Retrospective: The Wild Bunch (1969)
Dragan Antulov
THE WILD BUNCH
A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2000
There are various ways people can show their appreciation of
truly great films. The author of this review has found one
interesting example in local newspaper few years ago. THE
WILD BUNCH, 1969 anti-western classic by Sam Peckinpah was
to be aired on national television. TV section editor
obviously wanted to warn audience not to miss this cinematic
gem, so he took rather interesting and unconventional
approach. Instead of simply putting the film description
with photograph, he hired an artist to draw the most
memorable scene of the film in comic book fashion, with
characters saying the most memorable lines. Similar practice
was later abandoned in this newspaper, but THE WILD BUNCH,
being one of the most important films in history of cinema,
surely deserved such treatment.
The plot, based on the Oscar-nominated screenplay by Sam
Peckinpah, Waylon Green and Roy N. Sickner, begins in South
Texan city of San Rafael in 1913. Group of bandits, dressed
in U.S. Army uniforms and led by middle-aged Pike Bishop
(played by William Holden), comes to town in order to rob
railroad company offices. But their raid is nothing more
than an excellent opportunity for railroad's company
unscrupulous executive Harrigan (played by Albert Dekker),
who gathers bunch of bounty hunters and sets up an ambush.
In a violent shootout Pike and three of his comrades escape,
but they are pursued by bounty hunters, who receive aid from
Deke Thornton (played by Robert Ryan), Pike's former partner
who had agreed to betray his friend in order to get paroled
out of jail. Pike seeks shelter across the border, in
Mexico, which is in the middle of revolution. Local warlord
who calls himself Generalissimo Mapache (played by Emilio
Fernandez) needs new, modern weapons in order to get an
upper hand in his fight against Pancho Villa, so he hires
Pike and his gang to steal those weapons from U.S. Army
train. One of Pike's partners is Angel (played by Jaime
Sanchez), young Mexican who doesn't feel comfortable with
the idea of giving guns to someone who is oppressing his
people.
It is impossible to write a history of modern cinema without
mentioning THE WILD BUNCH. The most common reason is
Peckinpah's realistic depiction of violence, quite
revolutionary for late 1960s. Although Arthur Penn came
first with squibs and "death ballet" scene in BONNIE AND
CLYDE two years earlier, Peckinpah actually perfected those
techniques in THE WILD BUNCH and combined with the excellent
photography by Lucien Ballard, thus creating
blood-splattering images that were quite shocking for 1969
audiences. Controversies over the limits in which the
filmmaker can depict violence on the screen later allowed
Peckinpah to get himself honoured by Monty Python parody.
However, today all that seems rather tame, but many of
latter-day directors who excelled in blood-and-guts action
scenes, including Walter Hill and John Woo, owe its success
to Peckinpah's combination of speed editing, blood
splattering and slow motion shots.
However, there is one important difference between THE WILD
BUNCH and most of the other films that contains such levels
of on-screen violence. Carnage in this film makes perfect
sense in the context of the story, characters and, finally,
the subject of the film. Peckinpah uses new techniques (and
lower censorship standards of the time) to unburden his soul
and create a disturbing and uncompromising but also an
original vision of the state of the Old West. Unlike Sergio
Leone, who was an outsider and confronted myths of old
idealistic Westerns with realistic yet ironical approach,
Peckinpah grew up in American West. His debunking of Western
myths has more personal motivations and Peckinpah remains
dead serious about things that bother him. For him, the
twilight of the Frontier was a sad event and the
civilisation, instead of bringing peace and prosperity,
brought nothing but greed, hypocrisy and complete breakdown
of all moral order. This is perfectly demonstrated in the
opening scene, featuring outlaws as impeccable, disciplined
and gentlemanly soldiers, while the lawman happen to be the
worst scum of the earth. The progress, is symbolised with
new, modern equipment - automobiles, automatic pistols, pump
shotguns and machineguns - which is almost exclusively used
as the tools of destruction or torture. And that violence
and destruction is impersonal and indiscriminate - innocent
bystanders, women and children get killed in the same manner
as soldiers, bounty hunters and bandits. Very often violence
in this film is irrational and self-destructive, from acts
of retarded young bandit who stays in railroad office in the
beginning until the last memorable scene. Homicidal madness
is everywhere and characters often act against their better
judgement, only adding to slow-evolving but inevitable
escalation of conflict and violence. Another thing that
bothers Peckinpah is the corrupting influence of the
civilisation, which manifests itself in children. Almost all
the violence in the film is seen through the eyes of
children, who get themselves bewildered and, in the final
acts, even take active participation, which would only lead
to another cycle of increasing carnage in the future.
The Old West, in its romantic, primordial state is
symbolised by the protagonists - tired old men who are aware
that their best days are gone and who unsuccessfully try to
adapt to new, frightening times. William Holden was the
perfect choice for the role of the outlaw who is confused
and who finds only sense of life in the old, over-idealised
code of honour, same code that would lead him to the
powerful last stand. Everyone else - Ernest Borgnine, Robert
Ryan, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates and Edmond O'Brien - is in
the same league; old men whose characters are the dying
breed, "ancient race" from Leone's ONCE UPPON A TIME AT
WEST, and whose last moments in the film resemble their own
careers, going downhill in rapidly changing Hollywood that
don't need screen legends any more. There is deep sadness
and melancholy in their performances which humanises this
film, that would otherwise be remembered as nothing more
than almost pornographic depiction of senseless, irrational
violence.
THE WILD BUNCH is, like the majority of films, also a
product of its time and the influences of Vietnam War could
be found in its content. Peckinpah in this film captures the
spirit of America coming to grips with its worst national
trauma and fills the screen with images from Southeast Asia
battlefields. We see foreign advisors aiding corrupt and
bloodthirsty third world dictators, boy soldiers dying like
flies and, finally, hundreds of innocent people getting
caught in the crossfire and foreshadowing of another war
which is supposed to show the ultimate destructive potential
of the new technology. Perhaps today's audience, people who
grew up after Cold War or had another, more romantic vision
of Vietnam and similar carnage in Ramboid movies, won't
understand this aspect of film. But they would nevertheless
enjoy it in an excellent piece of cinema that connects the
classic and modern in the best possible way.
RATING: 10/10 (+++++)
Review written on July 5th 2000
Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
Fido: 2:381/100
E-mail: dragan....@st.tel.hr
E-mail: dr...@purger.com
E-mail: dragan....@altbbs.fido.hr
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