The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch continues to be one of the most controversial films ever made. It is equally hated and admired upon it's release over 30 years ago. Today, the debate still goes on unabated; proof of it's tenacious staying power. Has Sam Peckinpah created a screen masterpiece or a monstrosity of a movie?

Seeing the movie,through adult eyes, 30 years later, I am inclined to think that Peckinpah has indeed contributed one of the finest films of the last century.

The alchemy that Peckinpah used to transcend from book to celluloid is brilliant. William Holden and Ernest Borgnine as the leaders of the Bunch, played their roles with effortless conviction and no-holds-bars tenacity. Robert Ryan, once an outlaw with Holden, and now forced to hunt him down, portrays the tortured individual caught between an old friendship and the threat of incarceration in a vicious prison. Ben Johnson and Warren Oates are solidly believable as real life brothers as they depict their roles as lecherous money- grabbing, whoring Gorch Brothers. Finally, there is Jaime Sanchez displaying the ethos of the fiercely patriotic Mexican, Angel.

The Wild Bunch is a film that you can re-visit time and time again and yet relish the depth of the characters and feel their desperation as the west that they knew has now become a distant memory.

Great casting, good scripting and editing, wonderful cinematography, gripping dialogue and first class gunfights-that is the Wild Bunch for you-a movie that will continually be looked upon as one of the most important films of the silver screen.

So go out and grab a DVD and enjoy the masterpiece once more!

Heartsong