Retro Film Review: The Wild Bunch (1969)

There are various ways people can show their appreciation of truly great films. The author of this review has found one interesting example in local newspaper few years ago. The Wild Bunch, 1969 revisionist western classic by Sam Peckinpah was to be aired on national television. TV section editor obviously wanted to warn audience not to miss this cinematic gem, so he took rather interesting and unconventional approach. Instead of simply putting the film description with photograph, he hired an artist to draw the most memorable scene of the film in comic book fashion, with characters saying the most memorable lines. Similar practice was later abandoned in this newspaper, but The Wild Bunch, being one of the most important films in history of cinema, surely deserved such treatment.

The plot, based on the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Sam Peckinpah, Waylon Green and Roy N. Sickner, begins in South Texan city of San Rafael in 1913. Group of bandits, dressed in U.S. Army uniforms and led by middle-aged Pike Bishop (played by William Holden), comes to town in order to rob railroad company offices. But their raid is nothing more than an excellent opportunity for railroad's company unscrupulous executive Harrigan (played by Albert Dekker), who gathers bunch of bounty hunters and sets up an ambush. In a violent shootout Pike and three of his comrades escape, but they are pursued by bounty hunters, who receive aid from Deke Thornton (played by Robert Ryan), Pike's former partner who had agreed to betray his friend in order to get paroled out of jail. Pike seeks shelter across the border, in Mexico, which is in the middle of revolution. Local warlord who calls himself Generalissimo Mapache (played by Emilio Fernandez) needs new modern weapons in order to get an upper hand in his fight against Pancho Villa, so he hires Pike and his gang to steal those weapons from U.S. Army train. One of Pike's partners is Angel (played by Jaime Sanchez), young Mexican who doesn't feel comfortable with the idea of giving guns to someone who is oppressing his people.

It is impossible to write a history of modern cinema without mentioning The Wild Bunch. The most common reason is Peckinpah's realistic depiction of violence, quite revolutionary for late 1960s. Although Arthur Penn came first with squibs and "death ballet" scene in Bonnie and Clyde two years earlier, Peckinpah actually perfected those techniques in The Wild Bunch and combined with the excellent photography by Lucien Ballard, thus creating blood-splattering images that were quite shocking for 1969 audiences. Controversies over the limits in which the filmmaker can depict violence on the screen later allowed Peckinpah to get himself honoured by Monty Python parody. However, today all that seems rather tame, but many of latter-day directors who excelled in blood-and-guts action scenes, including Walter Hill and John Woo, owe its success to Peckinpah's combination of speed editing, blood splattering and slow motion shots.

However, there is one important difference between The Wild Bunch and most of the other films that contains such levels of on-screen violence. Carnage in this film makes perfect sense in the context of the story, characters and, finally, the subject of the film. Peckinpah uses new techniques (and lower censorship standards of the time) to unburden his soul and create a disturbing and uncompromising but also an original vision of the state of the Old West. Unlike Sergio Leone, who was an outsider and confronted myths of old idealistic Westerns with realistic yet ironical approach, Peckinpah grew up in American West. His debunking of Western myths has more personal motivations and Peckinpah remains dead serious about things that bother him. For him, the twilight of the Frontier was a sad event and the civilisation, instead of bringing peace and prosperity, brought nothing but greed, hypocrisy and complete breakdown of all moral order. This is perfectly demonstrated in the opening scene, featuring outlaws as impeccable, disciplined and gentlemanly soldiers, while the lawmen happen to be the worst scum of the earth. The progress, is symbolised with new, modern equipment - automobiles, automatic pistols, pump shotguns and machineguns - which is almost exclusively used as the tools of destruction or torture. And that violence and destruction is impersonal and indiscriminate – innocent bystanders, women and children get killed in the same manner as soldiers, bounty hunters and bandits. Very often violence in this film is irrational and self-destructive, from acts of retarded young bandit who stays in railroad office in the beginning until the last memorable scene. Homicidal madness is everywhere and characters often act against their better judgement, only adding to slow-evolving but inevitable escalation of conflict and violence. Another thing that bothers Peckinpah is the corrupting influence of the civilisation, which manifests itself in children. Almost all the violence in the film is seen through the eyes of children, who get themselves bewildered and, in the final acts, even take active participation, which would only lead to another cycle of increasing carnage in the future.

The Old West, in its romantic, primordial state is symbolised by the protagonists – tired old men who are aware that their best days are gone and who unsuccessfully try to adapt to new frightening times. William Holden was the perfect choice for the role of the outlaw who is confused and who finds only sense of life in the old, over-idealised code of honour, same code that would lead him to the powerful last stand. Everyone else - Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates and Edmond O'Brien - is in the same league; old men whose characters are the dying breed, "ancient race" from Leone's Once Upon a Time in West, and whose last moments in the film resemble their own careers, going downhill in rapidly changing Hollywood that don't need screen legends any more. There is deep sadness and melancholy in their performances which humanises this film, that would otherwise be remembered as nothing more than almost pornographic depiction of senseless, irrational violence.

The Wild Bunch is, like the majority of films, also a product of its time and the influences of Vietnam War could be found in its content. Peckinpah in this film captures the spirit of America coming to grips with its worst national trauma and fills the screen with images from Southeast Asia battlefields. We see foreign advisors aiding corrupt and bloodthirsty third world dictators, boy soldiers dying like flies and, finally, hundreds of innocent people getting caught in the crossfire and foreshadowing of another war which is supposed to show the ultimate destructive potential of the new technology. Perhaps today's audience, people who grew up after Cold War or had another, more romantic vision of Vietnam and similar carnage in Ramboid movies, won't understand this aspect of film. But they would nevertheless enjoy it in an excellent piece of cinema that connects the classic and modern in the best possible way.

RATING: 10/10 (+++++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on July 12th 2000)

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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/576-the-wild-bunch?language=en-US
Critic: AAA