The Wild Bunch (1969)

Film: The Wild Bunch

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Country: USA

Released: June 1969

Runtime: 145 minutes

Genre: Western

Studio: Warner Bros

Influenced: Tarantino, Walter Hill, John Woo, Kathryn Bigelow, Robert Rodriguez

1969 was a good year for westerns, with three in particular – Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (George Roy Hill), True Grit (Henry Hathaway) and The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah) – gaining critical plaudits. Controversial for its graphic violence and portrayal of rough & ready men attempting to survive by any means available, The Wild Bunch was nevertheless a huge box-office success and was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Its script, written by Peckinpah and Walon Green, was a product of its time, reflecting the social changes and upheavals of the late 1960s. The film was conceived as a reflection of a more realistic and harsh vision of the American West than what had typically been portrayed in earlier Westerns.

The Wild Bunch was also an allegory for the Vietnam War, with its focus on anti-heroes, morally ambiguous characters and graphic depictions of violence. It follows the story of an ageing outlaw gang on the Mexico-USA border trying to adapt to the changing modern world of the 1910s. The Wild Bunch is led by Pike Bishop (William Holden), who is seeking one last big score before retirement. After a botched robbery in the opening scene, the gang heads to Mexico with a bounty hunter, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) – formerly a member of their gang – hot on their trail. The plot continues with a series of alliances, betrayals, violent confrontations and personal revelations, culminating in a famously bloody shootout.

One of the film's iconic moments is the opening sequence, a violent and chaotic shootout following a failed bank robbery, which sets the tone for the rest of the film. Peckinpah revolutionised western action editing with his innovative use of slow-motion and rapid cutting during the film's action sequences, to intensify the impact of the violence and chaos during the shootouts. The film was controversial for its time owing to its brutal and bloody depiction of violence, with Peckinpah believing this level of violence to be cathartic for cinema audiences. The Wild Bunch also blurred traditional lines of good and evil, presenting its characters as morally complex and flawed individuals.

Another iconic scene is the "walk" to the final gunfight, when the remaining members of the Wild Bunch walk together to face Mapache and his army in a likely suicide mission. This moment is marked by a sense of fatalistic heroism and loyalty among the group, who take part in a violent and chaotic battle to save their brother-in-arms Angel. Peckinpah used multiple cameras shooting simultaneously from different angles, to allow for more dynamic editing and to give the film its distinctive visual style. Peckinpah would go on to make several more westerns, including most notably Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid, starring Kris Kristofferson and Bob Dylan (who also wrote the soundtrack), but nothing he did matched the impact of The Wild Bunch.