The Wild Bunch marked a significant change in Westerns at the time. It was director Sam Peckinpah’s goal to show the Wild West for what it truly was. The Wild Bunch was very controversial for its honest depiction of violence. Shootouts are realistically bloody, prostitutes are naked, and crude men use profanity. The Wild Bunch was crucial to the New Hollywood movement and arguably made the R rating what it is today. Though influential, the Western was only nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score. Editing should’ve been recognized for its innovative use of slow motion and chaotic rapid cuts.
The Wild Bunch is a fitting revision of old Westerns with a gang of aging outlaws dealing with the changing world around them. William Holden leads the posse as the haunted outlaw Pike Bishop. Ernest Borgnine is his no-nonsense friend Dutch and Robert Ryan is former partner Deke Thornton who tirelessly tracks them down. Other notable members include Warren Oates and Ben Johnson as the Gorch brothers and the Mexican Jaime Sánchez as Angel. There’s also Edmond O’Brien as the much older Sykes. Their intended last job is a bust that ends in an uncomfortable shootout with several civilian casualties.
Peckinpah meant for the violence to be disturbing, but the opening scene where kids gleefully torture scorpions with fire ants is an accurate metaphor. There are traditional Western motifs like a train robbery or bridge explosion, but the modern world slowly changes the men. Their true final job is bringing ammunition to a warring Mexican general. The conflict in Mexico leads to betrayal and eventual sacrifice when the Wild Bunch have one last stand. Since almost every New Hollywood movie ended in death, it wasn’t surprising to know they didn’t make it in the end. The Wild Bunch united the old with the new.

The Wild Bunch stick together