La Horde Sauvage

Awesome, Brilliant. Cinema at it's most Visceral, Beautiful, and Passionate Glory.
William Holden, Robert Ryan, Ernest Borgnine, are a volatile combination unseen in
any other film .

Director Sam Peckinpah (1925-1984) was known for creating very violent scenarios, with blood and corpse filled films.
Arguably "Straw Dogs" (1971) and "Cross of Iron" (1977) are his two best films, nevertheless "The Wild Bunch" (1969) was the one that consecrated him as an outstanding director and earned his nickname: "Bloody Sam".

The story is as follows. A gang of aging robbers enter a small frontier town, disguised as regular troop soldiers. They head directly to the bank and start to sack it. Unfortunately for them, they had entered a mortal trap, leaded by a railroad Cop and an ex-pal coerced into collaboration. The trap snaps and a devastating bullet fire ensues (the first of many along the whole film), killing robbers, town people and law enforcers alike.

The robbers gang flies and cross the USA-Mexico border followed by a bounty-hunter bunch trying to catch them dead or alive (better dead).
Mexico at that time (around 1910/11) was in the middle of the Revolution with military and Villa's men confronting and poor unarmed civilian victimized by both parties.
Pike Bishop, the gang's leader, closes a deal with Mexican General Mapache to cross again the frontier and capture a military train wagon containing arms and ammunitions.
To achieve this, band goes thru innumerable fights and feats and seems to be pursued by a dark fate that always thwarts their goals at last minute (Tragedy since the Greeks times is cruel with mortals).

Around this anecdote, Peckinpah builds a strong parable about violence, codes of honor, power and extinction.
At the opening of the film there are several sequences showing the cruel and senseless game with ants, scorpions and fire of a bunch of smiling children. The same gratuitous cruelty will be displayed by almost every character in the film.

Play acting is remarkably good. William Holden impersonates Pike Bishop the ruthless yet dependable leader of the wild bunch. Ernest Borgnine is Dutch Engstrom his sidekick, between them all along the film a deep camaraderie shows up, revealed by small gestures and looks. It is an excellent performance of them both.
The rest of cast give also great performances: Robert Ryan as the ex-pal in pursue; Warren Oates and Ben Johnson as the Gorch brothers; Jaime Sanchez as Angel; Emilio Fernandez as General Mapache and L. Q. Jones as T.C. are over par.

Lucas Ballard, Peckinpah's usual collaborator, delivers wonderful images with a predominance of brown over any other color. Jerry Fielding's original score is great and deserved an Oscar nomination.

This is an outstanding western film, that no real fan should let it pass by unwatched!

Reviewed by Max Yofre.

› Go to Amazon.com to see both reviews  5.0 out of 5 stars