The Wild Bunch Reviews and Ratings



  • November 12, 2009
    one of the bloodiest, action packed , more bang for your buck western out there . great cast , great direction(peckinpah) you can really see how this film influenced western/action films
    one of the top five westerns of all time !!!!!!
  • November 3, 2009
    A very unique Western to me, but I don't like the means of expression.
  • October 26, 2009
    An incredible performance by William Holden is the high point of this sensational, landmark film. Holden made a whole career out of laid-back, easy-going, what-the-hell sort of characters but here, at his zenith, he departs from type and plays a character so mean and so embittere...( read more)d that in some ways he even out-Bronsons Bronson himself.

    The Wild Bunch is a group of disillusioned outlaws who are out of time and they know it. When Sykes says that they've got one of those things (a car) up north that can fly, they gloomily accept that this new-fangled 20th Century is not for them.

    It is a movie all about values and about a man's loyalty to his companions. Holden brilliantly declares that if you cannot stand by a man who rides with you, you are like some kind of animal. In the end, that is all these hunted men have: their loyalty to each other.

    And so they band together for one last walk to try and rescue their doomed Mexican comrade. The bloodbath that follows is an eloquent summary of their lives. They who live by the gun.....

    Superb performances by Holden in particular and also by O'Brien, Ryan, Borgnine, Oates and Johnson. Peckinpah's finest hour. Definitely ten out of ten.
  • October 17, 2009
    This movie is so violently awesome, awesomely violent. Regard for human life? I thought you knew who these people were.
  • October 8, 2009
    Big fast-paced chaotic action sequences and real bonds between characters. This Western shows a lot of heart. I can see why John Woo loved this film.
  • September 26, 2009
    Its thanks to this movie basically single-handedly that movies are as violent as they are today. Most of the imagery is more than a little heavy-handed, but hell, Sam Peckinpah is no Orson Wells. He was more like the Michael Bay of his time. Except he made *good* movies. So thank...( read more) Mr. Peckinpah next time you see a head explode in a film. RIP.
  • September 18, 2009
    In less than 2.5 hours, Peckinpah makes a beautiful blood-soaked elegy for the West. The titular Bunch are brutal men who follow a code of honor as they face their doom. The great performances by Mexican and US acting legends, combined with the brilliant use of jump cuts and slow...( read more) motion blood spurt, help make this film a masterpiece for the ages.
  • September 18, 2009
    A Peckinpah masterpiece. One of the best westerns ever made. And the final scene is just outstanding !!
  • September 11, 2009
    Review coming someday...

    99/100
  • September 6, 2009
    Let's hear it for blood packets! Make this the second Western I have ever liked. There was no point where I was bored while watching this movie, which usually happens in most Westerns. I was very much intrigued. Liking the bad guys - how unusual.
  • September 4, 2009
    Dicen que si Peckinpah filmara porno éste sería sin trama, solo acción, y con Leone hubiera sido más "erótico". Este filme demuestra esa teoría.
  • September 3, 2009
    good about the life of hustling in the wild west...
  • August 21, 2009
    Old school classic Western.
  • August 19, 2009
    A very good, gritty western. Great story, great direction and well acted. Just ignore what everyone says Peckinpah was "trying to say about violence" and just enjoy this classic film.
  • August 17, 2009
    a remake of a remake
  • August 16, 2009
    Sam Peckinpah's greatest film. Extremely violent and insane, but definitely a classic.
  • August 7, 2009
    Just a few words: The masterpiece of great Sam Peckinpah. His great using of slow-motion, violence and original characters.. I simply love this flick.
  • August 7, 2009
    "The land had changed. They hadn't. The earth had cooled. They couldn't."

    An aging group of outlaws look for one last big score as the "traditional" American West is disappearing around them.

    REVIEW
    ...( read more)
    Exactly 40 years after its initial theatrical release, "The Wild Bunch" has become one of the most enduring American classics. The movie is about a posse of older bank robbers who attempt to do one more job before retiring for good. But everything goes terribly wrong for the aging "bandidos". It is an extraordinary film; one of the best westerns ever made and definitely director Sam Peckinpah's bona fide masterpiece. From a technical standpoint, this is a must for students of cinema. Editing, camera work, sound, music, etc., are top notch. I found myself totally captivated by Peckinpah's amazing command of the film medium. This is the first time I saw the uncut version (I'm guessing the new footage is mostly composed of the flashbacks sequences since I didn't remember these sequences), and I have to say that with or without the new additions this is a magnificent film. It is a profound exploration of honor and old age in last days of the wild frontier that is not only provocative but has also remained relevant to modern audiences. Highly recommended (if you do not mind excessive violence).
  • July 19, 2009
    before i seen this movie and i just known someone told me that with western movie include with so much violence. so i finally saw this movie and it was wonderful with an western film. i can say that this one of the best western film i seen and one with an the original director's ...( read more)cut(finally got for dvd with 2-disc)that more of scene footage that with i never seen with an original 127 minute version(probably only for 1980's VHS/BETA & i think i'll pass on this one with 127 minute version) & with director's cut is the better one. wonderful plenty of leading male actors like holden, borgnine, johnson, oates, and etc done performance as the group of outlaws on this one film. so i alway enjoy with action/western film include with too much violence, bloody, and plenty gun-fight in every scene moment. actor ernest borgnine(as dutch engstorm)is way lookin funny. so i like one of with an the bridge is explosive(best moment and other one with steal trains for steal weapons too)and it reminded me of another western movie with clint eastwood & eli wallach did in "the good, the bad, and the ugly". wtf with car(only one car)in western movie? i dunno that one. i can say with great opening credit with the male cast arrived movie start. so MUST see with the original director's cut.
  • July 14, 2009
    Violent like America itself... Tragic like America too...
  • July 6, 2009
    Sam Peckinpah at his best!
  • July 1, 2009
    The montage shootouts that bookended this thing were great, but I won't deny that my eyelids drooped a little in between.
  • June 3, 2009
    The Wild Bunch (1969)

    This is the ultimate guy flick and really made a name for director Sam Peckinpah. It was very controversial when it came out; ultra violent, and misogynistic. When I first saw this in the theater, I really didn't like it as much, preferring Peckinpah's ot...( read more)her movies like The Getaway (1972), The Killer Elite (1975), and even Convoy (1978). Maybe it's the extra scenes that were cut from the theatrical release that are now in the Director's cut DVD, or maybe it's because I've gotten older and can relate more with the characters now, but I love this movie.

    This movie basically influenced most modern directors. It's an American western that holds it's own next to the Spaghetti Westerns of the 60's. I don't want to analyze this movie too much because it has been the subject of countless discussions by film makers, film critics, and movie geeks. I'm way out of my league here.

    Pike Bishop (William Holden) is the aging leader of a crew of ruthless bank and train robbers (Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, and Jaime Sánchez). The railroad has set up a trap for him and forced him and his men to escape down to Mexico. The railroad has pulled one of their men out of jail, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) and is making him reluctantly go after his old gang or face going back to prison.

    When the men arrive in Mexico they're confronted with a Mexican despot, General Mapache, played to it's evil best by Emilio Fernandez. (Ironically, Fernandez himself had fought for the revolution and brought film making to Mexico and influenced the golden age of Mexican film in the 40s.) General Mapache is anxious to get some U.S. military weapons stolen for him to help fight back Pancho Villa's army that is nipping at his heals. He offers Pike and his men gold to steal these weapons from the U.S. Army.

    Pike sees Mapache as just another bandito, not unlike himself, but one of his men, Angel (Sánchez) knows that he will use these guns against his people. If the people from his village had just one box of these weapons, they could defend themselves from people like Mapache. There's a lot of things going on in this movie that aren't spoken, but you know what's going on by just a look or a nod.

    Also, I need to comment on screenwriter Walon Green. He, Peckinpah and even Emilio Fernandez have created something amazing for U.S. film makers. A movie that celebrates the common people of Mexico and shows them in a much better light.
  • June 3, 2009
    Words are not enough to describe how I felt when I first watced The Wild Bunch. Being a girl, I was supposed to dislike westerns. But from the very first moment I was captured by this film. How can a western be so well-directed, (un)ethical, dirty, disrespectful and funny at the ...( read more)same time ?
    Peckinpah questioned all the "rules" of the western genre. He rejected the pop image of John Wayne, Lee Van Clif, Clint Eastwood, Henry Fonda and created human characters instead. Cowboys who don't care how they look or how cool they shoot. What John Ford tried to achieve with "The Man who shot Liberty Valance", what Sergio Leone tried to avoid with the Clint Eastwood trilogy and what Eastwood copied in the amazing "The Unforgiven" was what Sam did with 13.152 bullets, 145 dead bodies and William Holden. He showed a filthy West, not a West living nice in its filth. John Wayne himself said that the film "Ruined the legend of the old West". True John, but it ruined it in the most artistic and creative way.
    West will hate you, shoot you, make you bleed and then spit on your grave. No sympathy, no laws: every man fights alone. Peckinpah knew that. And that's why The Wild Bunch IS the West.
  • May 29, 2009
    I love bloody, violent westerns!
  • May 26, 2009
    Excellent cast , giving very good performances in this brutal western
  • May 20, 2009
    They came too late and stayed too long.
  • April 16, 2009
    Sam Peckinpah's graphic blood-pumping tale about the end of Cowboy times in the US of A. Set during the Mexican Revolution, a group of renegade 'outlaws' have various adventures before dying trying to rescue one of their number.
  • March 22, 2009
    Decent movie but not great. It was violent and bloody, but I wasn't that impressed. Overall I thought it was a poorly shot, slightly above average movie.
  • March 10, 2009
    One of the best westerns ever made and there isn't any equal to this one. Action packed front start to finish. . .
  • March 4, 2009
    One of My Favorite 35 Movies. There's nothing wrong in this film - it's perfect.
  • February 28, 2009
    One of the LOUDEST movies I've ever seen, maybe that's why my favorite sequence is the gang's near-silent stalking of a set of railway cars.
  • February 26, 2009
    Great action movie with passing ending
  • February 20, 2009
    classic western. without Peckinpah, there would be no Tarantino. a must see. i own it.
  • February 16, 2009
    Believe it or not, I've seen the first half of this THREE TIMES... and loved it, but something always gets in the way of me finishing it. Someday, I will knock this on the head.
  • January 21, 2009
    the final shoot out is exciting
  • January 18, 2009
    The Wild Bunch is a classic western, one of my favorites of all time.
  • January 15, 2009
    Outlaws robbing and murdering and being chased during the Mexican revolution. Getting kinda old for it and decide to do that one last big snatch. Some very beautiful scenes in it, but nothing compares to their last walk. Peckinpaw movie magic.
  • January 15, 2009
    The greatest western shoot-em-up ever. Kickass and full of gun fighting this movie is a must see.
  • January 8, 2009
    Another western that I'm just not that into. I suppose this one should be noted as being pretty darn violent for a 60s movie. And I noticed a pair called The Gorch Brothers. Those characters turned up in an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Other than that, there's not muc...( read more)h to say. Ernest Borgnine was just as ugly in his youth.
  • January 6, 2009
    A Peckinpah masterpiece. One of the best westerns ever made.
  • December 22, 2008
    Is this the greatest western ever made? Maybe. Pretty much every single action movie made today owes a huge debt to what Sam Peckinpah accomplished here with his use of slow motion and his virtuoso editing. What?s more, it?s story about aging gunfighters is enduring. I person...( read more)ally interpret the whole film as an elaborate allegory to Vietnam, and the mindset that lead up to it. The movie is a big bloody masterpiece that everyone in the world should see, this is probably one of my top twenty films ever.
  • December 14, 2008
    Opening with one of the most ominous beginning montages and one of the best shootouts of any Western, the bar is set high. The brilliant soundtrack and breathtaking cinematography take up the torch, and lead us through a winding, suspenseful storyline. The three lead men (Holden,...( read more) Borgnine and Ryan) deliver strong performances for Sam Peckinpah and create a classic Western in the process, complete with double-crosses, shootouts and campfires aplenty. The Wild Bunch is a staple of the genre and a complete delight to look at, and everyone gets what they deserve - even if you're not sure until the end just what that is. A great film.
  • December 5, 2008
    The Wild Bunch is probably one of the more honest depictions of the old west, as Sam Peckinpah's powerful direction gives you a real sense of realism.
    I loved the chemistry between the actors, and how the shootouts where a lot more authentic than most other westerns.

Summary


The Wild Bunch Summary