"The Wild Bunch" (1969)

This is one loud, fast, fun ride of a picture. it starts out full-throttle and ends that way. i still enjoy Leone's work better but this is one of the greatest American westerns ever. yes the ultra-violence was ultra violent and something out of the mind of Tarantino. Roger Ebert made a huge deal out of the film. he loved it to death and even put it on his 'Great Movies' list. i would think that he wouldn't because of it's violence but he defended it saying it was just realistic which it absolutely is. just from the first scene, which is the same for most westerns, we get that this will be a violent film. horses, women, children flying eveywhere during this big time shoot out must have been disturbing for 1969 but isn't much now. i did enjoy the film but i wouldn't spend any money on it. i thought it was wonderfully shot, acted, and designed but i did not feel for the characters. maybe they were not developed enough. we get to know plenty about the main character of William Holden but thats about it. i enjoyed the action sequeunces and there was a great train robbery scene. Was it the best action picture i ever saw, no- but it was a good one.

The film opens up with a botched bank robbery. the town that they robbed was left massacred and what they got out of the bags were metal washers; they had been set-up. The leader is Pike (Holden). this was supposed to be their last big hit before retiring or for some going elsewhere. but now they need one more big score. The men who set him up was one of Pike's old collegues, Thorton, and he and some other redneck idiots are out to track the gang down. this is teqnically parole for Thorton. who was caught and sentanced to jail. One of the members of the gang, Angel, is a Mexican who takes them to his village. he learns his father was hanged and girlfriend was taken by General Mapache who works for the Government. they go there to trade horses and Angel sees his old girlfriend and shoots her when he sees her with Mapache. then Mapache and his gang notice the men and their rough approach and take a liking to them. They are hired by Mapache and his German military advisors to steal a US arms shipment for him, which they agree to for a price of ten thousand dollars. Angel insists that they allow him to take one case of rifles to his village to protect them from Mapache which is agreed upon. And there you have it. the train robbery scene is incredibly intense and what makes it so is the little use of special effects. it reminded me of the movie "Unstoppable" which came out in 2010. the film is just one big adrenaline rush but since it uses so much CGI its not really believable. this sequence is all the more tense. the slow motion shots were incredibly well done. people would jump off the train and it would show it in slow motion. this was one of the very first times it had been used to this extent.

The acting was good too especially the performance of Ernest Borgnine who played the second-hand man to Holden's character. Holden was decent but his greatest performance was of course in "Network" but he was also great in "Sunset Blvd." the sound editing was excellent and im suprised it was not even nominated for the Oscar. the shoot out scenes were so well editied. i think where the film failed was again character development. we knew all about Pike's background and his start but i would have liked to have gotten into the other characters more. we knew quite a bit about Angel as well but what about Borgnine's character. what about the brothers and how did they meet. how about Sykes? when we get to know a character, the more tragic the ending is. then we are brought closer into the film. other than that aspect we have a good action picture. noisy and fast which was a new way of filmmaking for the 60's which, unfortunatly is the only aspect today's blockbusters take from old cinema.

Academy Awards, USA
Year	Result	Award	Category/Recipient(s)
1970	Nominated	Oscar	Best Music, Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical) Jerry Fielding
			Best Writing, Story and Screenplay Based on Material Not Previously Published or Produced Walon Green (screenplay/story) Roy N. Sickner (story) Sam Peckinpah (screenplay)