The Wild Bunch (1969)

"The Wild Bunch" is a sick movie, in every sense of the word. Its infamous shootouts are worthy of their reputation; and it's about as fun, masculine, greasy, brutal, and fucked-up a movie you're likely to see. The question is whether all that makes it a great movie, and to be honest, I'm not quite so sure myself.

From what Westerns I've seen thus far (and I'd say around 6 to 8), nearly all of them feature at least one protagonist that, regardless of being likable or not, can't help but intrigue us in how their moral compass plays out. In "The Searchers," John Wayne's character was a sick bastard, but he was a believable bastard, a guy that made you think about how guys like him really do exist. And that's what I love about Westerns, and why the genre might become one of my favorites--that sense of the grandeur of the environment that surrounds these characters that have to make decisions people still make today. That all might be a little vague, but my point is that I never made that association with any of the guys in "The Wild Bunch," even though that honestly didn't occur to me until about 3/4 of the way through the movie, when things started to drag a little, and maybe a few too many stereotypical Mexicans ("ehh, gringooos") were laughing into the camera. It occured to me that I didn't really know why things were going on, or who the hell William Holden is, or anything about the characters aside from the fact that they're gun-carrying outlaws who love beer-drenched Mexican whores.

Okay, maybe I'm not being honest with myself here. Maybe "The Wild Bunch" did kick ass. Maybe that slow-motion footage of a guy falling off a building being intercut with Ernest Borgnine throwing some grenades into a crowd of Mexicans is total brilliance. Maybe the entire point of the movie is that men are scum, but hell, let's have our fun anyhow, and go out blasting. "The Wild Bunch" is hell, but it's hell that could have been 20 minutes shorter, and could have used some distinguishable characters. It's some kind of great Western, has some sort of crazy subtext that I might get on a rewatch, but who knows--maybe I'm not sadistic enough to love it more.

Grade: B/B+