92
The
Wild Bunch
Release date 18th June 1969
Country : USA
Running time : 145 mins
Genre : Western
Starring William Holden, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O' Brien
Screenplay by Sam Peckinpah and Walon Green
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Texas bandits are ambushed by an old
enemy and die at the hands of a ruthless Mexican revolutionary.
Exciting, violent western but with a melancholy edge which makes it appealing as when the Bunch walk into a Mexican town with the music all around which is one of the great movie moments. Even though the violence is dwelt on with the slow motion deaths it is never throwaway but viewed as a sad end of an era of desperados. The symbolism of the scorpion swallowed up by the ants is very appropriate.
The role of Pike played by William Holden was turned down by Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Sterling Hayden, Robert Mitchum and Richard Boone.
"The bloody deaths are voluptuous, frightening, beautiful. Pouring new wine into the bottle of the western Peckinpah explodes the bottle : his story is too simple for this imagist epic." From a Review by Pauline Kael
Release date 18th June 1969
Country : USA
Running time : 145 mins
Genre : Western
Starring William Holden, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O' Brien
Screenplay by Sam Peckinpah and Walon Green
Directed by Sam Peckinpah
Exciting, violent western but with a melancholy edge which makes it appealing as when the Bunch walk into a Mexican town with the music all around which is one of the great movie moments. Even though the violence is dwelt on with the slow motion deaths it is never throwaway but viewed as a sad end of an era of desperados. The symbolism of the scorpion swallowed up by the ants is very appropriate.
The role of Pike played by William Holden was turned down by Lee Marvin, Burt Lancaster, James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Gregory Peck, Sterling Hayden, Robert Mitchum and Richard Boone.
"The bloody deaths are voluptuous, frightening, beautiful. Pouring new wine into the bottle of the western Peckinpah explodes the bottle : his story is too simple for this imagist epic." From a Review by Pauline Kael
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Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
The Wild Bunch image from
http://www.reelfilm.com/
