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The Wild Bunch - Restored Director's Cut

The Wild Bunch - Restored Director's Cut

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If some of you would pay attention...
Review: ...you'll notice JT Body/Ghenghis a slightly mentally damaged net kook has been giving everyone negative votes for Wild Bunch. Rather than just giving your four or five star review for this excellent film why don't some of you try giving other reviewers a YES vote as well.

It's not especially difficult and the film is worth it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wild Bunch
Review: It's 1913, a bunch of outlaws, led by Pike Bishop, have been riding along the U.S.- Mexican border. Their world is changing rapidly around them - progress is changing the land, in one scene they see a motor car and talk about a flying motor car they had heard of. "The Wild Bunch" realize that their place in time is nearly at an end, and they decide to call it quits and retire after one final haul.

Holden is Pike Bishop, the no-nonsense leader of the Bunch; Borgnine is Dutch, his dogged, faithful second-in-command; Jaime Sanchez is a Mexican named Angel; Warren Oates and Ben Johnson are the Gorch brothers, Lyle and Tector; Bo Hopkins is Crazy Lee. Pike's nemeses are his ex-partner, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), a haunted man who has been hired out of Yuma Prison to hunt Pike down; the ruthless railroad security chief Harrigan (Albert Dekker); and a scurvy band of "gutter trash" (including Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones) out for bounty.

"The Wild Bunch" is considered one of the masterpieces of the Western film genre, a hard-edged landmark film, beautifully shot in wide-screen by cinematographer Lucien Ballard. With numerous, elaborate montage sequences, the film set a record for more edits than any other film up to its time.

Its unrelenting, bleak tale told of outlaws bound by a code of honour and friendship. The film is book-ended by two extraordinary sequences - the gang of desperadoes are first assaulted in the film's opening ambush following a bank robbery, and then brutally destroyed in the film's conclusion - in some of the bloodiest, most violent shoot-up scenes ever filmed.

Loyalty is certainly a main theme. For all the internal strife within the Bunch, the bonds that tie them together are far more powerful than those which seek to break them apart. Betrayal of any sort is unthinkable, which gives added resonance to the dynamics between Pike and Thornton. Once companions, now enemies, only death can free one from the other. Oaths are important because they cement loyalty. One line, spoken by Pike, summarizes the film's viewpoint: "When you side with a man, you stay with him."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A ture gem
Review: The wild bunch is areal masterpiece.
The deep ideas involved in this film makes it not only just a cult movie, but even it`s absolutely necesary watching to understand why the western is the own mythology of the northamercan spirit.
Holden, Borgnne and Ryan are in their best. The angles of shooting, the photograph, the grafic language and that epic final makes that film probably the most original western movie in the story of the cinema.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A true gem
Review: The wild bunch is areal masterpiece.The deep ideas involved in this film makes it not only just a cult movie, but even it`s absolutely necesary watching to understand why the western is the own mythology of the northamercan spirit.
Holden, Borgnne and Ryan are in their best. The angles of shooting, the photograph, the grafic language and that epic final makes that film probably the most original western movie in the story of the cinema.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Wild Bunch - A Warner Bros. Classic
Review: (November 1999) A Brief Personal Overview - The Wild Bunch

I remember seeing 'The Wild Bunch' in a cinema in Dublin. I loved westerns so I went to see it. But this movie was different. I left the cinema feeling that I had just seen a great cinema Movie... a great western.

Years have past and recently I bought the video to revisit those times. It is evident how well Peckinpah loved the visual image. He gave the cinema a way to alter time and space by artfully editing multiple camera angles and intercutting slow and normal motion. Sam Peckinpah knew how to maximise a dramatic scene like nobody. I don't think I have ever seen, since then, movie images used to such a dramatic extent as he used them. I feel that the bad reviews he received then (for the violence) were unjustified and maybe stunted the director's later works. (Perhaps Peckinpah was a little before his time...)

Also, the acting talents of William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sánchez, Ben Johnson, and, Emilio Fernández (a wonderful performance), the cinematography of Lucien Ballard, the music of Jerry Fielding, not to mention the rest of the team, along with the masterful directing and editing talent of Peckinpah produced a movie that forms a part of cinematic history, and rightfully so.

It is a hard, violent, shocking, tragic, stylish, nostalgic,... and as somebody said 'balladic' tale about a group of misfits cornered by time and circumstance... but, then again, aren't we all in the same boat?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If they move, kill 'em
Review: THE WILD BUNCH is easily the greatest western ever made, but beyond that, it is also one of the greatest American films of all time. Sam Peckinpah was a true visionary, and on some level all his movies are worth watching, but it is this, THE WILD BUNCH, that is his masterpiece.

It is set around 1913 or so, during the revolution in Mexico. The Bunch (who bear no resemblence to the real Wild Bunch whose members included both Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) are worn down outlaws, looking for a way to slip out of the old life without assimilating into the new ways of the 20th Century. Which, of course, doesn't work out so well.

A lot of attention has been heaped upon the violence of this film, and it is violent, but one should keep in mind that this was the first American movie to portray such bloodshed realistically. The cast is great: William Holden, Warren Oates (Saint of all character actors), Ben Johnson, Ernest Borgnine (one tends to forget that he actaully did some good movies) and a host of supporting actors. Originally Lee Marvin (best ever) was supposed to play the character of Pike Bishop (played by Holden), but I have to say, I don't think I can see anyone other than Holden in the role. He should've won an Oscar for this.

I should mention that on the DVD there is a bonus documentary about the making of the film, which I believe won some award, but was only ever shown one time on, I believe, PBS. It's worth watching. Also recommended is the bio of Peckinpah: IF THEY MOVE...KILL 'EM.

This is a movie to watch again and again, a true American Masterpiece.

I will also say that I have never known a woman who liked this movie for some reason.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Director's cut not needed, but great moments still abundant
Review: The Wild Bunch is, without a doubt, one of the greatest westerns that has ever been thought up, but it is also quite controversial. The romantic view of the Old West is shattered in this 1969 film; no sign of John Wayne anywhere, and most of the cliches found in a typical western are nonexistant(not that I dislike typical western movies, they're actually quite entertaining). Sam Peckinpah, a master of improvisation, creates an unforgettable movie that is not only responsible for redefining cinematic violence, but also carries with it an engrossing story of friendship, betrayal, and the dying west. I didn't feel a Director's cut was needed for this film though, because the original version moved at such a lightning-fast pace. The restored scenes may interest some viewers, but I just wasn't interested. That is probably why I don't own this version of the movie. I'd prefer that other Sam Peckinpah flicks be restored, preferrably Major Dundee. Besides that, the DVD still captures all the explosive action and catchy dialogue. I particularly enjoyed the presentation of the credits, and Jerry Fielding's music adds to the realistic atmosphere, and that's not a bad thing. If you're looking for a great action flick with a plot, The Wild Bunch is a winner for a weekend rental, but RENT this version before you buy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: great movie
Review: I don't know how anyone could give this movie less than 5 stars. It's rare you see a western this original.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wild Bunch
Review: Filled with action and suspense, the Wild Bunch is one of the best western movies ever made.
Sincerely,
Eugene Miskela

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The wild bunch
Review: One of the best western movies ever made!


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