| The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) 8.9/10 |
| (Mar 29) – The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
Some could say; what you’ve never seen The Wild Bunch? Even if I’m a great fan of Westerns, I’ve never had a view of Peckinpah’s masterpiece. Maybe blinded by the spaghetti-westerns, I put American Westerns on second hand position. But John Ford’s The Searchers (1956) made me change my mind. So I discovered Howard Hawks, George Roy Hill and Sam Peckinpah Heart beats, guns shooting have always been apart of the recipe of a Great Western. This genre is like a phantasm, because when we study American History we learn that the “Far West” never really existed. However, like Science Fiction, Westerns live in Men’s imaginary and represents them and their society. The Bunch glues the desperados together by their code of Honor. They must respect each other to keep their “society” alive. If they don’t they are just lost. The parallel with a society is easy to see. Every member has to respect the code of laws and unwritten laws, if not, it would be anarchy. Far from the spaghetti-westerns, The Wild Bunch explores a more human approach to Westerns with folk music. The characters are more diversified and represent the American Melting Pot of Americans, Mexicans, and Native-Americans. The big difference between spaghetti-westerns and American Westerns is that American born directors like Peckinpah and Ford owns the American culture in their bones, in their flesh and in their blood. The Western genre has always been an American favourite. It’s not surprising at all, because these movies had always been perfect mirrors of the American society. Even if the story is horrible, when it’s showed in another period of time it’s never taken as a critic to American society. Being a way to escape from the present preoccupations or horrors of the real life, Westerns like The Wild Bunch entertain and present timeless meditations about modern life. Has an unconditional fan of Akira Kurosawa’s Films I have to mention that he has been influenced a lot by John Ford’s Westerns. But it’s funny to observe how Kurosawa revitalized the Western genre with movies like Seven Samurai (1954) and how Peckinpah included many of these in The Wild Bunch. By Michael Parent |