Everything about The Wild Bunch totally explained
The Wild Bunch (1969) is a
Western film directed by
Sam Peckinpah detailing the end of the cowboy era in the final adventures of an aging outlaw gang at the Texas–Mexico border in 1913.
The Wild Bunch was controversial, then notorious for its extremely explicit violence meant to convey the pain of gunshot wounds. The film features
William Holden,
Ernest Borgnine,
Robert Ryan,
Edmond O'Brien,
Warren Oates, Jaime Sánchez,
Ben Johnson,
Strother Martin,
L.Q. Jones,
Bo Hopkins and
Dub Taylor.
The screenplay, by
Walon Green, Roy N. Sickner, and Sam Peckinpah, was nominated for an
Academy Award for
Best Original Screenplay, while
Jerry Fielding's score was nominated for the
original music score award. Peckinpah was nominated for Outstanding Directorial Achievement by the
Directors Guild of America.
Lucien Ballard won the
National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography.
The Wild Bunch is noted for intricately edited action, using normal and
slow motion shots from different camera angles, a revolutionary cinema technique in 1969. In 1999, this "culturally significant" film was registered to United States
Library of Congress, and to be preserved in the
National Film Registry. The film was ranked
No. 80 in the
American Film Institute's top 100 list of the greatest American films ever made and
No. 69 as the most thrilling.
Plot
The Wild Bunch occurs at the Texas–Mexico border in 1913, the height of the
Mexican Revolution. An outlaw gang, "The Wild Bunch", ride into San Rafael, Texas, disguised as American Cavalrymen, led by Pike Bishop (William Holden) and Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), they're Lyle Gorch (Warren Oates) and Tector Gorch (Ben Johnson), Angel (Jaime Sánchez), and Crazy Lee (Bo Hopkins). On entering town, they pass a group of children torturing a pair of scorpions placed atop a red anthill. They enter the railroad office to rob it; atop a hotel, a posse of ragged
bounty hunters, led by Deke Thornton (
Robert Ryan), await in ambush. The gang spy the posse, then use a
temperance union parade to aid their escape.
A gunfight starts. The gang, the posse, and the parade are shot and killed in crossfire. The surviving outlaws escape to a village, where old man Freddie Sykes (Edmond O'Brien) awaits with fresh mounts. The rail road they robbed organised the ambush; the money bags yield only steel washers. During the escape shoot out, Pike saw Deke (formerly of the gang) leading the posse, likely freed from prison to pursue and kill his old gang.
Pike and the Bunch ride to Mexico to rest at Angel's village, Agua Verde (Green Water). From the town elder, Don José (Chano Urueta), Pike learns that Agua Verde is continually attacked by corrupt General Mapache (
Emilio Fernández). The Bunch ride to Mapache's headquarters to trade horses. Angel sees his old flame, Teresa; she's Gen. Mapache's concubine; jealously furious, Angel calls her
¡Puta! and shoots and kills her while she sits in the General's lap. Pike defuses the situation by offering to work with Mapache and his Imperial German Army advisers. The Bunch decide to rob a train transporting a U.S. Army gun shipment for ten thousand dollars in gold. Angel, frustrated with this agreement, privately insists he be allowed to steal a case of rifles for his village's for protection against Gen. Mapache; Pike and Dutch agree.
The Wild Bunch rob the train of the gun shipment, but Deke and his posse are secretly aboard. They pursue the bunch to a bridge across the Rio Bravo into Mexico. The booby-trapped bridge dumps Deke and the posse into the river when dynamite explodes. Later, the Agua Verde villagers take their promised case of rifles.
Pike's cautious plan to deliver the remaining rifles and a machine gun to Gen. Mapache, is C.O.D. —pairs of men paid in gold coin on delivering rifle cases at separate times. When Angel and Dutch arrive with the final shipment, Gen Mapache captures Angel; he having learned of the stolen rifles. Dutch rides away, leaving Angel behind. The Bunch regroup in a canyon out of town, awaiting Sykes's with the pack horses. From a distance, they see Deke and his men shoot Sykes, who hides in a hill. Assuming Sykes dead, Pike and Dutch, Lyle, and Tector return to Gen Mapache's garrison to avoid Deke's posse. As they arrive, they see soldiers torturing Angel.
After a night women and drink, Pike makes a fateful decision. Overcome with remorse about Angel, he tells Lyle and Tector, "Let's go.", after a silent moment, Lyle replies, "Why not?" Dutch smiles, on grasping they're to rescue Angel from Gen. Mapache. The foursome load their shotguns and sidearms and, in the film's famous "long walk" head into town in unison to Mapache's headquarters.
They demand Angel's release; the drunken Gen. Mapache personally cuts Angel's throat before them; Pike shoots and kills Mapache. The stunned Mexican Federal soldiers stand in uneasy silence, to their amazement, the Bunch see they can walk away unharmed. Instead, they instigate an epic gunfight with Mapache's men. During the battle, they control a machine gun, killing soldiers pell mell. Lyle and Tector are killed; Pike assumes the machine gun until he's shot in the back by a boy soldier; seeing this, Dutch runs to aid him, and falls shot, beside him.
The smoke cleared, Deke and posse arrive to find the bodies of the Wild Bunch, his former comrades surrounded by the dead Mexican soldiers. Saddened by their deaths, he takes Pike's six shooter pistol from its holster, and walks away with the memento. His posse identify the dead Wild Bunch, pack them atop horses, and leave with to collect the bounties. Deke remains behind, uncertain of what next; he hears distant gun shots. Moments later, the wounded Sykes and villagers from Agua Verde (Angel's village) ride up after killing the posse. Sykes offers Deke the chance to participate in the Revolution, and stay in Mexico. Deke and Sykes begin laughing and ride off together.
Casting
Peckinpah considered many actors for the lead role of Pike Bishop. The part was originally written for
Lee Marvin, but he declined because he thought it was too similar to his role in
The Professionals (1966) and he was also offered a large sum to appear in
Paint Your Wagon (1969).
James Stewart,
Gregory Peck and
Charlton Heston (the lead in Peckinpah's
Major Dundee) were considered before William Holden was cast.
The part of Deke Thornton was originally offered to
Brian Keith, who had worked with Peckinpah on
The Westerner (1960) and
The Deadly Companions (1961). Keith, committed to the popular
TV series Family Affair, declined the role. Also considered were
Richard Harris (another
Major Dundee veteran),
Arthur Kennedy,
Henry Fonda,
Ben Johnson (who was later cast as Tector Gorch) and
Van Heflin. Robert Ryan would be cast based on his performance in
The Dirty Dozen.
Mario Adorf, who also appeared in
Dundee, was considered for the part of Mapache, but the role ultimately went to
Emilio Fernandez, the Mexican film director and actor who was a close friend of Peckinpah's.
Among those considered to play Dutch Engstrom were
Steve McQueen,
George Peppard,
Jim Brown,
Alex Cord,
Robert Culp,
Sammy Davis, Jr.,
Charles Bronson and
Richard Jaeckel. Ernest Borgnine was eventually cast in the role, also based on his performance in
The Dirty Dozen.
Robert Blake was the original choice to play Angel, but he demanded too much money following the success of
In Cold Blood (1967). Peckinpah had seen Jaime Sanchez in the
Broadway production of
Sidney Lumet's
The Pawnbroker and was so impressed that he demanded Sanchez be cast as Angel.
Albert Dekker, best known as a theatre actor, was cast as Harrigan, the railroad detective. He died a few months after filming was completed, and this was his last film.
Production
In 1967,
Warner Bros.-Seven Arts producers Kenneth Hyman and Phil Feldman were interested in having Sam Peckinpah rewrite and direct an adventure film called
The Diamond Story. A professional outcast due to the production difficulties of his previous film
Major Dundee (1965) and his firing from the set of
The Cincinnati Kid (1965), Peckinpah's stock had improved following his critically acclaimed work on the television film
Noon Wine (1966). An alternative screenplay available at the studio was
The Wild Bunch, written by Roy Sickner and
Walon Green. At the time,
William Goldman's screenplay
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had recently been purchased by
20th Century Fox. It was quickly decided that
The Wild Bunch, which had several similarities to Goldman's work, would be produced in order to beat
Butch Cassidy to the theaters.
By the fall of 1967, Peckinpah was rewriting the screenplay and preparing for production. Filmed on location in
Mexico, Peckinpah's epic work was inspired by his hunger to return to films, the violence seen in
Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, America's growing frustration with the
Vietnam War and what he perceived to be the utter lack of reality seen in
Westerns up to that time. He set out to make a film which portrayed not only the vicious violence of the period, but the crude men attempting to survive the era. Multiple scenes attempted in
Major Dundee, including slow motion action sequences (inspired by
Akira Kurosawa's work in
Seven Samurai), characters leaving a village as if in a funeral procession and the use of inexperienced locals as extras, would be perfected in
The Wild Bunch.
The film was shot in the
anamorphic wide screen process. Peckinpah and his cinematographer,
Lucien Ballard, also made use of a wide angle camera lens, one that allowed for objects and people in both the background and foreground to remain in sharp focus. The effect is best seen in the shots where the Bunch make their "long walk" to Mapache's headquarters to free Angel. As they walk forward, a constant flow of people pass between them and the camera, yet are as sharply focused as the Bunch. The editing of the film is notable in that shots from multiple angles would be spliced together in rapid succession, often at different speeds, placing greater emphasis on the chaotic nature of the action and the gunfights.
Lou Lombardo, having previously worked with Peckinpah on
Noon Wine, was personally hired by the director to edit
The Wild Bunch. Peckinpah had wanted an editor who would be loyal to him. Lombardo's youth was also a plus, as he wasn't bound by traditional conventions. One of Lombardo's first contributions was to show Peckinpah an episode of the TV series
Felony Squad he edited in 1967. The episode, entitled "My Mommy Got Lost," included a slow motion sequence where
Joe Don Baker is shot by the police. The scene mixed slow motion with normal speed. Peckinpah was reportedly thrilled and told Lombardo, "Let's try some of that when we get down to Mexico!" The director would film the major shootouts with six cameras, all operating a different film rates including 24 frames per second, 30 frames per second, 60 frames per second, 90 frames per second and 120 frames per second. When the scenes were eventually cut together, the action would shift from slow to fast to slower still, giving time an elastic quality never before seen in motion pictures up to that time.
By the time filming wrapped, Peckinpah had shot 333,000 feet of film with 1,288 camera setups. Lombardo and Peckinpah remained in Mexico for six months editing the picture. After initial cuts, the opening gunfight sequence ran 21 minutes. Cutting frames from specific scenes and intercutting others, they were able to fine-cut the opening bank robbery down to five minutes. The creative montage became the model for the rest of the film and would forever change the way movies would be made.
In 1993,
Warner Brothers resubmitted the film to the
MPAA ratings board prior to an expected rerelease. To the studio's surprise, the originally R-rated film was given an NC-17, delaying the release until the decision was appealed. The controversy was linked to 10 extra minutes added to the film. Warner Brothers trimmed some footage to decrease the running time to ensure additional daily screenings. Today, almost all of the versions of
The Wild Bunch include the missing scenes. Warner Brothers released a newly restored version of
The Wild Bunch in a two-disc special edition on January 10, 2006. It includes an audio commentary by Peckinpah scholars, two documentaries concerning the making of the film and never-before-seen outtakes.
Sam Peckinpah and the making of
The Wild Bunch was the subject of the documentary
The Wild Bunch: An Album in Montage (1996) directed by Paul Seydor. It was nominated for an
Academy Award as
Best Documentary Short Subject.
Themes
Critics of
The Wild Bunch noted the theme of the end of the outlaw gunfighter era. Pike Bishop says:
We've got to start thinking beyond our guns. Those days are closing fast. The Bunch live by an anachronistic code of honour without a place in twentieth century modern society. When they inspect General Mapache's new automobile, they perceive it marks the end of horse travel, a symbol also in Peckinpah's
Ride the High Country (1962) and
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970).
The violence that was much criticized by critics in 1969 remains controversial. Director Peckinpah noted it was allegoric of the American war against Vietnam, whose violence was nightly televised to American homes at supper time. He tried showing the gun violence commonplace to the historic western frontier period, rebelling against sanitised, bloodless television westerns and films glamourising gun fights and murder.
The point of the film is to take this façade of movie violence and open it up, get people involved in it so that they're starting to go in the Hollywood television predictable reaction syndrome, and then twist it so that it's not fun anymore, just a wave of sickness in the gut . . . It's ugly, brutalizing, and bloody awful; it's not fun and games and cowboys and Indians. It's a terrible, ugly thing, and yet there's a certain response that you get from it, an excitement, because we're all violent people. Peckinpah used violence as catharsis, believing his audience would be purged of violence, by witnessing it explicitly on screen. He later admitted to being mistaken, that the audience came to enjoy rather than be horrified by his films' violence, something that troubled him.
Betrayal is the secondary theme of
The Wild Bunch. Characters suffer their knowledge of having betrayed a friend and left him to his fate, thus violating their own honour code when it suits them. Such frustration leads to the film's violent conclusion, as the remaining met find intolerable the abandonment of Angel. Pike Bishop remembers his betrayals, most notably when he deserts Deke Thornton (in flashback) when the law catches up to them; and when he abandons Crazy Lee at the bank after the robbery (ostensibly to guard the hostages).
Variant versions
The movie is called
Pipe Dreams in some countries (particularly in the Middle East), causing confusion with the 1996 comedy film
Down Periscope, which is also called
Pipe Dreams.
In addition, there have been several versions of
The Wild Bunch released:
- The original European release from 1969 is 145 minutes long. This version had an intermission at the request of the distributor, arriving immediately before the train robbery sequence.
- The original American release from 1969 is 143 minutes long.
- The second American release from 1969, edited to allow more show times, is 135 minutes long.
- The 1995 re-release version is 145 minutes long. It is identical to the original European release minus the intermission, as the intermission wasn't intended to be part of the original film. This version is currently available on home video and is labeled "The Original Director's Cut" in most markets.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Wild Bunch'.
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