John Wayne famously criticized Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch for destroying the myth of The Old West. No longer did audiences crave the white hat vs. black hat story that Wayne had help popularize. Audiences were beginning to open up towards the true lawless nature of the Spaghetti Western, where the line between the good guys and bad guys blur, where the anti-hero conquers the untamed lands, and truly feels “every man for himself.” While The Wild Bunch received its share of controversy during its initial release, it was a the turn for the American Western, and like a predator stalking its prey, devoured the classic western and declared itself king.

The Wild Bunch boasts an all-star cast where the audience is placed in the shoes of vicious outlaws, who agree to help the Mexican government steal arms for $10,000 in gold. To continue to Wayne connection, this film released just one week after Wayne’s True Grit, and while Grit tells the story of a Marshall at the end of his life, Peckinpah took a different approach and discussed the end of an entire era. Bunch sets itself in the 20th century when most of the West had been tamed, and these gangs on horseback were being hunted into extinction. While this film could easily be a bookend to the storied genre, it’s more or a Phoenix, rising from the ashes and reinventing the genre, really avoiding a stagnation within the genre. 

While it’s easy to discuss the great cast, Peckinpah’s directing, but the cinematography, the editor, Lou Lombardo really deserves more credit than anyone. While some of these cuts, the slow motion, and the quick pace might seem typical now, it was truly something special at the time and still hold up this many decades later. And while many films will choose a snappy edit throughout the entirety of the film, I really appreciate the film slowing down when the character moments were needed, and only ramping up when the action and tension went into high gear. 

This film just seems like the Western John Carpenter would have wanted to make. Carpenter and Peckinpah both enjoy taking these very pulpy stories, but giving them this legitimacy. There’s a high body count, blood, carnage, but underneath it all is a story worth telling with great actors giving depth to these characters.