Sam Peckinpah has crafted a western that puts over the hill outlaws in a good light. They are led by William Holden who plays Pike. Holden doesn’t disappoint in his role. He made a career of playing antiheroes, although in this role, he’s a bad guy. Ernest Borgnine is his friend and partner, Dutch. Robert Ryan is Thornton, the parolee, who rode with the gang, but is hunting them down. His freedom is only guaranteed by the railroad if he brings in the gang.
Holden’s gang of thieves come into town to rob the railroad office. Around town, and on the rooftop, are Ryan and his men. As soon as the gang comes out, they begin shooting. Unfortunately Thornton’s men are trigger happy buffoons, who kill townsfolk, as well as over half the gang. Pike and his gang flee the town, with Thornton and his men in hot pursuit.
The gang finds a safe place to rest, and decide to check their bounty from the railroad heist. They find out all they got were bags of nuts and bolts. The entire robbery was a setup by the railroad. They decide to hide out in gang member Angel’s Mexican village. While there, Pike comes to an agreement with the general. He agrees to steal a U.S. army shipment of arms, in exchange for payment. While laying over in the village, the gang enjoys everything the village has to offer, which is wine, food and prostitutes. During the rowdy celebration, Angel sees his girlfriend in the arms of the general. Angel in a jealous rage, shoots and kills her. This action later results in serious consequences.
Pike and the gang cross the border, and seize the train with army munitions. Thornton and his men are in hot pursuit on horseback. Holden and his gang cross a bridge, and plant dynamite on it, and it blows up, when they reach the other side. This kills most of Thornton’s men, and delays their pursuit. Holden goes back to the village with a Gatling gun as a gift for the general, and some of the munitions. Unfortunately, the soldiers excited by their new weapon, test fire it, without it being mounted. They kill a few soldiers and many civilians.
Ernest Borgnine and Angel return later with the rest of the munitions. The father of the woman Angel killed demands revenge, and Angel is taken by the villagers. Dutch relays what happened and the remainder of the gang ride back into the village. They see Angel being dragged by a car along the street. Pike offers to buy Angel from the General. Instead his throat is cut. This enrages Pike and the others. They begin shooting it out with the soldiers. They get hold of the Gatling gun, and manage to kill many of the soldiers, until they are also killed. Thornton and his bounty hunters go into the village and find the bodies of the gang. He decides not to bring in the bodies, and lets the others do it, remaining behind. Sykes, played by Edmund O’Brien, who was left for dead by Thornton, when he was shot, also comes back to the village. He asks if Thornton wants to go back to his outlaw ways, he agrees, and rides off with him.
Sam Peckinpah wrote scripts for television westerns before directing, giving him a background with which to work. He is following a trend in westerns at that time, which was to be as violent as possible. He has succeeded with the beginning shootout and the bloody finale. In between, Peckinpah has put in some good dialogue between Pike and Dutch. They discuss their current situation, as well as their fates in life. He’s received a quality performance from a top notch actor in William Holden. He delivers as Pike, an outlaw whose lifestyle has destroyed his happiness. At one point, Dutch asks him what he did to the railroad. A director’s job is made easier with good acting. Peckinpah gets it from Robert Ryan as Thornton. He isn’t happy about hunting down his friends, but the threat of going back to prison drives him forward. This is reinforced with flashback scenes of Thornton, in the territorial prison in Yuma, Arizona. Ryan also shows his frustration at working with incompetents, led by great character actor, Strother Martin.
The Wild Bunch brings a gritty realism to the western. This is a contrast to the mythos of the great John Ford westerns. Even though it is a good film, this type of western, with sympathetic bad guys and antiheroes led to the decline of the genre. It is a sad fact, because westerns were around as long as filmmaking. The Wild Bunch isn’t meant to be an enjoyable film, but makes a statement about the outlaw life, which was violent, and led to infamy, death and imprisonment.