Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22939 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-02-20
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 138 minutes

Synopsis
As a counterpoint to the heroic horde of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, the ageing gunmen of Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece break the very laws of honour which bind them in this bloody and meditative tale of the American West widely considered to be the self-conscious nail in the coffin of the genre. William Holden, Robert Ryan, and Ernest Borgnine star as the leaders of a grizzled crew of Texan bandits who ride to Mexico, where, one by one, they are unceremoniously slaughtered by a Mexican revolutionary. The western, a genre steeped in legend and the concept of loyalty, was a dying breed when Sam Peckinpah unleashed this amoral and violent opus. Along with BONNIE AND CLYDE, it ushered in a new breed of Hollywood film, depicting a harsh reality where lines between right and wrong became blurred. Peckinpah brilliantly used ageing Western stars such as Ryan and Holden to convey this passing of the cinematic torch. The film brought issues of violence and morality in movies to the forefront of American film criticism. Instead of appreciating the film as a critique of brutal violence, many critics responded by rejecting what they saw as a superfluous spectacle of dead bodies.

Customer Reviews

the greatest
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.

Peckinpahs masterwork
Sam Peckinpah's struggles against alcohol and drug abuse have been well documented. But out of the fire of tragic lives, sometimes greatness is forged. We see it in the blazing sunflowers of Van Gough and the Polynesian beauties of Gaugin. We hear it in the music of Mozart and Sibelius. And so it is with Peckinpah who has left us with his legacy of films that place him on the top run in the pantheon of the worlds film makers. Films that transcend their own genre and which come awfully close to achieving greatness.

The Wild Bunch is Sam Peckinpahs masterwork, although "Ride the high Country" makes it a close run thing. It has a richness to it that gives it lasting power. While other films fade or disappoint when watching again, the Wild Bunch continues to mature like a good port. So many scenes that take the breath away. The carefully managed blowing up of the bridge. One of the great action shots in film history. A truly wonderful cast. The gaunt and ageing Pike Bishop played by an ill William Holden. Robert Ryan in perhaps the greatest role in his long career as the ex gang member. And what a supporting cast of old Peckinpah stalwarts. Ben Johnson ex world rodeo champion, Warren Oates, Ernest Borgnine and a gnarled and unrecogniseable Edmond O'Brien to name just a few. Great actors in their own right.

Mexico provides the background as it did in many of Peckinpahs films. The old West is on the way out and it is clear the gang have had their day. As Alan Ladd says to the very bad Jack Palance in Shane before gunning him down. "Your killing days are over." And so it is for the gang. The only difference is they have the choice of how to exit, and boy do they take it in the famous finale. It is a simple tale well told as many great stories are from Homer onwards. I have ridden with the bunch a few times now and it gets better each time. Look out for the scene near the end with the dust swirling around a prancing horse and rider through an archway. Beautiful. I recommend you also take a ride with the bunch. You will not be disappointed. Thanks to film they will thankfully be riding for many years yet and will not age as badly as us. In short, a magnificent film. Highly recommended.

Bloody eye candy
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.