Movies 101 – The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch - 145min – R

A group of aging outlaws are looking for one final score to end their carrier on. They set up this elaborate heist on the railroad, that turns out to be a trap. An ex member of their gang has been released from prison and is now working for the railroad bounty hunters. They escape but without the loot. The bounty hunters peruse them because they have 30 days to get them or no one gets paid, and the ex gang member has to go back to prison. The gang lays low in Mexico and find themselves working for a warlord and self proclaimed general of the revolutionaries. They pull a highest for him to acquire several cases of weapons and work out an elaborate way to ensure that they will get paid for the score. One of their members gets caught skimming and is captured by the General. They are now faced with leaving with the gold or going back to rescue their captured member. They decide to help their fallen companion and go out in a blaze of glory.

I watched westerns with my grandfather; he was my introduction to the genre. I Thought about him when I watched this film, this film is way more racy than the films we watched on TV but I know that he would have enjoyed the elements of this film. Being a fan of the western I play a game called Red Dead Redemption. There are so many elements of this move in this game. That is something to look into if you have not played it and you enjoy westerns. 

What I liked most about this film is the beginning and the end. The beginning because of the massive gun fight, they had so much coverage from a film making standpoint. And the same reasons at the end. It was a massive gun fight that starts off not how you expect a gunfight to go. They shoot the general and there is a moment there where none else shoots, it almost looks like they are going to get away with it. I also like the blending of shots and angles and speeds.  

My Take away:

This movie used multi-angle editing and is a great example of the technique. The gun fights that had long shots and close ups and slow motion intermixed with live action. That really add a different life to the event we are watching.  I also appreciated the writing; there are two separate story lines here one of the gang and one of the bounty hunters. I enjoyed how they merged at the end but it was wonderful story telling in braiding two separate stories this way.  

I watched this Film on DVD from Netflix.