50th Anniversary: The Wild Bunch!

[Watchdog]

On June 18, 1969 in Los Angeles...fifty years ago today...Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch was released on unsuspecting audiences who had almost started sleeping through countless run-of-the-mill westerns.

The Wild Bunch woke them up! The rest, as they say, is history. The film changed westerns (and filmmaking) forever.

It changed the way audiences looked at films and characterizations, and it dragged the western back into the real world instead of the fantasy world of clean cut heroes we'd been fed with fifties and sixties TV cowboy shows.

The film was initially panned by a lot of critics who (in my opinion) didn't realize what they were looking at. Peckinpah (again, in my opinion) had used what he'd started with Ride the High Country and taken it to its ultimate limit.

It's now ranked among the best westerns ever made. I don't think anyone ever came close to it until Clint Eastwood came along with Unforgiven twenty-three years later.

Hard for me to imagine anyone not having seen the film. If you haven't seen it, it's time you did. Time to find out what you've been missing.

 

[steveno]

the only one that even comes close is "Once Upon a Time in the West"

 

[Watchdog]

The original trailer from Warner Brothers barely hinted at what was in the film.


[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdy0t_8mQBw[/ame]

 

[steveno]

I would imagine that if you watched the trailer seeing the movie would really be an eye opener

 

[Absalom]

It's been said that most of Peckinpah's later movies were, in a way, just his own re-makes of "The Wild Bunch", just in different settings.

It was mostly flawed characters who weren't movie heroes in the traditional sense working their way to an inevitable, more or less violent finale.

Big and fiery, as in "The Wild Bunch" and "Cross of Iron". Or rather unspectacular, as in "The Ballad of Cable Hogue". Occasionally, Peckinpah was even able to poke fun at his own cliche, as with the ending of "Convoy".

 

[UncleEd]

the only one that even comes close is "Once Upon a Time in the West"

I've seen it many, many times and it does have some
great individual scenes. But in the end,
it's really too long and boring.

 

[rockquarry]

Saw it when it came out; certainly among the best westerns even with the stars beginning their downhill slides. Hope the "wrong gun for the era"crackerjacks will give it a pass.

 

[PALADIN85020]

Great movie with a terrific cast. This is one of my favorite computer wallpapers! You can click on it to enlarge to 1920x1200 screen size.

John

 

[Watchdog]

It's been said that most of Peckinpah's later movies were, in a way, just his own re-makes of "The Wild Bunch", just in different settings.

It was mostly flawed characters who weren't movie heroes in the traditional sense working their way to an inevitable, more or less violent finale.

Big and fiery, as in "The Wild Bunch" and "Cross of Iron". Or rather unspectacular, as in "The Ballad of Cable Hogue". Occasionally, Peckinpah was even able to poke fun at his own cliche, as with the ending of "Convoy".

Except for Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and possibly The Killer Elite, Peckinpah's post-Wild Bunch films were a disappointment to me. Especially The Ballad of Cable Hogue. I'm sure I saw some of them, but I can't even remember what they were or what they were about.

Cable Hogue made such a poor impression on me, I'd have to do an Internet search to make me remember what the film is about. Seriously. And I'm not even interested in doing that.

The Wild Bunch is iconic. A true classic.

I believe I'll watch it with dinner tonight.

 

[Watchdog]

Great movie with a terrific cast.

One thing about The Wild Bunch being fifty-years-old now. Think about where you were and what you were doing a half-century ago. Not particularly when you saw the film...but just the period of time. Matter of fact, think about who you were fifty years ago.

Seeing the film again is always a nostalgic and bittersweet experience for me.

 

[Wrangler Rich]

It ain't like it used to be, but it'll do...


WR

 

[ace22]

Great movie with a terrific cast. This is one of my favorite computer wallpapers! You can click on it to enlarge to 1920x1200 screen size.

John

thanks for this, i just made it my wallpaper too!


and i agree the wild bunch is up there among the best westerns ever. i saw it when it came out and have seen it close to a hundred times since. it and pat garrett and billy the kid are both peckinpah classics imo!

 

[Onomea]

And just a month later, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon!

Sheer Coincidence?

(I sure think so!)

 

[Rudi]

A top favorite of all time!

 

[Cleandean]

The only Western movie that I have saved on DVR...that did not include Dean Martin. It is truely a classic film treasure.
★★★★★
Loaded with great action & cast with terrific character actors of the great Hollywood years.
50 years...already ?

 

[Absalom]

.... Especially The Ballad of Cable Hogue. I'm sure I saw some of them, but I can't even remember what they were or what they were about.

Cable Hogue made such a poor impression on me, I'd have to do an Internet search to make me remember what the film is about. Seriously. And I'm not even interested in doing that.
.....

How you perceive Cable Hogue really depends on how you want to see Peckinpah as a director. I like it a lot.

Coming directly after the Wild Bunch, it shows that he does not deserve to be stereotyped as a choreographer of violence, but could handle a funny, almost whimsical and largely non-action take on the "post-western".

While the guys of the wild bunch die in an inferno of mass charges and machine gun fire, presaging WW I, Cable Hogue ends up the victim of a different 20th century horror: he gets run over by a car.

The two movies complement each other. Both mourn the inevitable end of an era. While "The Wild Bunch" made Peckinpah famous, "Cable Hogue" was reportedly one of his favorite works, at least according to what I consider his best biography.

 

[6518John]

Even by today's standards the movie still surprises me every time I see it with the sex and violence. How it was not rated "X" fifty years ago is beyond me. It is an interesting read to see how the film rating system was undergoing an overhaul that let the film be released.

 

[remshooter]

i just bought and watched the DVD 2 weeks ago ,been 20 years since i seen this

 

[dr. mordo]

I love the Wild Bunch; it's in my top 5.

I remember liking Cable Hogue, but the main thing I remember about it is how hot Stella Stevens was.

 

[6518John]

I only recently saw Cable Hogue. I enjoyed in immensely. I enjoyed watching Stella Stevens even more.