Archive of films Wild Bunch - The Original Director's Cut / The Wild Bunch - The Original Director's Cut
USA
1969, 134 min
Section:
Tribute to Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984)
Year: 2005
A gripping portrayal of the last days of the Wild West told through the story of four outlaws who, to avenge a friend, stand alone against over 200 Mexican soldiers. The film definitively pushed the traditional western aside to make way for one with deeper psychology, darker tones and very open violence, similar to the work of Peckinpah’s predecessor, Anthony Mann.
Synopsis
It’s 1913 and while insurrection rocks neighbouring Mexico, a gang of bandits lead by Pike Bishop rob a bank in the small town of Starbuck. It soon emerges that the outlaws have fallen into a trap set by bounty hunters hired by the railroad. After a bloody shootout the chase is on. They flee to Mexico with Bishop’s former pal Deke Thornton and company in hot pursuit; there they are hired by bloodthirsty General Mapache to steal American weapons. But Angelo, a Mexican member of Bishop’s gang, convinces them to turn over part of the shipment to the rebel army. The truth comes out and the furious General has Angelo tortured. The increasing tension between the band and Mapache’s soldiers climaxes in a massacre, a suicide mission initiated by four desperadoes as vengeance for Angelo’s humiliating death. “If you can’t find the humanity even in your villains, you’re not doing your job as a storyteller, you’re making things too easy for yourself and your audience,” Peckinpah once claimed. His most famous film helped change the western genre but until 1995 it survived only in the producers’ shortened version. A gripping portrayal of the last days of the Wild West told through the story of four outlaws who, to avenge a friend, stand alone against over 200 Mexican soldiers. The film definitively pushed the traditional western aside to make way for one with deeper psychology, darker tones and very open violence, similar to the work of Peckinpah’s predecessor, Anthony Mann.
Contacts
Hollywood Classics
Suite 31, Beaufort Court, Admirals Way, E14 9XL, London
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 207 517 7525
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.hollywoodclassics.com
Warner Bros
4000 Warner Boulevard, CA 91522, Burbank
United States of America
Tel: +1 818 954 3058
E-mail: [email protected]
www: www.warnerbros.com
About the film
Color, 35 mm
Section: | Tribute to Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984) |
---|---|
Director: | Sam Peckinpah |
Screenplay: | Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah |
Dir. of Photography: | Lucien Ballard |
Music: | Jerry Fielding |
Editor: | Lou Lombardo |
Producer: | Phil Feldman |
Production: | Warner Bros |
Cast: | William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O`Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sánchez, Ben Johnson, Emilio Fernández, Strother Martin, L. Q. Jones |
Contact: | Hollywood Classics, Warner Bros |
Guests
L.Q. Jones
Actor