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The Wild Bunch Overview:

The Wild Bunch (1969) was a Action - Western Film directed by Sam Peckinpah and produced by Phil Feldman and Roy N. Sickner.

The Wild Bunch was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1999.

Academy Awards 1969 --- Ceremony Number 42 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best Music - ScoringJerry FieldingNominated
Best WritingStory by Walon Green, Roy N. Sickner; Screenplay by Walon Green, Sam PeckinpahNominated
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The Wild Bunch BlogHub Articles:

The Wild Bunch (1969)

By Beatrice on Apr 23, 2020 From Flickers in Time

The Wild Bunch Directed by Sam Peckinpah Written by Walon Green, Sam Peckinpah, and Roy N. Sickner 1969/US First viewing/Amazon Instant One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die This bloody, violent Western holds out little hope for humanity.  Maybe not the thing for the disgusted during Lockd... Read full article

The Wild Bunch - Looking Back on Peckinpah's Classic After 50 Years

By Rick29 on Oct 16, 2019 From Classic Film & TV Cafe

William Holden in The Wild Bunch. Fifty years ago, two of American cinema's most influential Westerns were released: the revisionist Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. Neither film staved off the decline of the Western genre, but each impacted Hollywood in signif... Read full article

The Wild Bunch (1969, Sam Peckinpah), the director’s cut

By Andrew Wickliffe on Apr 15, 2017 From The Stop Button

The Wild Bunch opens with a methodically executed heist slash shootout sequence. Director Peckinpah quickly introduces cast members, partially due to the dramatic plotting, mostly due to Lou Lombardo’s fantastic editing. All juxtaposed with some kids watching ants kill scorpions. The Wild Bunch op... Read full article

The Wild Bunch (1969)

By smumcountry on Jan 21, 2015 From Smum County

January 21, 2015 by smumcounty It’s 1913. A band of outlaws in Texas headed by Pike Bishop (William Holden) are looking to make one more big score so they can retire. To that end they plan the robbery of a railroad office which reportedly has a safe full of silver coins. They manage to ride into t... Read full article

The Wild Bunch (1969)

By smumcountry on Jan 21, 2015 From Smum County

January 21, 2015 by smumcounty It’s 1913. A band of outlaws in Texas headed by Pike Bishop (William Holden) are looking to make one more big score so they can retire. To that end they plan the robbery of a railroad office which reportedly has a safe full of silver coins. They manage to ride into t... Read full article

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The Wild Bunch Quotes:

[first lines]
[indistinct voices]
Rev. Wainscoat: Do not drink wine or strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, least ye shall die. Look not though upon the wine when it is red, and when it bringeth his color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright at the last, it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Now folks, that's from the Good Book, but in this here town it's five cents a glass.
Pike Bishop: You know what we are then?
Don Jose: Si, the both of you!
Pike Bishop: [laughing] And you!
Dutch Engstrom: Give 'em hell Pike!
[Pike goes down]
Coffer: Mr Thornton; you, ah, rode with Pike, what kinda man we up against?
Deke Thornton: [thinking back] The best. He never got caught.
Pike Bishop: Let's go!
Lyle Gorch: Why the hell not?
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The Wild Bunch Facts
Deke Thornton describes Gen. Mapache as "a killer for Huerta". He was referring to real-life Gen. Victoriano Huerta, who had overthrown and murdered Mexican President Francisco I. Madero in 1913, setting off a civil war. The Mexican town this film was shot in, Parras in Coahuila state, was Madero's birthplace.
The song "Polly Wolly Doodle" was prominently featured in Frank Capra's You Can't Take It with You, where Dub Taylor (Rev. Wainscoat in the "Wild Bunch") plays the song (several times) on a xylophone. "You Can't Take It With You" marked the beginning of Taylor's film career. Sam Peckinpah's "Polly Wolly Doodle", presented in its sinister context, contrasts sharply with the carefree Capra rendition.
Gen. Mapache's headquarters, where the climatic shootout takes place between the Wild Bunch and Mapache's soldiers, was actually an abandoned winery outside the town of Parras in Coahuila, Mexico. The shootout that opened the film, which was when the Wild Bunch was ambushed by bounty hunters while robbing the railroad office in the Texas town of Starbuck, was actually shot on the Main Street of downtown Parras.
Body count: 145
There were not enough uniforms for all of the stunt people and extras in the gun battle. If someone was filmed getting shot, the costume people would repair a uniform by washing off the fake blood, taping and painting over the bullet holes, drying the paint and sending either the same or a different performer out to get shot again.
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