Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9786305237082 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Special Edition, NTSC ISBN: 6305237085 Label: Warner Home Video Manufacturer: Warner Home Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Warner Home Video Release Date: May 11, 1999 Running Time: 134 minutes Studio: Warner Home Video Theatrical Release Date: 1969 Sales Rank: 20759
Amazon.com essential video: Here's how director Sam Peckinpah described his motivation behind The Wild Bunch at the time of the film's 1969 release: "I was trying to tell a simple story about bad men in changing times. The Wild Bunch is simply what happens when killers go to Mexico. The strange thing is you feel a great sense of loss when these killers reach the end of the line." All of these statements are true, but they don't begin to cover the impact that Peckinpah's film had on the evolution of American movies. Now the film is most widely recognized as a milestone event in the escalation of screen violence, but that's a label of limited perspective. Of course, Peckinpah's bloody climactic gunfight became a masterfully directed, photographed, and edited ballet of graphic violence that transcended the conventional Western and moved into a slow-motion realm of pure cinematic intensity. But the film--surely one of the greatest Westerns ever made--is also a richly thematic tale of, as Peckinpah said, "bad men in changing times." The year is 1913 and the fading band of thieves known as the Wild Bunch (led by William Holden as Pike) decide to pull one last job before retirement. But an ambush foils their plans, and Peckinpah's film becomes an epic yet intimate tale of betrayed loyalties, tenacious rivalry, and the bunch's dogged determination to maintain their fading code of honor among thieves. The 144-minute director's cut enhances the theme of male bonding that recurs in many of Peckinpah's films, restoring deleted scenes to deepen the viewer's understanding of the friendship turned rivalry between Pike and his former friend Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who now leads a posse in pursuit of the bunch, a dimension that adds resonance to an already classic American film. The Wild Bunch is a masterpiece that should not be defined strictly in terms of its violence, but as a story of mythic proportion, brimming with rich characters and dialogue and the bittersweet irony of outlaw traditions on the wane. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.com: One of the best action movies ever made, in a cleaned-up print restoring crucial parts of the story. No cavalry ever rode in with more epochal impact than the Wild Bunch in the legendary opening scene. Their steel-eyed leader, Pike (William Holden), and his robbers in stolen army uniforms help an old lady across the street, and then spark a massacre led by Pike's old crony Thornton (Robert Ryan), sprung from jail to hunt down his old gang. In just a few minutes, Sam Peckinpah sets the scene--a dusty Texas town in 1913--sketches a dozen vividly individualized characters, and choreographs one of the most realistic, influential, brilliantly photographed shootouts under the pitiless sun. The cast is superb (even Ernest Borgnine!), the dialog crackling, the bitterly ambiguous moral of the story hard-earned. It's the deeper, dark flip side to 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Consider buying the letterbox Wild Bunch, the review collection Doing It Right, and the Peckinpah bio "If They Move... Kill 'Em!"--Tim Appelo
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Good violent western
I put this in my top 25 greatest westerns. Lots of good actors. Lots of shoot em up. Vengeance is the driving force of the story. Good sub plots. Will be or is a western classic. I bought the box ... Read More
Rating: - "If They Move, Kill 'Em!"
This line, spoken by William Holden's character Pike Bishop, is about the important thing you need to know about "The Wild Bunch"; just as "Bonnie and Clyde" was summed up by the line 'We rob banks', "The ... Read More
Rating: - Wild Bunch
Saw this movie back in the 70's and have loved it ever since. Peckinpah excels here as do the actors and their performances. Holdens character is the most memorable
Rating: - Overrated
Director Sam Peckinpah's two hour and twenty-five minute long 1969 Western classic, The Wild Bunch, is certainly an influential and important film, but, compared to the other great Western released that year, ... Read More
Rating: - Look At What "Bonnie and Clyde" Did!
This Original Director's Cut version of "The Wild Bunch" is a real treat as they did an excellent job with the restoration and especially with the sound quality as the Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound is excellent ... Read More
- Good violent western
- "If They Move, Kill 'Em!"
- Overrated
- Look At What "Bonnie and Clyde" Did!