The Wild Bunch (1969)

A gang of outlaws goes out in a blaze of violence and glory in Sam Peckinpah’s elegiac film about the dying days of the wild west.

Harbingers of a modern world, the machine gun and the motor car spell the end of the lawless days of the west in this controversial classic. Beginning with an electrifying, dynamically edited armed robbery sequence, The Wild Bunch traces the riotous last weeks of a gang of aging gunslingers led by Pike (William Holden) as they flee south into Mexico.

Previously a television director with a couple of notable film westerns under his belt, Sam Peckinpah set a new standard for screen violence with his film’s bloodthirsty, slow-motion orgies of action and gunfire. This was a new, more brutal form of western fit for the time of the Vietnam War, but also a mythic lament for an outdated code of masculine honour.

1969 USA
Directed by
Sam Peckinpah
Produced by
Phil Feldman
Written by
Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah
Featuring
William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan
Running time
148 minutes

Ranked in The Greatest Films of All Time poll

Sight and Sound

Who voted for The Wild Bunch

Critics

Anne Demy-Geroe
Australia
Guillermo Franco
Argentina
Marzia Gandolfi
Italy
Leonardo García Tsao
Mexico
Houshang Golmakani
Iran
Jan-Christopher Horak
USA
Teresa Huang
Taiwan
Stefan Jaworzyn
UK
Clyde Jeavons
UK
Alessandro Jedlowski
France
Blagoja Kunovski
North Macedonia
Andy Lea
UK
Emanuela Martini
Italy
Eddie Muller
USA
Karel Och
Czech Republic
Milan Pavlovic
Germany
Nenad Polimac
Croatia
Mohammed Rouda
UK
Michael Sragow
USA
Marcel Stefančič
Slovenia
Lou Thomas
UK

Directors

Thomas Clay
UK
Walter Hill
USA
Neil Jordan
Ireland
Neil Marshall
UK
Martin Mcdonagh
Ireland
Paul Schrader
US

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