This film offering may be more geared toward die-hard western fans. You would think that "The Wild Bunch" would be a sure thing with a host of name talent including William Holden and Ernest Bourgnine directed by Sam Peckinpah. But for some reason, I never quite felt brought into this movie. It is certainly watchable but it never pulled me in the way that the Leone/Eastwood spaghetti westerns or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid did. To me, the problem did not lay with the brutality of the opening sequence in which townspeople are caught in the cross-fire between the outlaws and the bounty hunters. The problem I had was with the character development and the dialog.
The script, particularly the dialog, comes off too contrived for its own good, often falling into the trap where the characters are constantly "discussing" the situation. The leaders in this movie yell a lot, particularly when they are making some speech concerning morality or motivation which occurs among both the outlaws and the bounty hunters out to get them. It was hard for me to swallow, particularly with William Holden as Pike Bishop, the leader of the outlaws. And the characters also were a little too cookie cutter to believe in them as real people. Some of them seemed they were there to fulfill the western story formula, like the old geezer with enough facial hair to catch a colony of flees, and it does. You know the one, with teeth missing and he has the most hideous high-pitched laugh. Would he really be with this gang of outlaws? One of the outlaws wants to put him out of his misery but Holden prevents him. I didn't buy it for a second. Lee van Cleef would have done him in long before the movie began!
Holden's character is just to too much of a hot-head to believe that he is really the leader of a gang of outlaws. He doesn't really act like an outlaw, more like an over-worked sheriff. I would probably have believed in him more as the head of the bounty hunters than the outlaws. At one point he even says he is "the leader". Leaders would never say that! Such renegade groups usually choose the leader not only because of leadership capabilities but because there is something fearsome and enigmatic about him (or her). The best outlaw leaders, particularly in westerns, engender an air of mystery. They are not privy to instant anger at the drop of a hat. Instead, the most compelling leaders are the ones who are often soft-spoken but incredibly intense, never quite revealing what they're thinking or even who they are, which only enhances the mystery and fear about them, such as Indio in the Spaghetti Western "For a Few Dollars More". Indio is always slightly apart from the other outlaws, almost like a dictator, not easily accessed, which made him all the more fearsome. I never saw any mystery in Holden's character. It's not all his fault as a lot of it has to do with the script. To me, the writing was much better for him in Stalag 17 then in this movie.
The story concerns a group of misfit outlaws who have been doing this for awhile headed by Holden. They're being hunted by a band of bounty hunters that make Lee van Cleef (from the Sergione Spaghetti Westerns) seem like a cultured gentleman. The outlaws flee to Mexico during the time of the Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa where the climactic episodes of the film take place. The recurring theme of loyalty vs criminality is maybe applied with a sledge hammer. A decent movie, but, in my opinion, cannot hold a candle to the likes of A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Once Upon a Time in America. Maybe because Leone's movies allowed the story to make its own point. Pekinpah's Wild Bunch seems a little bit too self-conscious to make it seem real.
The script, particularly the dialog, comes off too contrived for its own good, often falling into the trap where the characters are constantly "discussing" the situation. The leaders in this movie yell a lot, particularly when they are making some speech concerning morality or motivation which occurs among both the outlaws and the bounty hunters out to get them. It was hard for me to swallow, particularly with William Holden as Pike Bishop, the leader of the outlaws. And the characters also were a little too cookie cutter to believe in them as real people. Some of them seemed they were there to fulfill the western story formula, like the old geezer with enough facial hair to catch a colony of flees, and it does. You know the one, with teeth missing and he has the most hideous high-pitched laugh. Would he really be with this gang of outlaws? One of the outlaws wants to put him out of his misery but Holden prevents him. I didn't buy it for a second. Lee van Cleef would have done him in long before the movie began!
Holden's character is just to too much of a hot-head to believe that he is really the leader of a gang of outlaws. He doesn't really act like an outlaw, more like an over-worked sheriff. I would probably have believed in him more as the head of the bounty hunters than the outlaws. At one point he even says he is "the leader". Leaders would never say that! Such renegade groups usually choose the leader not only because of leadership capabilities but because there is something fearsome and enigmatic about him (or her). The best outlaw leaders, particularly in westerns, engender an air of mystery. They are not privy to instant anger at the drop of a hat. Instead, the most compelling leaders are the ones who are often soft-spoken but incredibly intense, never quite revealing what they're thinking or even who they are, which only enhances the mystery and fear about them, such as Indio in the Spaghetti Western "For a Few Dollars More". Indio is always slightly apart from the other outlaws, almost like a dictator, not easily accessed, which made him all the more fearsome. I never saw any mystery in Holden's character. It's not all his fault as a lot of it has to do with the script. To me, the writing was much better for him in Stalag 17 then in this movie.
The story concerns a group of misfit outlaws who have been doing this for awhile headed by Holden. They're being hunted by a band of bounty hunters that make Lee van Cleef (from the Sergione Spaghetti Westerns) seem like a cultured gentleman. The outlaws flee to Mexico during the time of the Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa where the climactic episodes of the film take place. The recurring theme of loyalty vs criminality is maybe applied with a sledge hammer. A decent movie, but, in my opinion, cannot hold a candle to the likes of A Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Once Upon a Time in America. Maybe because Leone's movies allowed the story to make its own point. Pekinpah's Wild Bunch seems a little bit too self-conscious to make it seem real.