The Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American epic revisionist Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates. The plot concerns an aging outlaw gang on the Mexico–United States border trying to adapt to the changing modern world of 1913. The film was controversial because of its graphic violence and its portrayal of crude men attempting to survive by any available means.
The screenplay was co-written by Peckinpah, Walon Green, and Roy N. Sickner. The Wild Bunch was filmed in Technicolor and Panavision in Mexico, notably at the Hacienda Ciénaga del Carmen, deep in the desert between Torreón and Saltillo, Coahuila, and on the Nazas River.
The Wild Bunch is noted for intricate, multi-angle, quick-cut editing using normal and slow motion images, a revolutionary cinema technique in 1969. The writing of Green, Peckinpah, and Sickner was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar, and the music by Jerry Fielding was nominated for Best Original Score. Additionally, Peckinpah was nominated for an Outstanding Directorial Achievement award by the Directors Guild of America, and cinematographer Lucien Ballard won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography.
Regarded as one of the greatest films of all time, The Wild Bunch was selected by the Library of Congress in 1999 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". The film is ranked 79th on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films and the 69th most thrilling film. In 2008, the AFI listed 10 best films in 10 genres and ranked The Wild Bunch as the sixth-best Western.
Plot
In 1913 Texas, Pike Bishop, the leader of a gang of aging outlaws, seeks to retire after a final robbery of silver from a railroad payroll office. Corrupt railroad agent Pat Harrigan has hired a posse of bounty hunters led by Pike's former partner Deke Thornton. Deke can receive clemency for stopping Pike. They ambush and kill more than half of Bishop's gang in a bloody shootout; including many innocent bystanders as Pike utilizes a serendipitous temperance union parade to shield their getaway.Pike rides off with his close friend Dutch Engstrom, brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch, the inexperienced Angel, and a fifth man blinded by buckshot, whom Pike mercy-kills. The loot from the robbery turns out to be worthless steel washers planted by Harrigan. Needing money, they head for Mexico accompanied by the cantankerous Freddie Sykes and cross the Rio Grande to the rural village where Angel was born. The village elder warns them about General Mapache, a vicious Huertista officer in the Mexican Federal Army, who has been stealing food and animals from local villages to support his campaign against the forces of Pancho Villa.
At Mapache's headquarters in the town of Agua Verde, Angel spots his former lover Teresa in arms and shoots her dead, angering the general and nearly getting them killed. Pike is not only able to defuse the situation, but Mapache offers them $10,000 in gold to rob a U.S. Army train of 16 case of rifles, to resupply his army and provide samples of modern, American weapons to his German military adviser Commander Mohr.
Angel offers his share of gold to Pike in return for sending one crate of rifles and ammunition to a band of Piro Indians friendly with village. The heist goes largely as planned until Thornton's posse chases them to the Mexican border. Pike's crew blow up a trestle bridge spanning the Rio Grande, dumping the railroad posse into the river.
Pike, anticipating that Mapache might double-cross him, hides the arms and sells them to Mapache in four separate loads. However, Mapache hears from Teresa's mother that Angel stole a case of rifles. As Angel and Dutch deliver the last of the weapons, Mapache insists Angel remains. Dutch claims Angel is a thief who deserves to be punished.
Sykes is wounded by Thornton's posse while securing more horses. Dutch curses Thornton for working with the railroad, but Pike says Thornton "gave his word". Dutch angrily declares, "That ain't what counts, it's who you give it to." Pike and the gang bury most of the gold and return to Agua Verde, where Mapache and his soldiers are drunkenly celebrating the weapons acquisition. Angel is being dragged through town from the back of Mapache's red roadster, he refuses to 'sell' Angel back to the gang. After a period of reflection in an Agua Verde brothel, Pike and the others arm themselves to rescue their friend.
Mapache agrees to release Angel, only to cut his throat. The gang shoots down the general. Pike then kills Mohr. This begins a bloody gunfight that kills Pike, Dutch, the Gorch Brothers, Mohr's aide, every member of Mapache's staff, and most of the assembled troops, many via a machine gun mounted on a tripod.
Thornton arrives and finds Pike already dead. Thornton removes a loaded revolver on Pike's belt, a sign that the days of men like him are over. Feeling outdated and tired, Thornton allows the railroad posse to ravenously strip Pike, his men & the dead soldiers of their possessions before taking the 4 wanted outlaws, but he stays behind.
After some time, Sykes arrives with the elder from Angel's village and a band of rebels, indicating that they caught up with the bounty hunters, avenged the gang's deaths, and buried them properly. Sykes invites Thornton to join the coming revolution against the Mexican government. Thornton smiles and rides off with them.
Cast
Production
Development
In April 1965, producer Reno Carrell optioned an original story and screenplay by Walon Green and Roy Sickner, called The Wild Bunch.In 1967, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts producers Kenneth Hyman and Phil Feldman were interested in having Sam Peckinpah rewrite and direct an adventure film called The Diamond Story. A professional outcast due to the production difficulties of his previous film, Major Dundee, and his firing from the set of The Cincinnati Kid, Peckinpah's stock had improved following his critically acclaimed work on the television film Noon Wine.
At the time, William Goldman's screenplay for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had recently been purchased by 20th Century Fox. An alternative screenplay available at the studio was The Wild Bunch. It was quickly decided that The Wild Bunch, which had several similarities to Goldman's work, would be produced to beat Butch Cassidy to the theaters.
Writing
By the fall of 1967, Peckinpah was rewriting the screenplay and preparing for production. The principal photography was shot entirely on location in Mexico, most notably at the Hacienda Ciénega del Carmen and on the Nazas River. Peckinpah's epic work was inspired by his hunger to return to films, the violence seen in Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde, America's growing frustration with the Vietnam War, and what he perceived to be the utter lack of reality seen in Westerns up to that time.He set out to make a film which portrayed not only the vicious violence of the period, but also the crude men attempting to survive the era. Multiple scenes attempted in Major Dundee, including slow motion action sequences, characters leaving a village as if in a funeral procession, and the use of inexperienced locals as extras, would become fully realized in The Wild Bunch.
Casting
Peckinpah considered many actors for the Pike Bishop role before casting William Holden, including Richard Boone, Sterling Hayden, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, and James Stewart. Marvin actually accepted the role but pulled out after he was offered more money to star in Paint Your Wagon.Peckinpah's first two choices for the role of Deke Thornton were Richard Harris and Brian Keith and The Deadly Companions ). Harris was never formally approached; Keith was asked, but he turned it down. Robert Ryan was ultimately cast in the part after Peckinpah saw him in the World War II action movie The Dirty Dozen. Other actors considered for the role were Henry Fonda, Glenn Ford, Van Heflin, Ben Johnson, and Arthur Kennedy.
Among those considered to play Dutch Engstrom were Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Alex Cord, Robert Culp, Sammy Davis Jr., Richard Jaeckel, Steve McQueen, and George Peppard. Ernest Borgnine was cast based on his performance in The Dirty Dozen. Robert Blake was the original choice to play Angel, but he asked for too much money. Peckinpah was impressed with Jaime Sánchez in Sidney Lumet's film adaptation of The Pawnbroker and demanded that he be cast as Angel.
The role of Mapache went to Emilio Fernández, the Mexican film director, writer, actor, and friend of Peckinpah. Peckinpah first offered the part to German actor Mario Adorf, who had appeared in Major Dundee, but he turned it down due to his discomfort playing such a violent character, a decision he regretted after seeing the finished film.
Stage actor Albert Dekker was cast as Harrigan the railroad detective. The Wild Bunch was his last film, as he died just months after its final scenes were completed. Bo Hopkins had only a few television credits on his resume when he played the part of Clarence "Crazy" Lee. Warren Oates played Lyle Gorch, having previously worked with Peckinpah on the TV series The Rifleman and his previous films Ride the High Country and Major Dundee.
Filming
The film was shot with the anamorphic process. Peckinpah and his cinematographer, Lucien Ballard, also made use of telephoto lenses, that allowed for objects and people in both the background and foreground to be compressed in perspective. The effect is best seen in the shots where the Bunch makes the walk to Mapache's headquarters to free Angel. As they walk forward, a constant flow of people passes between them and the camera; most of the people in the foreground are as sharply focused as the Bunch.By the time filming wrapped, Peckinpah had shot of film with 1,288 camera setups. Lombardo and Peckinpah remained in Mexico for six months editing the picture. After initial cuts, the opening gunfight sequence ran 21 minutes. By cutting frames from specific scenes and intercutting others, they were able to fine-cut the opening robbery down to five minutes. The creative montage became the model for the rest of the film and would "forever change the way movies would be made".
Peckinpah stated that one of his goals for the movie was to give the audience "some idea of what it is to be gunned down". A memorable incident occurred, to that end, as Peckinpah's crew were consulting him on the "gunfire" effects to be used in the film. Not satisfied with the results from the squibs his crew had brought for him, Peckinpah became exasperated and finally hollered: "That's not what I want! That's not what I want!" He then grabbed a real revolver and fired it into a nearby wall. The gun empty, Peckinpah barked at his stunned crew: "THAT'S the effect I want!!"
He also had the gunfire sound effects changed for the film. Before, all gunshots in Warner Bros. movies sounded identical, regardless of the type of weapon being fired. Peckinpah insisted that each different type of firearm have its own specific sound effect when fired.