Baseline's Motion Picture Guide Review
5 stars
A landmark film in many respects, Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch was considered controversial not only because of its extreme, now legendary, slow-motion violence, but also because of the war started between the producer, Phil Feldman, and the director.
The film is set in Texas in 1913, as progress, old age, and the onset of World War I are killing off the Old West and its outlaws. While children sit on the outskirts of the small town of San Rafael and play a game in which hundreds of red ants consume a scorpion, a group of men in Army uniforms rides by.
Bank robbery. The men enter the town and go to the bank. Before the clerk has a chance to ask what the men want, their leader, Pike Bishop (William Holden), pulls the man out of his chair and pushes him across the room. The rest of the men brandish their weapons before the patrons inside. Holden glances around to make sure all is secure. It is. He utters a simple, deadly command, "If they move...kill 'em." The "soldiers" are actually bank robbers. Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), Lyle Gorch (Warren Oates), Crazy Lee (Bo Hopkins), and Angel (Jaime Sanchez) are dressed as cavalry; the rest of the gang is positioned throughout the town on the lookout for anything suspicious.
Ambush. Once the dozens of heavy canvas bags filled with gold have been packed up, the bunch prepares to leave. The men stop dead in their tracks when Sanchez observes three rifles on the rooftop across the street. Members of the gang who are stationed outside have noticed them as well, and it becomes apparent to all that they have been trapped in an ambush. Holden quickly decides to make a run for it and uses a Temperance Union parade for cover. As a brief diversion, Holden kicks the bank manager out of the building, and the man is immediately blasted to bits by the overzealous bounty hunters.
A horrible gunfight ensues between the bunch and the bounty hunters with innocent men, women, and children taking most of the bullets. During the battle Holden sees that one of the posse is Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), an old friend. Ryan raises his rifle to shoot Holden. Holden draws his pistol. Both men lose their nerve and aim for targets nearby, sparing each other's lives.
Worthless booty. After losing several men in the battle, Holden is able to gather his forces and escape. Those left of the bunch—Holden, Borgnine, brothers Oates and Tector Gorch (Ben Johnson), and Sanchez—ride to their hideout in Mexico, where the grizzled old desert rat Sykes (Edmond O'Brien) waits with fresh horses. When the men cut open the loot, they are shocked to discover that the canvas bags are filled with worthless metal washers. This nearly demolishes the delicate balance of the group, Oates and Johnson seriously questioning Holden's judgment.
Realizing that the whole thing has been a setup by Holden's archenemy, railroad baron Pat Harrigan (Albert Dekker), the leader of the bunch informs his old friend O'Brien that Ryan was among the bounty hunters who participated. O'Brien is surprised and saddened by the news—the three used to ride together—and the men decide to travel to Sanchez's village for a rest.
Bounty hunters regroup. Meanwhile, Ryan argues with Dekker about the ill-planned ambush that resulted in many bystanders' deaths. Bemoaning his being saddled with worthless, trigger-happy morons (the sleazy bounty hunters are picking over the corpses like vultures), Ryan demands better men. Dekker, relishing the power he holds over Ryan (he got Ryan out of prison to help track Holden), gleefully informs the man that he must make do with what he has. He then announces that if any of them tries to get away (a not-so-veiled reference to Ryan), he'll pay a bounty to the man who kills the escapee. With that, the bounty hunters take off after the bunch.
Respectful citizens. In Sanchez's village Holden's gang is afforded wary respect by the locals. The village elder (Chano Urueta) tells the group that Mexico is in the throes of a civil war. A ruthless army general (Emilio Fernandez) has recently invaded the village, killed all the young men, and made off with Sanchez's not-unwilling girlfriend. Sanchez wants to ride off and bring back the girl, but Holden forbids it. Having gained the respect of the people (who see the men as saviors who will deliver them from the hands of Fernandez), the wild bunch, unaccustomed to such adulation, rides out of the village.
General's compound. Feeling pressure from Ryan's posse, the bunch decides to visit Fernandez's compound, knowing that the bounty hunters won't dare follow. Suddenly a horn sounds, and the startled outlaws turn to see a bright red automobile carrying the general through the gate. Most of the men have never seen a car and are both scared and fascinated by it. By chance, Sanchez sees his girlfriend happily presenting a pony to Fernandez. Overcome with rage, the impetuous Sanchez shoots his beloved while she is in the arms of Fernandez. This sudden outburst of violence startles everyone, and the outlaws immediately raise their hands to avoid annihilation by Fernandez's troops. The trick works, and the men are spared, although Sanchez is taken away and beaten.
Gun robbery. Fernandez, who is being manipulated by a pair of German advisors, asks the bunch inside for a drink. There the Germans propose that the bunch rob a U.S. Army shipment of guns for the general. Once the price has been agreed upon and Sanchez has been returned to them, the bunch rides off to execute the robbery.
The train robbery goes off without a hitch until Ryan, his men, and a trainload of incompetent cavalry soldiers enter the fray. Anticipating just such an eventuality, Holden has laced the main bridge across the Rio Grande with a ton of dynamite, so Ryan and his men are blown into the river.
Guns for villagers. The haul, which includes a machine gun, is tremendous—and Holden agrees to let Sanchez take a few cases of rifles for his people back in the village. Eventually word of this deception leaks out; and when Sanchez and Borgnine ride into the general's fortress to collect their share of the loot, Fernandez has the young Mexican captured and tortured.
Obviously outnumbered, Borgnine feigns ignorance of the "thievery" and rides back to the bunch, where he pleads with the gang to rescue the boy. Holden rejects the idea, but he changes his mind when he sees that Ryan and his men are hot on their trail—and have shot and seriously wounded O'Brien.
General's celebration. Back at Fernandez's stronghold a wild celebration over the guns is taking place. When they arrive, the remaining members of the bunch—Holden, Borgnine, Oates, and Johnson—are greeted by the sick sight of Sanchez being dragged around in the dirt, tied to the back of Fernandez's car. Swallowing the urge to shoot it out, the men accept the general's invitation to join the party, and they all seek solace in the company of whores save Borgnine, who waits outside.
Turning point. Disgusted with himself, his life, and the recent turn of events, Holden decides to get it over with. He enters another part of the whorehouse, where Oates and Johnson are dickering with a prostitute over price. Holden looks Oates right in the eye with a steely determination and says, "Let's go." Oates looks first at his brother and then at Holden, and responds gamely, "Why not?"
The men gather their gear and meet Borgnine outside. Gratified that a courageous decision has been reached, Borgnine arms himself to the teeth. The four men, laden with every gun they can carry, march across town to where Fernandez is holding court, the new machine gun proudly displayed on a table.
The drunken soldiers demand to know what the four want. Holden calmly states that they want the return of Sanchez. Fernandez smiles and agrees. He walks a near-dead Sanchez over to the men, cuts the bonds that tie his arms, and then sadistically slits the boy's throat. Holden immediately pulls his pistol and shoots Fernandez, as does Borgnine.
Temporary standoff. The drunken troops stagger to their feet and reach for their weapons, but the bunch has actually managed to get the drop on hundreds of men. The silent standoff is almost painful. As the men whirl around, expecting an attack, not a soldier moves. Johnson and Borgnine laugh at the thought that they may actually get away. Borgnine smiles encouragingly at Holden, as if trying to convince his partner that they have won. Holden knows better. It is time to die.
Last gun battle. Choosing one of the German advisors as his next target, Holden takes deliberate aim and kills the man. This time all hell breaks loose, and the fortress erupts into an orgy of violence. The bunch eventually takes control of the machine gun, with which hundreds of Fernandez's troops are slaughtered.
After a long and brutal fight, the members of the gang begin to succumb—first Oates and Johnson and then Holden, shot in the back by a child who can barely carry his gun. Borgnine stumbles to his friend's aid, but it is too late. He too is gunned down, and the men die side by side, Holden's hand still clutching the trigger of the machine gun.
Bounty hunters' rewards. With Fernandez's troops wiped out, Ryan and his bounty hunters ride into town. The men pick over the bodies with glee, but Ryan looks sadly at the corpse of his fallen friend, seemingly in regret that he has not gone down the same way rather than sell out to the railroad. While his men are grabbing rifles and boots, Ryan claims one trophy for himself, Holden's pistol.
Hours later, with the remnants of the town leaving with what they can carry, Ryan tells his men he does not intend to return to the States with them. They shrug it off and ride into the distance, the bodies of the wild bunch slung face down over their saddles.
Friends reunite. Ryan sits alone, as the wind blows dust around him. In the distance a brief gunfight is heard, and Ryan smiles in the knowledge that the bounty hunters haven't gotten very far. Moments later O'Brien, the elder from Sanchez's village, and a few other men armed with the guns Holden gave them ride up. O'Brien tells Ryan, "Me and the boys here got a job to do. Wanna come along? It ain't like it used to be, but it'll do." Ryan chuckles, mounts his horse, and rides off with O'Brien and his men.
Hatchet cutting job. As with the majority of Peckinpah's work, the studios and producers hacked the film apart to suit their needs (to cut its length, to eliminate controversy, to prove their power over the ever-difficult Peckinpah) and distributed a film vastly different from the one the director had originally envisioned.
The hatchet job on The Wild Bunch occurred while Peckinpah was on vacation in Hawaii, after his film had been shown uncut to reviewers on the East Coast. (Critic Vincent Canby expressed dismay when he went to see the film again and discovered scenes missing, but his protests were dismissed by Feldman—who, in a stunning piece of logic, declared that if the critic had not seen the missing scenes originally, he wouldn't have missed them).
Adverse reaction to the film did not spur Feldman to make the cuts (all the trimmed scenes contained important motivational information vital to the portrayals of the main characters, especially Holden's, and none were particularly violent). They were made mainly to bring the film's running time down to two hours so that theater owners would be able to cram in another show and sell more popcorn.
Leader's self-doubts. Although The Wild Bunch is an incredibly violent film, it is also an honest one. Peckinpah's characters are bad, brutal men, and no effort is made to soften their crimes. What separates them from the bounty hunters, Dekker, the railroad man, and "civilized" society is their sense of honor and commitment to themselves. Holden's character is not just a mindless killer; he is an insecure man, saddled with a mighty reputation but wracked with doubt and self-loathing. Holden is getting old and making ill-advised, thoughtless decisions that jeopardize the lives of those he is closest to. It is here that the mindless cuts by producer Feldman hurt the film most. Nearly every scene excised deals with Holden's guilt over his leadership (and all have finally been restored to the film in a new videotape release).
The first scene details how Holden's overconfidence resulted in Ryan's being captured by the law. While Ryan is hauled off to jail, it is Holden who escapes. The second scene is a brief exchange in which O'Brien reveals that Hopkins (whom Holden had forgotten about and left to die in the opening massacre) was O'Brien's grandson. The old man asks whether the boy served the bunch well, and a nervous Holden says that the kid did "just fine."
The third restored scene shows the origin of Holden's painful leg wound. When he was younger, Holden had an affair with a married woman whose husband had left her. Holden loved the woman, but his thoughtless disappearances put a strain on the relationship. One night the woman's husband returned to find the two together, killed the woman, and wounded Holden. Holden was unable to shoot back, and the man escaped with his life.
Leader's motivation excised. These scenes are essential to explain Holden's motivation and subsequent actions. Holden feels that he has destroyed everything good in his life (his friendship with Ryan, the love of a woman—and ultimately her life). The fiasco at San Rafael (where he thoughtlessly left one of his men behind) tends to confirm his negative view of himself.
By accepting Fernandez's assignment, Holden takes his one last chance to redeem himself in his own eyes and those of his men. The train robbery goes off beautifully, but once again bad decisions cause the deaths of people close to him (Sanchez's capture and torture, O'Brien's apparently fatal wound). As the film reaches its climax, Holden has finally decided that the only way to redeem himself is to live up to his pronouncements on solidarity and friendship and to sacrifice his life for an honorable cause—he has been dead inside for years anyway.
Cuts cause confusion. The rest of the bunch senses its obsolescence in the brave new world of automobiles, machine guns, and airplanes, so they willingly join the final battle. Without these flashbacks showing the events that have brought Holden to this place, his character is a meaningless monster, hell-bent on destruction. His willingness to sacrifice his life rather than escape makes no sense without the explanation that the cut sequences provide.
Cuts create misperception. Other cuts by Feldman contributed to the perception that the film was made up of disgusting characters and mindless violence. Two important scenes that shed light on the Fernandez character were also excised. The first is a large battle scene (with little blood) showing the general and his troops besieged by Pancho Villa at a train station while awaiting word that Holden and his men have obtained the guns. Standing on the train tracks while his men are dying around him, a nervous Fernandez suppresses his urge to flee, for the sake of a young boy who admires him. So as not to shatter the boy's illusions, Fernandez stands his ground and bravely salutes the little soldier, and together they slowly march to the safety of the train.
The second scene shows a brief aftermath to the battle with Villa, where a concerned Fernandez watches intently as the wounds of his soldiers are tended to. One of his men says, "With the new guns this wouldn't have happened." Both of these scenes present Fernandez as more than a cruel, heartless opportunist. He is vicious and brutal but only to those who threaten his people. The general is shown to have a genuine concern for his men and their families; without this he seems a drunken buffoon unworthy of pity, respect, or understanding.
Missing human side. Although Feldman's other cut is fairly minor, a bit of dancing by the bunch in Sanchez's village, this too shows a more human side of the characters, which is missing from the butchered version. Peckinpah never softens his perspective on these men—they are killers and thieves—but he also shows their human side. Their desires are often indefensible, their judgements are frequently unwise, but the men have human and sometimes humane qualities too.
Butch Cassidy comparison. The difference between Peckinpah and other western directors is perfectly illustrated by comparing The Wild Bunch to a much safer film like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), which was released the same year. Although the latter is marvelously well made and entertaining, it bathes its outlaw characters in a pleasant, romantic light. Butch and Sundance were also robbers, but they are portrayed as two basically likable rogues who happen to rob banks. By casting such appealing movie stars as Paul Newman and Robert Redford, the filmmakers ensure that the audience will be immediately drawn to these men and will be accepting of their actions.
The two robbers' careers weren't nearly so violent as the those of the thieves in the The Wild Bunch are shown to be. George Roy Hill's characters are unabashedly romanticized and are easy to relate to sympathetically. By the end of the film, when the jig is up and Butch and Sundance must answer for their crimes, the film freeze frames on their brave faces, propelling them into movie lore unsullied by blood or death. These men have not earned our respect by the end of the film; they were already pristine examples of manhood when the film started.
Greater artistic achievement. Peckinpah's men are more challenging, and therefore his is the greater artistic achievement. One can't go wrong with Newman and Redford. The real challenge is to show Holden, Borgnine, Oates, and Johnson—violent killers from the outset—in a human light. We see (and through the director's complex visual style at times participate in) the carnage they cause.
By the end of the film we have learned that they have a sense of honor—clutching at the past but finally compelling them to enter the myth of the Old West by sacrificing their lives. We see them go down. We feel them die. And there is a strange sense of loss. At the end of the film they have earned our respect and their place in legend. The reprise of the bunch's slow exit from Sanchez's home under the closing credits leaves little doubt that the villagers will be singing songs about the bunch to their grandchildren.
The Wild Bunch was nominated by the Academy for Best Story and Best Original Score.
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