its luck in Mexico which is in the middle of its own internal war.The film is extraordinary in many ways in addition to its realism and its harsh portrait of the West. With all of the this revisionism, it is difficult not to feel for the outlaws with their camaraderie, toughness, and persistence. The acting is convincing throughout, from the gang members through the soldiers and leaders of the Mexican army, to a pursuing posse, and through the many Mexican women. The movie features a train robbery and a blowing-up of a bridge. These are staples of Westerns but they are handled in this movie with unusual tension and depth. The film includes a wonderfully apt musical score. But it is primarily known for its cinematography and for the many innovations it introduced in pacing and scoping.The film is brutally violent particularly in its opening and closing gunfights, that continues to make many viewers uncomfortable. The level of violence may have been meant as a commentary on the Vietnam War which was raging at the time. I found it fit within the theme of the film and enhanced the view of the West and the story the film had to tell.This film portrayed a way of life that vanished, for well or ill. With all the brutality and violence of the outlaws, they tried to live honorably among themselves and to have a life of adventure and toughness rather than routine.I found it a more than rewarding use of my stay-home time to watch this film, which deserves its reputation as a classic.Robin Friedman

the wild bunch never looked better the directors cut is great

William Holden has to hold together a rag tag group of thieves after their last job goes wrong. They decide to do a heist for a Mexican general in Texas. The movie starts out as a heist film but ends up being about the ties that bind the gang together. That leads to one of the biggest shoot outs put to film. It’s amazing what four men and a machine gun can do. The ending is also well done and shows that there is always another job even if things go wrong. I’ve always liked Holden and he delivers again here playing the mastermind of his group.

have not watched it yet.

True story: I happened to be in Hollywood (I worked for the telephone company there and lived nearby) early in 1969. My girlfriend (also a Telco employee) and I had gotten off work and decided to go to dinner nearby our office building at Sunset Blvd and Gower Street. There were a couple within a few blocks, but they were full. So we got in the car and drove up to Hollywood Blvd. and Gower. There was a theater on the southwest corner that mostly showed older movies and those ending their theater runs. It advertised that a "theater advanced showing" was going to play that night. So we decided to see a movie there and just snack while we watched. They gave us no idea until just before that movie began to play, but they did announce that several of the actors and producers were in the audience that night. Most of them were sitting near the back along the west wall and a few stood up and waved at the audience. They assured us that we would like the film - even though it was still due for some last-minute edits and special effects and that it was a western. They did warn us that there were violence and bloodshed - so anyone with queezy stomachs might want to turn or cover their faces during some scenes. Living and working in the Hollywood area, we were used to seeing occasional famed actors and being called upon to do some service work at or for the studios in the area. All I can say is that this version/cut of the film comes closest to what we saw that night - especially the railroad segments and the full-length battle to the death at the end. I have a DVD copy of the film with extras, but I have to say that this Amazon presented version is really the best overall of those that have been shown in the past. If you have not seen this movie, take a couple of hours and enjoy it as much as I have over the years. Thank you Amazon for making this one available and for purchase.

So, a few psychotics in the old west shoot up one another. I remember seeing bits and pieces of this film on TV, but didn't think much of it because it seemed like there was no point to the film's story and violence. And in retrospect that's by intent, because the point of the film is that armed psychotics can do a lot of harm. To which my thought was "Well, where's the sheriff or marshal? How about some Federal troops to put down these guys?"Anyway, I didn't think much of the film. Violence for the sake of it, and to show crazy armed people doing violence that crazy armed people are apt to do, to me, is kind of a waste of time. I mean this is why we have insane asylums and high security jails and stuff.I'm not a fan.Watch at your own risk.

This film was made 40 years ago and has stood up to changing tastes and styles well. From the opening scene of a group of children taunting a scorpion, you know that you are in for an unusual and original cinematic experience. The much talked about violence is extremely brutal,but the film offers so much more than gratuitous violence. The times depicted were violent times,and the director has not avoided showing that. The cast are outstanding. Ernest Borgnine,William Holden,Robert Ryan,Edmond O'Brien,Strother Martin,& Warren Oates are in top form here. The film is a tribute to a vanished age,and vividly shows the desperation with which these men try to hold on to their threatened way of life.The second disc is filled with interesting documentaries on Sam Peckinpah,and the making of The Wild Bunch. The word "classic" tends to get overused now,but this film absolutely deserves that title.

This was my very first rated X film I ever saw , entering the cinema as a nervous kid in 1970. How the world has changed & our sensibilities since then . But I left that cinema having gone down "side by side" with the Wild Bunch in their last blase of comradeship , & the film joined my personal list of life-long loved films . When I first saw it way back it was damaged & scratched from the start & so to see this Dvd unfold across my 55 inch flawlessly is a personal joy .Intend to get the blue ray at some point whether there's any gain I don,t know . So..as Pike says....as I slip in the Dvd yet again...." lets go "

It was a gift for my son, who now lives in Berlin, as he had never seen the film and I am pleased to say we now have another member of The Wild Bunch fan club! Undoubtedly one of the best films ever made and the final walk by the four remaining members of the Bunch must go down as one of the greatest scenes in cinema history.

This is still one of the greatest westerns ever made. A simply stunning film in every respect. Really is a tale of violent men who had outlived their time

This is a seminal entry in the western ouevre. Nowadays relatively tame, but in the concept of the days in which it was made, you can see the influence of Peckinpah in many modern day films. People laud Leone, but Peckinpah had just as sure a grip on filmaking as Leone. One to be watched!