The Wild Bunch
Category
Western
Director
Sam Peckinpah
Cast
- William Holden
- Ernest Borgnine
- Robert Ryan
- Edmond O’Brien
- Warren Oates
Release Date
18 July 1969
Synopsis
The movie revolves around the lives of six gangsters who are popularly known as the Wild Bunch, a group of ill-famed thieves. The leader of the group is Pike Bishop, played by William Holden. After realizing that their group’s glory will ultimately come to an end, he decides to do one last mission that will make them filthy rich. They tried to pursue a railroad company, not knowing that it is a trap that Thorton (Robert Ryan) had set to capture Pike once and for all.
The starting scene of the film is very much interesting and awakening. On their way to hold up the railroad company, the Wild Bunch passes by a group of children carelessly torturing scorpions. The said children mindlessly put the scorpions on top of red ants’ hill, watching them get tortured by the little painful biting insects. Not content with what they have done, they also decide to cover them with hay and set it on fire.
The said scene above is highly remarkable. Peckinpah deserves numerous awards for such great talent being put to good use. This innocent action done by the children can be seen in two different ways. First, it could be a mere reflection that after a life being exposed in too much violence, children happen to unconsciously inherit the violence they are exposed to, displaying it in otherwise innocent activities. And second, it could also be a form of a foreshadowing protest against some professionals who happen to take the unskilled and anonymous masses for granted.
This film has been very infamous due to the said graphic violence it portrays. In fact, after watching the film you’ll find this line a mere understatement: it is full of bloodbath. As Pike’s famous line goes, “If it moves, kill ‘em.” They do. Every movement in every scene has a corresponding sound of a gunshot, and the next thing you’ll know, they are down. They just go for a killing spree, a heartless kind of killing spree. For lovers of action-packed violence, then this is definitely a must-see. Films such as Pulp Fiction and Natural Born Killers are nothing compared to the violence this film offers.