The Wild Bunch, 1969.
Directed by Sam Peckinpah.
Starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O’Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sánchez, Ben Johnson, Emilio Fernández, Strother Martin, and L.Q. Jones.
SYNOPSIS:
If you’re a fan of Sam Peckinpah’s classic film The Wild Bunch, you probably have this Blu-ray that Warner Bros. recently reissued. If you haven’t grabbed it for your collection yet, though, it’s a very worthwhile purchase that should tide you over until a proper 4K Ultra HD edition sees the light of day. You get the director’s cut of the film as well as an excellent documentary about his life and a couple other hefty bonus features. Highly recommended.
Sam Peckinpah’s name doesn’t come up a lot on lists of top directors, but he’s certainly someone to keep in mind when you’re thinking about watching a movie you haven’t seen before. And if you haven’t seen The Wild Bunch yet, well, now is a great time to do so.
Released in 1969 and nominated for a pair of Oscars, the film is set just before the Mexican Revolution in 1913. The industrialization of the West looms on the horizon, and a ragtag group of aging gunmen led by Pike Bishop (William Holden) have their sights set on a final score before they make the smart decision to retire.
However, Pike’s former partner, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), has turned on the gang as part of a deal to avoid jail time, and he helps a group of bounty hunters chase after the outlaws. Corrupt railroad agent Pat Harrigan (Albert Dekker) is bankrolling the endeavor because he needs the wild bunch out of his way.
After Pike and his men are ambushed during a failed bank robbery, he escapes with the survivors: Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), the Gorch brothers (Ben Johnson and Warren Oates), and Angel (Jaime Sánchez). They flee into Mexico, where they end up agreeing to steal weapons for the Mexican general Mapache (Emilio Fernández), for which they’ll be paid in gold. In the end, they find themselves in a final shootout.
Like the Coen brothers’ classic No Country for Old Men, The Wild Bunch is a meditation on the passing of a way of life in the West, for better or for worse. Pike and his men are outlaws, but they try to adhere to a code of conduct that people like Harrigan and Mapache ignore as they attempt to tame and subdue the new frontier. The iconic line of dialogue, “We’ve got to start thinking beyond our guns,” has a bitter irony to it by the end of the film.
While we wait for this film to be issued on 4K Ultra HD, Warner Bros. has reissued their Blu-ray that sports the director’s cut as well as a healthy helping of bonus features. There’s no DVD included here, nor is there a code for a digital copy.
The extras kick off with an excellent commentary track featuring Nick Redman, Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, and David Weddle, who have all written about Peckinpah in various places. They’re experts not only on the director but this film too, having done plenty of research that includes interviewing the participants, so they have a wealth of information to share. It’s a don’t-miss track if you’re a Wild Bunch fan.
We also get the meaty documentary Sam Peckinpah’s West: Legacy of a Hollywood Renegade, which runs 82 minutes and originally aired on the Starz Encore network in 2004. It’s a great overview of Peckinpah’s career, narrated by Kris Kristofferson and featuring a ton of interviewees, including Weddle, Seydor, and Simmons from the commentary track; director and screenwriter Paul Schrader; actors Benicio del Toro, Billy Bob Thornton, Harry Dean Stanton, L.Q. Jones, Stella Stevens, Ben Johnson, and Michael Madsen; film critics Roger Ebert and Elvis Mitchell; and many others.
Next up is the 33-minute The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage, which was nominated for an Oscar fr best short documentary in 1996. The aforementioned Seydor wrote, directed, and edited it, while fellow Peckinpah scholar Nick Redman (also from the commentary track) helped him produce it. Redman narrates, but much of what you hear consists of interview clips from actors Ernest Borgnine and others, as well as Ed Harris reciting Peckinpah’s written thoughts about the making of the film. It’s a unique piece of work that has an artistic flair to it.
Finally, we have Excerpt from A Simple Adventure Story: Sam Peckinpah, Mexico and the Wild Bunch, a 23-minute trip undertaken in 2004 to visit the film’s locations. Trailers for The Wild Bunch and a few other of the director’s films, along with nearly nine minutes worth of outtakes, round out the platter.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★★★★ / Movie: ★★★★★
Brad Cook
