Tagged: The Wild Bunch

Robert Ryan in The Wild Bunch

Robert Ryan as Deke Thornton in The Wild Bunch (1969)

Vitals

Robert Ryan as Deke Thornton, conflicted bounty hunter and ex-bandit

Texas to Mexico, Spring 1913

Film: The Wild Bunch
Release Date: June 18, 1969
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costume Designer: James R. Silke

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

Released today in 1969, The Wild Bunch reimagined the American frontier on screen. The New Hollywood movement ushered in a new level of brutality with films like Bonnie and Clyde (1967), which—along with his frustration over the Vietnam War and the lack of realism in earlier depictions of the Old West—inspired director Sam Peckinpah to return behind the lens.

Based on a screenplay co-written by Peckinpah, Walon Green, and Roy N. Sickner, The Wild Bunch follows an aging gang led by the grizzled Pike Bishop (William Holden), pursued into Mexico by a posse of ragtag bounty hunters led by Pike’s former partner, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), against the backdrop of the nation’s decade-long revolution. Continue reading →

William Holden in The Wild Bunch

William Holden as Pike Bishop in The Wild Bunch (1969).

William Holden as Pike Bishop in The Wild Bunch (1969).

Vitals

William Holden as Pike Bishop, grizzled bandit gang leader

Coahuila, Mexico, Spring 1913

Film: The Wild Bunch
Release Date: June 18, 1969
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Costume Designer: James R. Silke

Background

We’ve got to start thinking beyond our guns. Those days are closing fast.

…is what Pike Bishop wisely tells his men, an aging group of outlaws still anachronistically robbing banks and trains on horseback with a six-shooter on their hips. Pike knows the times are changing, and it doesn’t take a water-cooled machine gun or a Mexican general’s Packard to drive the point home to them.

Today would have been the 97th birthday of William Holden, who starred in classics like Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Sabrina, The Bridge on the River Kwai before taking on the role of the anachronistically self-aware Pike Bishop. Holden was one of many actors considered by Sam Peckinpah for the role; Lee Marvin had actually been cast but then turned it down to accept the higher-paying lead in Paint Your Wagon. It turned out well for Holden, who developed the character into one of the greatest movie badasses of all time… as even that sterling news source MTV agreed. Continue reading →