The Wild Bunch (1969)

Truth be told, I've never been a big fan of the American westerns. I was always more into the Italian kind, because I loved the atmosphere more. Combine that with epic music and I was hooked. Most US westerns always seemed to me to be too full of machismo and racist tropes that I could never latch on to. Maybe it's because I have a dislike of John Wayne.

Granted, it took me a while longer to get to know the better ones and nowadays I can safely say I also love 'The Magnificent Seven', 'Shane' or some John Ford-westerns. It's clearly just John Wayne I can't stand.

Nevertheless, 'The Wild Bunch' is a US western and by the gods, it is a brilliant one. But that might also be because this is not a clear cut western with western tropes. Instead, this Sam Peckinpah directed piece deals with a lot more than the obvious. But that will soon become clear.

Not only was 'The Wild Bunch' made near the end of the western as a genre (before it had a revival of sorts during the 1990's), it also deals with the end of the "Wild West" as it was known. The story centres around Pike and Dutch, two desperados who are getting older and feel the need to leave their life behind them. Also, the world is changing and modern society slowly does away with the carefree days of looting, pillaging and shooting. The Mexican war for independence between Huerta and Pancho Villa is in full swing and motorcars are slowly replacing horses.

The film starts with a robbery, but everything soon goes awry when it turns out a trap was set with the help of Thornton, an old accomplice of Pike's. In the ensuing shootout, many civilians are gunned down and the hired hands of the railroad don't really care. Pike loses most of his troupe and flees to Mexico, where they discover their loot is just a lot of metal washers. They decide to try another caper by stealing guns for Mapache, a killer in Huerta's army who fancies himself a general, but Angel, the Mexican of the group wants some guns for his people. And then it all starts to go pear-shaped, culminating in a classic shootout, that was (and maybe still is) renowned for how bloody and gruesome it is. Seriously, it's almost ten full minutes of everyone blasting away, blood and guts flying everywhere. It's as if the end of the cowboy age is heralded by one last massive case of bloodshed.

Obviously, that last part is the best known and a good reason to check this one out, but the rest of the film often gets overlooked, which is a shame. It's really good, trust me. William Holden is great as Pike and Ernest Borgnine who plays Dutch is a playful character who is a lot smarter than he seems. The Mexican angle is neatly introduced and the film never feels as though it needs to make a bold political statement. These are men who no longer belong in the modern day and age and they know it. It is also part of what drives them to that last stand. That fatalism is felt throughout and makes everything they do all the more meaningful and pointless at the same time.

True, in its entirety, this one falls somewhere between Sergio Leone's style and the more slick US one, but because it's Sam Peckinpah behind the wheels, you know it's gritty and occasionally rough. Our protagonists are no heroes or antiheroes. They are outlaws and they know it. But they're not evil per se, they just do what they do because life had no other options left for them.

'The Wild Bunch' is rightfully considered a classic. It's a fairly long film at about two hours and a half, but it's well worth the watch.

Highly recommended.