The Wild Bunch

1969
R
2h 15m

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

92K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,834

Play trailer2:54

2 Videos

99+ Photos

Western Epic Action Adventure Drama Western

An aging group of outlaws in 1913 Texas look for one last big score, selling stolen Army rifles to a rogue Mexican general during that country's revolution, as the traditional American West ... Read allAn aging group of outlaws in 1913 Texas look for one last big score, selling stolen Army rifles to a rogue Mexican general during that country's revolution, as the traditional American West is disappearing around them.An aging group of outlaws in 1913 Texas look for one last big score, selling stolen Army rifles to a rogue Mexican general during that country's revolution, as the traditional American West is disappearing around them.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.9/10

92K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

4,834

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 2 Oscars
- 6 wins & 8 nominations total

Trivia
Robert Ryan's incessant complaints about not receiving top billing so annoyed director Sam Peckinpah that he decided to "punish" Ryan. In the opening credits, after freezing the screen on closeups of William Holden's and Ernest Borgnine's faces while listing them, Peckinpah froze the scene on several horses' rear ends as Ryan was listed.

Goofs
Early in the film, Harrigan threatens Deke Thorton by promising to send him back to Yuma if he doesn't catch Pike. In reality, the Yuma Territorial Prison had already shut down in 1909, roughly four years before the events of the movie, and had been converted to a high school.

Quotes
Crazy Lee: Well, how'd you like to kiss my sister's black cat's ass?

Alternate versions
There have been at least four different "official" versions of The Wild Bunch since its initial release in 1969. Thanks to Paul Seydor, author of "Peckinpah: The Western Films: A Reconsideration" (1980, rev. ed. 1997: University of Illinois Press) for the following data:

Connections
Featured in Precious Images (1986)

Soundtracks
Polly Wolly Doodle
(uncredited)
Traditional
Sung by the bounty hunters as they leave Agua Verde

User reviews389

Review

Featured review

10/10

The definitive end of the west Western

An incredible performance by Bill Holden is the high point of this sensational, landmark film. Holden made a whole career out of laid-back, easy-going, what-the-hell sort of characters but here, at his zenith, he departs from type and plays a character so mean and so embittered that in some ways he even out-Bronsons Bronson himself.

The Wild Bunch is a group of disillusioned outlaws who are out of time and they know it. When Sykes says that they've got one of those things (a car) up north that can fly, they gloomily accept that this new-fangled 20th Century is not for them.

It is a movie all about values and about a man's loyalty to his companions. Holden brilliantly declares that if you cannot stand by a man who rides with you, you are like some kind of animal. In the end, that is all these hunted men have: their loyalty to each other.

And so they band together for one last walk to try and rescue their doomed Mexican comrade. The bloodbath that follows is an eloquent summary of their lives. They who live by the gun.....

Superb performances by Holden in particular and also by O'Brien, Ryan, Borgnine, Oates and Johnson. Peckinpah's finest hour. Definitely ten out of ten.