Cheap The Wild Bunch - The Original Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) (DVD) (Ernest Borgnine, William Holden, Robert Ryan) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Wild Bunch - The Original Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

It's all been done before.
The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969) <
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>I will readily admit that my confusion over the prominence of The Wild Bunch in the annals of film criticism probably stems from my having bought into the hype. When I hear people wax poetic about the movie, one thing always comes to the surface sooner or later--the previously unheard-of level of violence in the movie. Here I was expecting something... different; even the tamest giallo lords it over The Wild Bunch in terms of violence. Mario Bava was doing it years before. What makes Peckinpah's opus so special? Not the violence. <
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>The other thing that seems to come up often is that Peckinpah's version of the west is decidedly different than that which had been offered before, but again I head back to Italy, and this time flog the dead horse of Sergio Leone, whose westerns were riddled with grey areas long before this. <
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>Okay, so Peckinpah was the first guy to do it in America. And it got John Wayne pretty mad. (But, really, he was already mad at Clint Eastwood for the Leone movies.) But from every other standpoint--plot, characters, pacing, cinematography, direction--Peckinpah has done better. (The pinnacle came three years later with Straw Dogs.) It's not bad, but don't go into it expecting one of the greatest films of all time, or you're bound to be disappointed. ***

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Not As Advertised-
For the third time in 10 years, I have purchased another copy of "The Wild Bunch". And for the third time in 10 years, I have been utterly disappointed. I don't know what all of these other reviewers watched in 1969, but what I watched was a much, much wilder bunch with much more grusome footage at the old Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas. Someone, apparently do gooders, had the film cut back to the bland piece of work that you see in this DVD. Someone should sue Warner Bros. for false advertising. I am still looking for the original film and would pay good money for it, if it even still exists. In the killings in the original film the bodies struck by bullets, immediately went to slow motion as a stream of blood shot from the bullet hole in the beginning murderous scene. There is only one brief shot of this type and the rest, a least a couple of dozen were cut out and are still cut out. Save your money, if you think your getting the original.

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Much more than just a violent film...
This is one of the greatest Westerns ever made. Most people talk about its violence level. The violence here is incredible, and it's still strong and potent today. It shocked the living hell out of everyone back in 1969. It made some people vomit because it was so intense. However, while I do like the shootouts of this film, it's the depth that the characters have that really make this film stand out for me. Some of the speeches Pike gives are quite good, stressing that you stand by a man, and if you don't, you're like some animal, you're finished. Pike and the Bunch lived by these words, and in the end, they died by these words. They lived in a time where your word and your honor meant something, and you lived by a certain code that you tried to stay true to. Nowadays, this kind of message is seen as old fashioned and made fun of mercilessly. It shouldn't be. Despite the Bunch being criminals, they retain their sense of dignity at the end. Even Robert Ryan, Pike's former friend who is now chasing the Bunch, has a dignity as well, keeping his word to the bastard railroad men. But when he's finished with the posse, he stays in Mexico with the locals instead of returning to the US. You don't hate Ryan for what he's doing, and Pike doesn't hate him either. They each just want to live, and they got a job to do. The ending is one of the more poignant and brutal endings ever filmed. The Bunch got their bounty, and are whooping it up with the local whores. Angel had made a deal with them to keep one case of guns for his village, and they agreed. They told the general Mapache that they lost it on the trail. Mapache didn't believe them and accused Angel of stealing it, so the Bunch let him keep it. While the Bunch are drinking and partying, they stop and realise what they have to do. They go back and rescue Angel, not because they have to, but because they need to. They didn't want to abandon their friend. They probably knew they would be killed, and they didn't give a damn about it. I find this extraordinarily moving and quite powerful. After a decade of smug "irony", things like dignity and honor are punchlines. I don't think they are, and I never will. I really like the message of brotherhood and honor here, and I think this is a masterpiece.... <
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