IMDb > The Wild Bunch (1969)
The Wild Bunch
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The Wild Bunch (1969) More at IMDbPro »

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The Wild Bunch (1969) -- An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.
The Wild Bunch (1969) -- Trailerfan.com - Trailer (Flash)
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The Wild Bunch (1969) -- AllTrailers.net - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 6% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Sam Peckinpah
Writers:
Walon Green (story) and
Roy N. Sickner (story) ...
more
Contact:
View company contact information for The Wild Bunch on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
7 August 1969 (Hong Kong) more
Genre:
Action | Western more
Tagline:
The land had changed. They hadn't. The earth had cooled. They couldn't. more
Plot:
An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 2 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(29 articles)
The Wild Bunch On Stage- November 12
 (From HollywoodNorthReport.com. 4 November 2009, 12:58 AM, PST)

'Wild Things' = 'Wild Bunch'
 (From The Wrap. 15 October 2009, 10:03 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
Still Savage, Still Bloody, Still Great more (229 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Runtime:
134 min | USA:145 min (1995 re-release)
Country:
USA
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.20 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | DTS (1995 re-release) | Dolby Digital (1995 re-release) | Mono (35 mm prints) | SDDS (1995 re-release)
Certification:
Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (re-rating) (1995) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (re-rating) (1995) | Canada:R (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) (original rating) | UK:18 (re-rating) (1988) (also director's cut) | UK:X (original rating) (cut) | France:-18 (original rating) | Brazil:14 | Finland:K-16 (1998) (uncut) (director's cut) | Finland:K-16 (1988) (cut) | Finland:K-18 (1969) (uncut) | South Korea:18 | Iceland:16 | Malaysia:U (director's cut) | USA:R (re-rating on appeal) | Germany:16 (DVD rating) | Canada:18A (British Columbia) (1999) | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:13 | Australia:MA (director's cut) | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | France:-12 (director's cut) | Netherlands:12 | New Zealand:R16 (director's cut) | Norway:16 (cut) | Norway:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R (original rating) | West Germany:16 (w) | Ireland:18
Filming Locations:
Durango, Mexico more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The shootout/massacre in the end took 12 days to film. When completed, about 10,000 squibs (simulated bullet hits) had been used. more
Goofs:
Miscellaneous: During the walk to get Angel, Ben Johnson gets too close to Warren Oates, and Oates slightly pushes Johnson out of the way. more
Quotes:
Lyle Gorch: All your fancy plannin' and talkin' damn near got us shot to pieces over a few lousy bags of washers. Well, this was goin' to be me and Tector's last job before we quit and headed south. We spent all our time and money a-gettin' ready for this!
Pike Bishop: You spent all your time and money runnin' whores in Hondo while I spent my stake settin' it up.
[throws down washer]
Pike Bishop: Hell, I should have been runnin' whores instead of stealin' Army horses.
Lyle Gorch: While you was doin' all that plannin', me and Tector was gettin' our bell rope pulled by two... two, mind you, Hondo whores!
[...]
more
Movie Connections:
Spoofed in 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) more

FAQ

A Note Regarding Spoilers
How much sex, violence, and profanity are in this movie?
Is this movie based on a book?
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52 out of 66 people found the following comment useful.
Still Savage, Still Bloody, Still Great, 27 November 2004
8/10
Author: Bill Slocum (slokes@optonline.net) from Norwalk, CT USA

"The Wild Bunch" is one of those movies people don't agree on, even those that agree it's great. It's definitely complex, entertaining in a disturbing way, and manages to be at once nihilistic and moralistic, not an easy trick, especially for a cowboy film.

The first problem we have to deal with when watching this film is the fact there's very quickly a gunfight going on and, against all movie convention, no one to root for. There's an all-star cast on one side, including William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson, and Warren Oates, but against all expectation, they turn out to be a pretty black crew. About the first thing out of Holden's mouth, said about a cowed group of innocents, is "If they move, kill 'em," and before the battle is over, we've seen him and his team commit all sorts of savagery. About the only reason we don't immediately see them as evil is that the people they battle are no better.

Over time, we are encouraged to find something of value in Holden's Pike Bishop and his ruthless confederates, as they ride away, lick their wounds, and try to figure out how to get something else going, anything. The only problem is its 1913 and these outlaws are running out of time and options. "I'd like to make one good score and back off," is how Pike says it, to which Borgnine's faithful buddy Dutch exclaims: "Back off to what?!"

Chasing the bunch, and offering the viewer the film's one sympathetic character, is Robert Ryan as Deke Thornton, a former partner of Pike's who doesn't want to go back to jail and for whom killing the bunch is the one unpleasant means of securing his freedom. Ryan, who died in 1973, is probably not as recognizable as the other leads today, but he lends a sad, elegiac presence to his on-screen moments that give the film much of its grace and warmth.

The final star is director Sam Peckinpah, who made a truly revolutionary film that not only pushed the art of film forward but holds up today as a cinematic experience. Time has been kind to this film in a way it hasn't to other ground-breaking auteur moments from the same era, like "MASH" and "Easy Rider." When "The Wild Bunch" came out just as the 1960s were ending, people were truly shocked by the violence and cruel characters. Today, of course, such things are so common, and so mindlessly celebrated, that we find ourselves admiring what Peckinpah does for the surprisingly subtle and restrained way he goes about presenting us with mayhem and carnage, and his refusal to glorify it, however exciting and entertaining the overall package.

Surprisingly for a director who had trouble getting work at the time, Peckinpah landed three Oscar winners in the cast, and a fourth, Ben Johnson, who'd win his a couple of years later. Obviously, the acting is strong, each player investing his spare lines with the right degree of space and spirit, but it's probably worked even better that the movie game in 1969 was in the process of passing the fuddy-duddy likes of Holden, Borgnine, and Edmond O'Brien behind. This makes them very believable as a group of hard-nosed has-beens. In that light, it's kind of cool how hip this film so quickly became when it was released.

It's such a good film it's easy to overlook minor weaknesses. There's a nice bit of symbolism in the beginning, now famous, where the gang rides past a group of children tormenting scorpions and ants, but the point, once made, is beaten into the ground. There are some bits of convenience that stick out, like when a gunned-down outlaw rises and mows down his attackers with a few too-precise shotgun blasts. The general dislikeability of just about everything and everybody does feel a bit of a weight after a couple of viewings.

But what's great is just awesome, especially that opening sequence and the final showdown at Bloody Porch. Such terrific punch-drunk ambiance, it's almost a shame to watch it sober. The feeling of a new era coming upon us, which we see in everything from the doughboy uniforms at the outset to the car General Mapache rides around in, is redoubled by the glorious splendor, even clarity of this picture. Is it too much to praise a movie for the quality of the film stock itself? This is a paradox film, one about obsolescence and growing old that remains startling new-looking and fresh 35 years on.

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