After a failed bank robbery where half the gang lose their lives a band of outlaws are still searching for the final score that will see them through for a long while.  With a group of bounty hunters on their trailer they head to Mexico.  There they meet up with the General Mapache (Emilio Fernández) who asks them to highjack a train for ten thousand dollars in gold.  They take the job and so begins the next ‘final job’ for The Wild Bunch.

What do I say about another western that became an instant classic?  It’s a great story, with a few minor problems, that hasn’t lost its sting yet.  Watching Pike Bishop (William Holden) lead this group of misfits through the land trying to make this great score that he needs is almost oddly satisfying.  The only problem I had with it is that the film eventually shifts its sympathy towards the end.

Avid filmgoers know how to pick out all the clichés in the book.  The number one rule of Hollywood filmmaking is that the good guy has to win or, at the very least, the bad guy has to lose.  Here be begin with this Wild Bunch as the clear bad guys, or maybe the better term in the case of this film is anti-heroes.  So we’re watching this movie following these characters expecting for Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) to finally catch up with Pike and his men and bring them to justice.  However, since the film so easily makes Pike the main character in the film (i.e. the protagonist) we’re left in this odd place trying to figure out what to expect of the filmmaker and while I’m enjoying the actual story fuelling the action filled film I’m still left in this form of purgatory where I have no idea what’s going to happen next.  It’s not until more than half way into the movie that we’re introduced to the General Mapache and realise who the real villain of the film is and things become clear.  It’s almost as if even though the first half of the film plays up this epic chase between Deke and Pike, it remains a far second place in the plot to that of General Mapache and Mexico.

What struck me about this movie was the level of violence.  Now I’m not saying that it’s something I didn’t like, it’s actually quite the opposite; but at the same time it’s unexpected from a film from this era and this genre.  Most westerns, even the new ones like 3:10 to Yuma, tend to make their action very PG-13 at most.  Here however Sam Peckinpah, a man whose name makes him sound like he actually lived through the Wild West era, doesn’t sugar coat the west and makes all the blood and gore that comes with the ammunition count show.

What I can say for sure is that forgetting all the odd narrative choices made by the filmmaker he still ended up making a kick ass western that I’ll easily watch a couple more times.

IMDB says 8.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 97%

I say 8.0/10