The Wild Bunch (1969)

An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.

Director:

Sam Peckinpah

Writers:

Walon Green (screenplay), Sam Peckinpah (screenplay)

Stars:

William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William Holden	...	Pike Bishop
Ernest Borgnine	...	Dutch Engstrom
Robert Ryan	...	Deke Thornton
Edmond O'Brien	...	Freddie Sykes
Warren Oates	...	Lyle Gorch
Jaime Sánchez	...	Angel (as Jaime Sanchez)
Ben Johnson	...	Tector Gorch
Emilio Fernández	...	Mapache (as Emilio Fernandez)
Strother Martin	...	Coffer
L.Q. Jones	...	T.C
Albert Dekker	...	Harrigan
Bo Hopkins	...	Crazy Lee
Dub Taylor	...	Wainscoat
Paul Harper	...	Ross
Jorge Russek	...	Zamorra

Storyline

It's 1913, and the "traditional" American West is dying. Among the inhabitants of this dying era are an outlaw gang called "The Wild Bunch." After a failed railroad office robbery, the gang heads to Mexico to do one last job. Seeing their times and lives drifting away in the newly formed world of the 20th century, the gang takes the job and ends up in a brutally violent last stand against their enemies deemed to be corrupt, in a small Mexican town ruled by a ruthless general.

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Plot Keywords:

arizona | yuma territorial prison | shoulder holster | arizona territory | yaqui indian | 

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Taglines:

The land had changed. They hadn't. The earth had cooled. They couldn't.

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Western

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA Mexico

Language:

English Spanish German

Release Date:

7 August 1969 (Hong Kong)

Also Known As:

Divlja horda

Filming Locations:

Bavispe, Sonora, Mexico

Box Office

Budget:

$6,244,087 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$638,641, 31 December 1995

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Brothers/Seven Arts

Technical Specs

Runtime:

145 min (director's cut)

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) DTS (1995 re-release) Dolby Digital (1995 re-release) Mono (35 mm prints) SDDS (1995 re-release)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Susan Compo in her biography, "Warren Oates: A Wild Life", Bo Hopkins had not worked with blood squibs before. For the scene in which he is shot during the railroad office hold-up, he was hooked up to copper wire holding powder capsules. "They'd been putting wires on me all day, all up my legs and on my chest. They asked me if I wanted to wear a T-shirt, and I said, 'Oh no, I want to feel it so I can react,' Like a dummy, I didn't know they went off and caused blisters."

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Goofs

When the gang is crossing the desert and fall down the sand dune, two different shadows of the same person is visible, revealing that artificial light was used to shot the scene.

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Quotes

[first lines]
[indistinct voices]
Rev. Wainscoat: Do not drink wine or strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, least ye shall die. Look not though upon the wine when it is red, and when it bringeth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright at the last, it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Now folks, that's from the Good Book, but in this here town it's five cents a glass. Five cents a glass, now does anyone think that that is a price of a drink?

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Alternate Versions

The complete film, and the only version to which Peckinpah ever lent his wholehearted imprimatur, is the European version of 1969, which is 145 minutes long and contains: the flashback showing how Thornton was captured; (2) the flashback showing how Pike's lover, Aurora, was killed and he himself wounded; (3) the scene in the desert that establishes Crazy Lee is Sykes's grandson and that Pike deliberately abandoned him in the opening robbery; (4) the raid by Villa on Mapache as he awaits the telegram; (5) the aftermath of Villa's raid in Agua Verde; and (6) about a minute's worth of the festivities at night in Angel's village.

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Connections

Featured in 100 Years of the Hollywood Western (1994)

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Soundtracks

Polly Wolly Doodle
(uncredited)
Traditional
Sung by the bounty hunters as they leave Agua Verde

User Reviews

The definitive end of the west Western

An incredible performance by Bill Holden is the high point of this sensational, landmark film. Holden made a whole career out of laid-back, easy-going, what-the-hell sort of characters but here, at his zenith, he departs from type and plays a character so mean and so embittered that in some ways he even out-Bronsons Bronson himself.

The Wild Bunch is a group of disillusioned outlaws who are out of time and they know it. When Sykes says that they've got one of those things (a car) up north that can fly, they gloomily accept that this new-fangled 20th Century is not for them.

It is a movie all about values and about a man's loyalty to his companions. Holden brilliantly declares that if you cannot stand by a man who rides with you, you are like some kind of animal. In the end, that is all these hunted men have: their loyalty to each other.

And so they band together for one last walk to try and rescue their doomed Mexican comrade. The bloodbath that follows is an eloquent summary of their lives. They who live by the gun.....

Superb performances by Holden in particular and also by O'Brien, Ryan, Borgnine, Oates and Johnson. Peckinpah's finest hour. Definitely ten out of ten.