The Wild Bunch

The Wild Bunch
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySam Peckinpah
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Walon Green
  • Roy N. Sickner
Produced byPhil Feldman
Starring
CinematographyLucien Ballard
Edited byLouis Lombardo
Music byJerry Fielding
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.-Seven Arts
Release date
  • June 18, 1969 (1969-06-18)
Running time
145 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$6 million
Box office$11 million[1][unreliable source?]

The Wild Bunch is a 1969 American epic revisionist Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates. The plot concerns an aging outlaw gang on the Mexico–United States border trying to adapt to the changing modern world of 1913. The film was controversial because of its graphic violence and its portrayal of crude men attempting to survive by any available means.[2]

The screenplay was co-written by Peckinpah, Walon Green, and Roy N. Sickner. The Wild Bunch was filmed in Technicolor and Panavision, in Mexico, notably at the Hacienda Ciénaga del Carmen, deep in the desert between Torreón and Saltillo, Coahuila, and on the Nazas River.

The Wild Bunch is noted for intricate, multi-angle, quick-cut editing using normal and slow motion images, a revolutionary cinema technique in 1969. The writing of Green, Peckinpah, and Sickner was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar, and the music by Jerry Fielding was nominated for Best Original Score. Additionally, Peckinpah was nominated for an Outstanding Directorial Achievement award by the Directors Guild of America, and cinematographer Lucien Ballard won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography.

Regarded as one of the greatest films of all time,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] The Wild Bunch was selected by the Library of Congress in 1999 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".[10] The film is ranked 79th on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 best American films and the 69th most thrilling film.[11] In 2008, the AFI listed 10 best films in 10 genres and ranked The Wild Bunch as the sixth-best Western.[12][13]

  1. ^ "Box Office for The Wild Bunch". IMDb. June 19, 1969. Retrieved May 26, 2014.
  2. ^ Armour, Philip (June 2011). The 100 Greatest Western Movies of All Time: Including Five You've Never Heard of. Performing Arts. p. 15. ISBN 978-0-7627-6996-4. Retrieved October 6, 2014.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Citizen Kane Stands the Test of Time: The 100 Greatest American Films American Film Institute via Internet Archive. Retrieved April 16, 2024.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference empire 500 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference NYT 1000 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference NSFC 100 films was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference DGA best films was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference WGA 101 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Cite error: The named reference editors guild 75 best was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  11. ^ "100 Years...100 Thrills". afi.com. American Film Institute. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved November 13, 2007.
  12. ^ American Film Institute (June 17, 2008). "AFI Crowns Top 10 Films in 10 Classic Genres". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on August 18, 2008. Retrieved June 18, 2008.
  13. ^ "Top Western". AFI.com. American Film Institute. Retrieved June 18, 2008.

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