The film begins with a number of school children watching in amusement as a hill of ants consume two scorpions, one of the cleverest foreshadowing devices ever.
I recently rewatched this for the third or fourth time and I still love it. It is the only Peckinpah movie that I've watched repeatedly, I think it was his masterpiece. It has elements of every western ever made, but also has its own unique additions to the canon.
If you were to compare it to any film, the Magnificent Seven (1960) is the obvious similar, both movies involve a group of gunslingers going up against an even nastier opponent, but the difference between the two is in the tone. The Magnificent Seven is ultimately about redemption, and rescuing the villagers seems to save the souls of the seven cynical gunslingers, whereas the Wild Bunch is more fatalistic, the bunch know they are doomed and just say, screw it, let's do it.
And when you compare the two groups, I found William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates to be a lot scarier and more realistic characters than the super cool group of Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coborn, Robert Vaughan et al in the Magnificent Seven.
In fairness, the movie world had changed between 1960 and 1969, as had the real world and that resulted in the darker tones of the Wild Bunch, but it was also the vision of Peckinpah, who seemed to understand the human taste for violence.
Bo Hopkins deserves special mention in the Wild Bunch for creating a lovely, totally psychotic character in very little time, but it is William Holden who is the outstanding presence. When he gives that cold hard stare, he out does the similar efforts of both John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in my humble opinion. Borgnine does a little bit crazy as only he can, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates seem to handle guns and horses as if they really did it for a living. Edmund O'Brien and Robert Ryan provide the secondary characters who help explain the main characters while also providing their own addition to the film.
The use of laughter in this dark movie is brilliant. Repeatedly, the group goes from a moment where they seem ready to start shooting each other, to laughing their heads off. Its all a dark joke ultimate, perhaps.
Strother Martin does the ultimate Strother Martin. There's a reason he's in so many good westerns of that era always providing his unique contribution.
The photography and editing are sublime, the opening and final shoot outs are still world class examples of total mayhem committed to film. And in the end, you are left with a film that both satisfies you and leaves you pondering its various implications.
What is good and what is evil anyway? Just a matter of degree?
I recently rewatched this for the third or fourth time and I still love it. It is the only Peckinpah movie that I've watched repeatedly, I think it was his masterpiece. It has elements of every western ever made, but also has its own unique additions to the canon.
If you were to compare it to any film, the Magnificent Seven (1960) is the obvious similar, both movies involve a group of gunslingers going up against an even nastier opponent, but the difference between the two is in the tone. The Magnificent Seven is ultimately about redemption, and rescuing the villagers seems to save the souls of the seven cynical gunslingers, whereas the Wild Bunch is more fatalistic, the bunch know they are doomed and just say, screw it, let's do it.
And when you compare the two groups, I found William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates to be a lot scarier and more realistic characters than the super cool group of Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, James Coborn, Robert Vaughan et al in the Magnificent Seven.
In fairness, the movie world had changed between 1960 and 1969, as had the real world and that resulted in the darker tones of the Wild Bunch, but it was also the vision of Peckinpah, who seemed to understand the human taste for violence.
Bo Hopkins deserves special mention in the Wild Bunch for creating a lovely, totally psychotic character in very little time, but it is William Holden who is the outstanding presence. When he gives that cold hard stare, he out does the similar efforts of both John Wayne and Clint Eastwood in my humble opinion. Borgnine does a little bit crazy as only he can, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates seem to handle guns and horses as if they really did it for a living. Edmund O'Brien and Robert Ryan provide the secondary characters who help explain the main characters while also providing their own addition to the film.
The use of laughter in this dark movie is brilliant. Repeatedly, the group goes from a moment where they seem ready to start shooting each other, to laughing their heads off. Its all a dark joke ultimate, perhaps.
Strother Martin does the ultimate Strother Martin. There's a reason he's in so many good westerns of that era always providing his unique contribution.
The photography and editing are sublime, the opening and final shoot outs are still world class examples of total mayhem committed to film. And in the end, you are left with a film that both satisfies you and leaves you pondering its various implications.
What is good and what is evil anyway? Just a matter of degree?