Andy H’s review published on Letterboxd:
A Stunning Piece of Film Making
A brilliantly written script, and equally well cast and directed. A film the aging male can certainly relate to, on so many levels. In my top 5 Westerns of all time, you bet.
Is it the best?? I will have to mull that over and add an extra paragraph.
This film looks at a number of different subjects. Morality is probably the head of the list but also highlights area's of the human condition in regard to desire, greed, violence, friendship, loyalty and nihilism.
It even has some comic elements, the scene with the bottle of Whiskey being case (No Pun Intended) in point.
The Chemistry between these, mostly aging actors, in The Wild Bunch gang, is nothing short of fantastic.
Special mentions for William Holden and Ernest Borgnine, who couldn't have played these parts better, totally flawless.
The finale is excellent and the way the story is finished and rounded off, well yes, it couldn't have been better. You'll be gunning to see this one 😉. Great from start to finish, watch it.
Story intro, synopsis : In 1913 Texas, Pike Bishop, the leader of a gang of aging outlaws, seeks to retire after a final robbery of silver from a railroad payroll office. Corrupt railroad agent Pat Harrigan has hired a posse of bounty hunters led by Pike's former partner Deke Thornton, who ambush and kill more than half of Bishop's gang in a bloody shootout, which also kills many innocent bystanders as Pike uses a serendipitous temperance union parade to shield their getaway.
Pike rides off with the only survivors: his close friend Dutch Engstrom, brothers Lyle and Tector Gorch, the inexperienced Angel, and a fifth man blinded and mortally wounded by buckshot, who Pike mercy-kills. The loot from the robbery turns out to be worthless steel washers planted by Harrigan. Needing money, they head for Mexico accompanied by the cantankerous Freddie Sykes and cross the Rio Grande to the rural village where Angel was born. The village elder warns them about General Mapache, a vicious Huertista officer in the Mexican Federal Army, who has been stealing food and animals from local villages to support his campaign against the forces of Pancho Villa.
Watched on Blu Ray, Great Copy ie: Picture quality is so clear.
