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 This isn't an obscure movie but I didn't get around to watching it until last year and it quickly became one of my favourites. Released in 1969 by Warner Brothers and directed by Sam Peckinpah, The Wild Bunch is a violent as hell Western about an aging gang of outlaws working in the Texas-Mexico border and the band of bounty hunters chasing them. It stars William Holden  and Ernest Borgnine  along with Ben John, Warren Oates, Jaime Sanchez and Edmond O'Brien as the titular Wild Bunch, chased by bounty hunters led by their former comrade in arms, played by Robert Ryan. This movie has a reputation for being extremely violent, and it is, but most of it is concentrated in the opening and closing sequences, which are fantastic. They both have a great suspenseful buildup, and they're relatively short but extremely intense because of Peckinpah's montage shooting style. He filmed the action from a bunch of angles with cameras at different speeds and the results make time feel very elastic as the action cuts back and forth, and it went on to influence directors like John Woo.  The action bookends 2 hours of great character drama and (sometimes very dark) humour that I don't want to spoil for anyone who is new to it. William Holden in particular gives a great performance as the gang's leader Pike, an old man of honor and natural leader but also a terrible hypocrite. I was surprised to find out he was nowhere close to the first choice to play Pike because he seemed to fit the role perfectly. The movie ended up being nominated by the Academy for Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score but lost both to its direct competitor, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. There are some other versions of the movie floating around but I've only seen the 145 minute "uncut" version, which I've heard is the definitive one. If you haven't seen this movie please seek it out because it is really cool.  ---- The Complete Movie of the Month Listing: 1776 | 2001: A Space Odyssey | 24 Hour Party People | 8 1/2 | The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension | Aguirre: The Wrath of God | All That Jazz | American Movie | Baraka | The Battle of Algiers | Being There | Beyond the Valley of the Dolls | Bicycle Thief | Black Hawk Down | Blade | Branded to Kill | The Brave Little Toaster | Breaking Away | The Bridge on the River Kwai | Bullet in the Head | Charade | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang | The Conversation | The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover | Day For Night | The Court Jester | Death Race 2000 | Dead Man | Darkman | Detour | Devils on the Doorstep | Double Indemnity | Downfall | Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde | El Topo | Falling Down | A Face In The Crowd | Fanny and Alexander | Fat City | Funny Bones | Galaxy Quest | Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai | Glengarry Glen Ross | Gremlins 2: The New Batch | Horor of Dracula | La Haine | The Ice Storm | The Intruder | It's a Wonderful Life | Judgement at Nuremberg | Jumanji | The King of Comedy | Last Train From Gun Hill | The Leopard | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp | Little Shop of Horrors | Living in Oblivion | The Long Goodbye | Love & Death | M | Masculin Féminin | Man on Fire | The Man Who Would Be King | Modern Times | Mousehunt | Mulholland Drive | My Best Friend's Wedding | My Darling Clementine | My Own Private Idaho | Naked | Outland | The Panic in Needle Park | Peeping Tom | Planes, Trains, and Automobiles | Play Time | The Proposition | Punishment Park | The Pusher Trilogy | Rififi/Rashômon | The Ref | Rock 'n' Roll High School | Ronin |The Rules of the Game | Safe | Schizopolis | Son of Frankenstein | The Squid and the Whale | The Super Inframan | Sunset Boulevard | Surviving The Game | The Sweet Hereafter | The Third Man | Titicut Follies | Vampyr | The Vanishing | Videodrome | Withnail & I | The Young Girls of Rochefort | Zardoz |
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Jun 3, 2014 01:09
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 09:57 |
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