Filmstelle

After a robbery, a group of bandits flee to Mexico, where they take on the job of stealing weapons for a general who is fighting Pancho Villa’s rebels. After a member of the group is treacherously murdered, revenge leads to perhaps the most famous massacre in film history.
Based on a classic plot, Sam Peckinpah creates a revolutionary masterpiece. The last film of a genre, a kind of western testament. And what a testament! More than 3,600 shots, frenetic editing, hyper-realistic, almost pulp-like violence.
The 134 minutes contain all the themes that are close to Peckinpah’s heart: the arrogance of power, the anarchy of rebels without a goal, friendship and the cruelty of the adult world. Moreover, in the schematic rigidity of American cinema, The Wild Bunch brings a confusion that does not allow a distinction between good and evil.
The epic of frontier heroes becomes a hymn to death. A group of complete strangers recognise the failure of their lives and bid farewell to life with the final gesture of a deceased hero.

Federico Schembri