Richie-67-485852 Outstanding Western with all the ingredients plus actors, supporting players and a Director all of high quality and caliber to deliver the goods and help make this a must-see over and over again. Kudos to the musical score and if you activate sub-titles you can sing along too. There is just too much good going on here. That is what makes it one of the greats and a must for any library collection. I thought it brilliant to show how the "bunch" was caught up in a culture transformation of change and how they didn't have what it took to keep up but they also were not the type to lie down and go peaceful either. Thus one of the best movies around depicting how helpless we all are when it comes to aging and change and how important grace is and that is if you are a law-abiding citizen worthy of grace. Here, these boys have had their day and their night is coming to an end. They go in style and the movie shows all that using action and very little words. They understood that the days of the "wild" were coming to an end and them with it. Must see the directors cut to get the full experience and closure for this classic. Have fun in asking yourself what would you have done and who is your favorite character. Have a nice meal or sandwich plus a tasty drink and you are in viewing heaven. Then, sit back and ......

johnathanfrost I love the western genre but out of all the American westerns I have seen this one is without a doubt one of Sam Peckinpah's best films. Its bloody violent but also a film about loyalty and trust.The way the director presents the films bloody shootouts is that he does not glorify them in any capacity and that is one of the films biggest strengths, but the best thing about the film is its cast.With stars like William Holden as the leader of the bunch, with Ernest Borgnine Edmond O'Brian, Ben Johnson, and many other incredible actors Whose performances are unforgettable and incredible and each actors plays of each other brilliantly . Sam Peckinpah in my opinion set the standard of how all westerns should strive to be.

BA_Harrison The westerns I prefer to watch are of the spaghetti variety, but The Wild Bunch is a Sam Peckinpah western, and as such promises to be a little more violent and uncompromising than any John Wayne or Gary Cooper flick.Sure enough, the film opens with one hell of a shootout, as the film's anti-heroes, a group of ageing outlaws led by Pike Bishop (William Holden), carry out the daring robbery of a railroad payroll. Leaving countless bloody bodies in their wake, the gang escape only to find out that they have been tricked, their swag bags full of silver washers instead of coins.Still keen for one last big score before they retire, the desperadoes make a deal with a Mexican general, offering to sell him a shipment of rifles and ammo that they plan to steal from a heavily guarded army train. The deal goes sour, however, when one of their number, Angel (Jaime Sánchez), angers the general by keeping some of the rifles to protect his village.With its ultra stylish ballistic action, with slow-motion deaths and juicy squib-work, The Wild Bunch forever changed the face of the western genre, and became a highly influential film for years to come (John Woo and Quentin Tarantino clearly owe a debt to Peckinpah).The film closes with an impressive bullet ballet that still holds up today, with a tripod mounted machine gun cutting a swathe through numerous Mexican extras, before Pike and friends are finally overpowered.Also starring: Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien and Ben Johnson.

msmith-87318 Bill Holden is by far the star of this picture, he delivers and absolutely outstanding performance. Truly Legendary. Bill has for the most part of his career if not all of it played a laid back can't be bothered who cares what the hell type of character. The wild bunch is a film about some outlaws who are fully aware that their time has run out. When somebody says he knows somebody with a new fangled flying car they know their time has passed and the new world is not for them. The film is all about the value of a man's loyalty to his companions. If you find it hard to like a person you ride with your nothing more than an animal because at the end of the day all they have is the loyalty toward each other. The try to rescue one of their Mexican comrades but it just goes to show that those who live by the gun die by the gun. I will say some additional good performances by the support cast including O'Brien, Ryan, Borgnine, Oates and Johnson.