Episode #034
The Wild Bunch
(1969)
If any of them move, kill ’em! Our first Western on the AFI list is a bloody, gritty, corker of a bandit heist flick. It stars William Holden, whose star power was waning at the time, along with Ernest Borgnine and his iconic gap-toothed smile, and some truly EPIC action sequences that forever changed movies. It’s also one the very first R-rated films in history. There are no heroes in this one. Mount up.
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The 3 greatest westerns of the 1960’s IMO are THE WILD BUNCH, RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY, & ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. A possible alternative choice might be Ford’s THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE. But the primary problem here is that Stewart was more than a quarter of a century too old except for during the framing scenes. Wayne was also too old for his role but he still registered well & his character’s age was not that much of a distraction . This film was one of Ford’s best westerns IMO so maybe it should be included in a top 5 list. As for BUTCH CASSIDY
It certainly is entertaining but lacks the poetic & emotional substance IMO with the other films mentioned here. If in listing a top 5 westerns in this decade I still am unsure of which others might be considered #5.
Haven’t seen High Country or Once Upon a Time! We’re going to have to do a deep dive into Westerns for the podcast some day for sure, and we’ll definitely make sure those are on the list. Thank you for sharing!