I have said before that sometimes it's difficult to watch old movies in context. What was avant garde, or ground breaking back in the day, can be passe when viewed today. I think that this movie (at least for me) falls into that category.
In 1969 this was considered the most violent movie ever made. By 2010 standards, children's cartoons are almost more violent than this movie was. (That is a slight exaggeration.) So it's difficult to be wowed by the ground-breaking-ness of this film. Kinda.
The film 'Bonnie and Clyde' made a few years before this one, opened the door on violence. And this movie just slammed the door open and burst on through. I do give Peckinpah credit, he did get the whole spurting blood thing down. Even for someone (me) who isn't into violence in movies, it was pretty cool.
There is a scene at the end of the movie where the two main characters basically mow down and entire village with a machine gun. It probably doesn't get much more violent than that.
The story in this film was a bit difficult. There were no good guys. There were just varying degrees of bad guys. And the story was pretty much the same in most westerns. (And one that we have seen a hundred times since.) A band of bad guys were creating havoc on the railroad (stealing stuff) and needed to be stopped. The twist in this movie was, instead of the good guys riding out to get them. it was a band of less-bad bad guys (the leader was working on his redemption).
I get why this movie is on the list. Not sure it's as relevant today as it once was.
One word to describe 'The Wild Bunch': Bloody.
Friday, February 12, 2010
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