The Wild Bunch (1969)

Look At What "Bonnie and Clyde" Did!

This Original Director's Cut version of "The Wild Bunch" is a real treat as they did an excellent job with the restoration and especially with the sound quality as the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound is excellent although despite heroic attempts at picture quality restoration, there are many white spots and other imperfections in a number of frames. Hopefully the Blu-ray version took the opportunity to clean these up.

This is a good adventure flick although I do call its originality into question when quite obviously this film borrows from a number of other films that shortly preceded it. For the violence that begins and ends the movie see "Bonnie and Clyde"; for the theme of outlaws becoming obsolete and hence wanting to make that one big job and then "retiring" see "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". See the same for the use of a modern sounding soundtrack for an anachronistic effect as at some points the score reminded me of an old 70s police drama effect, frontal nudity "The Graduate" etc.

However, just because this film borrowed heavily from themes that were originally shown by films that just preceded it doesn't make this in any way a bad film but it does in my mind put some perspective into it and hopefully remove some of the hype that accompanies it. Although a good western, this is certainly not the best ever; for that you'll need to watch "Unforgiven" and even "High Noon" and "Butch Cassidy ... Kid" not to mention "Stagecoach" are a lot better than this.

William Holden and Robert Ryan also seem miscast for this as I just couldn't see them as the down and dirty outlaws that they were supposed to be as they just seemed too decent. They looked so out of place during the flashback scene in the whorehouse and somehow when trying to explain the gash in his leg, Holden's character while describing his adulterous ways almost made me laugh it was so hard to believe. The others though were excellently cast although Ben Johnson's first scene when he blatantly tries to copy the Walter Huston mad outburst scene from "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" I found stupid and unnecessarily plagiaristic.

Overall a good adventure film but it copies too much from prior films of the time to be a great classic for me. August 19, 2008

The Wild Bunch

Bought this for my husband and he really enjoyed it. Just his kind of movie.The movie got here within a few days after I ordered it.We are very pleased. I would highly recommend buying DVDs from Amazon. Excellent to deal with. July 1, 2008

Warner Brothers need to release the Uncut Version for the full artistic effect of the movie!

I took a college course in 1979 named "Film as Literature" and "The Wild Bunch" was one of the premier films that we studied. But the version that we saw was the "uncut" version - not the shorter so-called "director's cut" version. The purposefulness of the original longer version brings into focus the very meaningful look of the purposes of violence and that sometimes the violent have a purpose, and sometimes those that oppose the violent actually have less of a purpose and cause much more damage (witness our present political situations in the world...)
In the name of satisfying the full artistic measure of this great film the full uncut version needs to be released. Shame on them for hacking this film - like taking an airbrush to the Sistine Chapel.
I feel privileged to have seen the full version as the artists intended! June 26, 2008

Imagine Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid married to the Reservoir Dogs.... Peckinpah's ruthless masterpiece

I just finished seeing this film and was immediately compelled to write a review. This has definitely got to be ol man peck's finest, which up until now i thought was Straw Dogs. This film is raw, real, cold blooded in a way you cannot imagine and the sheer genius of all this, he brings out that sense of humanity even among the most heartless in a very practical way.

The key thing in Peckinpah films is, the characters will be cruel, evil and cold, but he will still justify that even they are capable of good, unlike other film directors who do not cross that boundary of being binary about the emotions that their actors convey. This film reveals that you can never truly be in a position to judge anyone at all. You start disliking the protagonist and his crew from the start, even towards the end, but its the lead character's almost idiotic adherence to his 'code' that surprises you (you'll know what i mean).
And then in typical Peckinpah fashion (could never figure this trait about the man, then again....), you have a woman who verbally emasculates a man who used to be his fiance' and then proceeds to mock him. In a fit of rage, the man screams, "PUTTAAAA" and blows her away. typical of him.

The wild bunch is about a bunch of outlaws played by William Holden as Pike Bishop and Ernest Borgnine (Dutch Engstrom) among others, it occurs during the time of the revolution taking place in Mexico. They are wanted by the Railroad and hire (by coercion / threat of death penalty) Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) a former gang member who was abandoned by Pike, to chase Pike's gang and bring them to book. This is definitely no "spaghetti western" and no candy a$$ louis l'amour stuff, its a brutal, gut tearing, balls on movie, which is typical of ol' man peck's style. I heard that it also brought about a lot of innovative film making techniques, the whole slow motion cinematography, quick pan filming, etc.

This is a movie that is now a definitive part of my collection and i highly recommend that you watch this movie. 10 stars, anything less is an injustice. June 20, 2008

Best Western Ever Made

Not only is this the best Western ever made, it's one of the best movies. Everything about it, from the acting to the editing to the story, is outstanding. Powerful film! June 13, 2008

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