Movie Description
An outlaw gang hired by a renegade Mexican general to transport weapons dodges danger at every turn, only to be double-crossed by their ruthless employer. Gripping action capped off by an absolutely shocking ultraviolent finale typical of New Hollywood films (such as BONNIE AND CLYDE) and the message that the world is utterly without loyalty or redemption. Academy Award Nominations: Best (Original) Screenplay, Best Original Score. This is the "American Version" of the film, missing several scenes from Peckinpah's preferred cut.
| Credits | | Writer: | Sam Peckinpah | | Producer: | Phil Feldman | | Cast: | Albert Dekker, Ben Johnson, Bo Hopkins, Edmond O'Brien, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Strother Martin, William Holden |
Notes
"The Wild Bunch," released in 1969, brought issues of violence and morality in cinema into the forefront of American film criticism. Instead of appreciating the film's critique of brutal violence, many critics responded by rejecting what they saw as a superfluous spectacle of decimated bodies. As author Brian Garfield wrote, Peckinpah's "excesses... no matter how well motivated, distracted audiences and obscured the fact that it is a towering movie, with a flavor of tragic grandeur hardly matched in the history of the Western film."
Peckinpah himself had a response for those who decried the film's violence: "Well, killing a man isn't clean and quick and simple -- it's bloody and awful. And maybe if enough people come to realize that shooting somebody isn't just fun and games, maybe we'll get somewhere."
Peckinpah, who died in 1984, is well known for some of the most controversial films of the late 1960s and 1970s. However, he began putting his imprint on the film world a decade earlier as the dialogue director for many of Donald Siegel's films, the first of which was "Riot in Cell Block 11," released in 1954. While working with Siegel, Peckinpah was a jack-of-all-trades who wrote screenplays (including "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" 1956), and learned to direct action films.
Shortly after working with Siegel, Peckinpah began writing for the prime-time television shows "Gunsmoke," "Broken Arrow," and "The Rifleman." Successful, he went on the direct low-budget films. "Major Dundee" would have been the artist's breakthrough project had the producer not shortened the film, almost ruining picture and director in the process. Fortunately, he made a comeback with "The Wild Bunch," which projected Peckinpah to the top. Based on a story by producer/director/writer Walon Green and actor Lee Marvin, later distilled by associate producer Roy Sickner, the film's screenplay actually has less of Peckinpah's authorial influence than many believe.
The original Pecki
Awards
1969Academy AwardsBest Original Score, 1969Academy AwardsStory/Screenplay Based on Mat. Not Prev. Produced, 1969Academy AwardsStory/Screenplay Based on Mat. Not Prev. ProducedSam Peckinpah
| See an error? Submit a change request |
All rights reserved.
