The Wild Bunch (DVD)

Overview An explosive, action packed Western spectacular directed by Sam Peckinpah. Review Wild Bunch starts unassumingly enough, with pleasant multi-angled vistas of a typically idyllic looking wild west town, bustling with people just going about there business amongst some sort of parade and seemingly we're watching the beginning of a dull and dreary Sunday morning western. But then... BOOM! All freaking hell breaks loose. What was once an innocent little outback town quickly turns into a hellish warzone with gunfire zipping and cracking all around. Every rifle round resembles a resounding cannon shot as panic descends and chaos reigns. ...  Read the complete review

Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch is a much-maligned western. Applauded and abhorred in equal measure for its violence, people tend to skim over its brilliant performances, themes, humour and macho lyricism. The Wild Bunch is far more than the tale of shoot-outs and exit wounds. The Wild Bunch came about in 1969, at a time when the Hollywood make breaking production codes and becoming more permissive. Films such as Midnight Cowboy and Bonnie & Clyde, story wise a million miles apart, were intelligent, lewd and violent but more importantly, successful. They paved the way for what many considered the golden age of Hollywood, the 70’s. Filmmakers such as ...  Read the complete review

Peckinpah’s stunning Western tells the story of a group of gunmen who have outlived their time. Set around the start of the First World War, the spread of business and government power is driving out the lawless ways of the old west. Ageing bandit Pike (William Holden) and his men aim to make enough money from a last hold-up to retire. In the first of the dramatic set pieces of the film, it shows the fate of the criminals who throve in the traditional western. A superb image is presented of laughing boys forcing scorpions into a swarm of ants: the bigger predators being defeated by numbers. At the same time, Pike's gang is caught in a bloody ambush by ...  Read the complete review

Considered to be Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece and certainly a damn good western, The Wild Bunch brought modern violence to the fading genre and introduced Peckinpah into the movie scene. Tough, gritty and ultra violent, The Wild Bunch certainly doesn't pull any punches and although the pacing is sometimes a little slow and the dialogue a little too mysoginist (just like Peckinpah) but performances from William Holden and Ernest Borgnine really pack a wallop. If you get the DVD you will see the Director's Cut plus an excellent documentary, but unfortunately the DVD is a flipper. ...  Read the complete review