{"id":4442,"date":"2018-10-12T16:14:43","date_gmt":"2018-10-12T15:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/?p=4442"},"modified":"2018-10-12T16:48:18","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T15:48:18","slug":"best-western-movies-1960s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-1960s\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Western Movies of the 1960s Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_65 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title \" >Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 eztoc-toggle-hide-by-default' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-1960s\/#Part_2_of_The_Best_Western_Movies_of_The_1960s_From_my_Childhood\" title=\"Part 2 of The Best Western Movies of The 1960&#8217;s From my Childhood\">Part 2 of The Best Western Movies of The 1960&#8217;s From my Childhood<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-2' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-1960s\/#Nevada_Smith_1966\" title=\"Nevada Smith (1966)\">Nevada Smith (1966)<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-1960s\/#Hour_of_the_Gun_1967\" title=\"Hour of the Gun (1967)\">Hour of the Gun (1967)<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-1960s\/#The_Scalphunters_1968\" title=\"The Scalphunters (1968)\">The Scalphunters (1968)<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-1960s\/#Once_Upon_A_Time_In_The_West_1969\" title=\"Once Upon A Time In The West (1969)\">Once Upon A Time In The West (1969)<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-1960s\/#The_Wild_Bunch_1969\" title=\"The Wild Bunch (1969)\">The Wild Bunch (1969)<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Part_2_of_The_Best_Western_Movies_of_The_1960s_From_my_Childhood\"><\/span>Part 2 of The Best Western Movies of The 1960&#8217;s From my Childhood<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<p>Catch up with the first part of my <a href=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-of-the-1960s\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Best Western Movies of the 1960s<\/a> including the introduction and the first five &#8211; not in any particular order although my last pick here is my favourite by a clear margin.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Nevada_Smith_1966\"><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4443\" src=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Nevada-Smith.jpg\" alt=\"Poster for Nevada Smith image\" width=\"1080\" height=\"1645\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Nevada-Smith.jpg 1080w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Nevada-Smith-361x550.jpg 361w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Nevada-Smith-672x1024.jpg 672w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1080px) 100vw, 1080px\" \/>Nevada Smith (1966)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">I do like a good revenge movie and this is one of the best. Until the end, that is, but I\u2019ll get to that in a minute.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Steve McQueen, in top-notch cowboy form, plays the title role. It\u2019s a prequel spin-off from an earlier movie, The Carpetbaggers, in which Nevada Smith was played by Alan Ladd, so consider this an early \u2018origins\u2019 film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">McQueen\u2019s character is initially called Max Sand but I\u2019ll refer to him as Nevada Smith from hereon in.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Smith\u2019s parents are murdered by three outlaws, played by Martin Landau, Arthur Kennedy and Karl Malden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Nevada vows to track them down and, after an interlude in which Brian Keith, playing a benign gunsmith, teaches him how to shoot, he tracks down his first victim, Landau.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I remember the ensuing knife-fight between the two of them because McQueen finishes Landau off by stabbing him multiple times in the stomach, finishing the murdering swine off like the dog he is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Next up is Arthur Kennedy. Smith is so obsessed with revenge he goes to the inordinate lengths of getting himself banged up in the same prison as his quarry, before shooting him in the middle of a snake-filled swamp after they\u2019ve escaped from the prison.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Now for Karl Malden or Mr. Potato Face as someone unkindly christened him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There\u2019s then another brief interlude, this time with Smith taken in by a priest who preaches against hate, revenge, death and all that other stuff that Jesus doesn\u2019t like. Smith totally ignores him, thankfully, and resumes his hunt for Malden.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Karl Malden turns out not to be so easy to entrap, so Smith joins his gang, going undercover in order to catch him by stealth. This is the bit that slightly disappointed me when I saw it back in the 60s, because when McQueen finally gets the chance to kill Malden, he inexplicably lets him live, albeit after having pumped the murdering swine full of bullets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The priest, of course, had something to do with Smith not wanting to finish Malden off, but you\u2019re still left with the feeling that the audience has been short-changed in the revenge kill gratuitous violent manhunt stakes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Seeing as this is directed by Western veteran director Henry Hathaway, who also co-directed The Carpetbaggers, the film is beautifully shot in a number of locations including the Eastern Sierra mountains.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The cinematography is courtesy of Lucien Ballard, a name associated with quite a few Westerns, who also worked frequently with Hathaway and Sam Peckinpah.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Upon reflection it\u2019s also a bit of an ask to accept McQueen, who was in his mid-thirties at the time, playing someone nearly fifteen years younger than he was at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">No amount of slack-jawed scratching of the head by McQueen was ever going to fool an audience into thinking he was a young kid. Not only that but he\u2019s also supposed to be of mixed parentage \u2013 I normally would have said \u2018half-breed\u2019 but apparently you\u2019re not allowed to call somebody that these days \u2013 but someone forgot to tell the makeup department because he looks whiter than white to me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I like Steve McQueen Westerns but there just aren\u2019t that many of them, mainly because he sadly died too soon at the age of 50.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I recall I happened to be in Paris the day I heard he\u2019d passed away. Someone put a photograph inside a shop window of McQueen sitting in a horse trough smoking a cigar, which I think was taken on the set of the Sam Peckinpah film Junior Bonner. Underneath it, they\u2019d written \u2018Au revoir Steve\u2019. Au revoir indeed.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Hour_of_the_Gun_1967\"><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4444\" src=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Hour-of-the-Gun-2.jpg\" alt=\"Hour of the Gun image\" width=\"650\" height=\"365\" \/>Hour of the Gun (1967)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">John Sturges directed this sequel to his earlier 1957 movie, Gunfight at the OK Corral, with James Garner and Jason Robards Jr. respectively taking on the roles of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It follows the story in the aftermath of the showdown of the OK Corral, the film starting with the famous gunfight as a reminder of what happened. The earlier credits proclaim \u2018This picture is based on fact. This is the way it happened\u2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Ten years on from the earlier film, Sturges now has the freedom to adopt a more open attitude towards the depiction of violence in the old West, Garner\u2019s interpretation of Earp rather more callous and menacing in tone than that of Burt Lancaster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">At one point, as they pursue Ike Clanton, played by Robert Ryan, and his gang of killers, Earp declares to Doc that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t care about the rules anymore\u201d. The film in effect charts the previously morally upright Earp\u2019s descent into lawlessness, eventually disregarding due process of law. This is demonstrated when a ruthless Earp starts tricking his adversaries into shooting first, knowing he\u2019ll always beat them to the draw.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The climax of the film is a tense showdown between Earp and Clanton. Earp takes off his badge, indicating he\u2019s not going to go for all that \u2018hands up and unbuckle your gun belt\u2019 stuff. Earp shoots Clanton dead \u2013 which is factually incorrect thus negating the claim at the beginning of the film \u2013 but it brings matters to a satisfactory conclusion as far as the audience is concerned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">What I liked about this movie, watching it again over fifty years later, is that the story is not bogged down with all the troublesome female relationship stuff that made the overlong Kevin Costner \/ Lawrence Kasdan version of the same story so laborious to watch.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Sturges concentrates on two things: the relationship between Earp and Holliday, with Robards giving a great portrayal of Doc, and the war between Wyatt and Ike. In that respect it comes joint first with the later Tombstone, starring Kurt Russell as Wyatt Earp, in the OK Corral movie contest.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Scalphunters_1968\"><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4445\" src=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/the-scalphunters.jpg\" alt=\"The Scalphunters poster\" width=\"750\" height=\"1120\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/the-scalphunters.jpg 750w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/the-scalphunters-368x550.jpg 368w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/the-scalphunters-686x1024.jpg 686w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/>The Scalphunters (1968)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">I guess you\u2019d categorise this movie as rollicking comedy-Western adventure, and as rollicking Westerns go this one\u2019s not too bad.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">What makes the film an interesting addition to the cowboy genre is the presence in the cast of African American actor Ossie Davis, as escaped slave Joseph Lee.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">With the civil rights movement in America running at full gallop in the mid-sixties, it was only going to be a matter of time before Hollywood saw the wisdom of addressing the question of slavery full-on, albeit wrapped inside a comedy film in order to avoid upsetting the white section of the audience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">And Joseph Lee turns out to be more educated and refined than anyone else in the movie, so all the boxes are ticked from the first frame.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Although the lead character, Joe Bass, a wild hell-raising fur trapper, is played by Burt Lancaster, it\u2019s a pre-Kojak Telly Savalas who nearly steals the film from both Lancaster and Shelly Winters, as scalphunter leader Jim Howie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I say nearly because the whole film is actually hi-jacked by a horse that skids to a halt whenever anyone emits a high-pierced whistle, throwing its rider into the dust at every opportunity. Yep, it\u2019s that kind of film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The story starts with a band of Kiowas forcing a reluctant Burt to swap the pile of furs he\u2019s spent all winter trapping in return for Ossie Davis.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">From that point on Burt spends the rest of the film trying to retrieve his goods whilst battling the Kiowas, attempting to thwart a deadly band of scalphunters who do their best to kill him, as well as matching wits with the slave Joseph Lee. Whilst all this is going on, Lee plays Burt and Telly off against each other in order to avoid being sold back into slavery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Burt\u2019s constant harassment of Savalas and his band of killers in attempting to retrieve his furs is highly reminiscent of his role as resistance leader Labiche in the war film The Train, released a few years before.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Meanwhile, Shelley Winters and Savalas carry on like a married Jewish couple, which I guess is intentional seeing as Telly\u2019s monicker in the film is Howie.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Just to complete the notion of married domesticity on the trail they travel in a bed on the back of a wagon. Upon Howie\u2019s unfortunate accidental demise at the hand of Joseph Lee,<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Shelley Winters nonchalantly throws her lot in with the chief of the Kiowa with the comment \u2018What the hell, they\u2019re still men\u2019, which gives you some idea of the tone of the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s the kind of movie that these days would get a trigger warning on TV about racist content, what with the Kiowas referred to as \u2018dirty redskins\u2019 and Burt calling our Chinese brethren by a name you shouldn\u2019t call them by anymore.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The message at the end is a bit too obvious, both Lancaster and Davis covered in mud to the point where you can\u2019t tell them apart. Despite this, the worthiness factor stays mostly hidden beneath the boisterous veneer of the movie as a whole. A rousing score by Elmer Bernstein also helps to ensure the film is still an entertaining watch even after all these years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I could have done without being exposed to Lancaster\u2019s bare arse though.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Once_Upon_A_Time_In_The_West_1969\"><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4446\" src=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west.jpg\" alt=\"Once upon a time in the west poster image\" width=\"2472\" height=\"1756\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west.jpg 2472w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west-728x517.jpg 728w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west-1024x727.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2472px) 100vw, 2472px\" \/>Once Upon A Time In The West (1969)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">Before I begin I thought it best to come right out and say it. When I saw this movie for the first time back in 1969 I thought it was too slow and on a number of occasions just a tad boring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I know that might be considered blasphemy by certain film scholars but I\u2019m prepared to state that I consider director Sergio Leone\u2019s masterpiece to be The Good the Bad and the Ugly, and not OUATITW.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Now that I\u2019ve got that out of the way this film is rightly celebrated for the opening ten-minute sequence in which three gunmen, played by Woody Strode, Jack Elam and Al Mulock wait for a train to arrive in order to kill Charles Bronson.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It\u2019s an extended riff on the same scene in High Noon in which Sheb Wooley, Lee Van Cleef and Robert J. Wilke wait for the arrival of Frank Miller, and is by far the best sequence in the film.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I read somewhere quite a long time back that Leone originally wanted the three gunmen, who all die at the hands of Bronson, to be played by Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef, the protagonists from The Good the Bad and the Ugly, but apparently, Eastwood passed. A shame really. It would have made the scene even more memorable.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The other celebrated aspect of the film is the unexpected casting of Henry Fonda as a child-killing gunfighter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The incongruity of an actor known for playing morally righteous characters such as Abraham Lincoln and Mister Roberts turning up as a murderous swine bereft of any redeeming qualities whatsoever turns audience expectations well and truly on its head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Fonda even gets to kick away the crutches from under a crippled railroad magnate, although what with the guy being a rich fat-cat with his own private train and too much money to spend I guess he kind of deserved it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The movie comprises a number of \u2018guess the reference\u2019 moments, with an obvious homage to The Searchers when Fonda and his gang turn up to slaughter a family, a cluster of birds erupting from the bushes just before the killing starts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The cast is a mix of contemporary Hollywood faces \u2013 Charles Bronson, Jason Robards \u2013 and foreign character actors familiar from other Leone films.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4447 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west-3-404x550.png\" alt=\"Claudia Cardinale from Once Upon a Time in the West\" width=\"404\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west-3-404x550.png 404w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/once-upon-a-time-in-the-west-3.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 404px) 100vw, 404px\" \/>And then there\u2019s Claudia Cardinale, who looks so astoundingly beautiful in the role of prostitute Jill McBain that words fail me.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The scene in which a half-naked Claudia seduces Henry Fonda in return for her life had me hyperventilating like the lovelorn sexually frustrated pimply teenager I was back in 1969.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I find it quite ironic that, despite Leone having the gall to shoot some of the film in the hallowed John Ford country of Monument Valley, the landscape is trounced time and time again by the overwhelmingly spectacular shape of Claudia Cardinale\u2019s curvaceous body.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I hesitate to try and map out the story because there appears to be a number of different versions of the film, and the one I viewed for this article had a couple of scenes that didn\u2019t really make sense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Even without that, the narrative is overly complicated but basically it\u2019s the usual \u201che\u2019s got the land that I want so he\u2019s going to have to die\u201d scenario with a few gunfights and a revenge story thrown in to move the story along.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It is still a memorable film but, apart from the casting against type of Henry Fonda, the opening sequence, a wonderful score by the ever-reliable Ennio Morricone and the presence of the lovely Claudia, I\u2019m not sure it\u2019s one I\u2019d watch again in a hurry.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_Wild_Bunch_1969\"><\/span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4448\" src=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/The-Wild-Bunch.jpg\" alt=\"THe Wild Bunch Poster\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1275\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/The-Wild-Bunch.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/The-Wild-Bunch-431x550.jpg 431w, https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/The-Wild-Bunch-803x1024.jpg 803w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/>The Wild Bunch (1969)<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\">By sheer coincidence, the 10<sup>th<\/sup> film in this article also turns out to be my all-time favourite non-John Wayne Western, bar none.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I can still recall quite clearly watching this film for the first time on its release in the summer of 1969, sitting in the cinema slack-jawed in total astonishment, amazement, wonder and incredulity at the sheer wonder of the images thrown up on the screen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I\u2019d never seen anything like it before, and if I\u2019d taken a moment to contemplate on the film afterwards I would have realised I\u2019d probably never see anything like it again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Apart from some aspects of Major Dundee, nothing in Peckinpah\u2019s previous directing efforts gives any hint at all at what was to come when The Wild Bunch finally burst onto the screen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It is without doubt the pinnacle of his career, a masterpiece in every sense of the word.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Any Western that followed in the footsteps of The Wild Bunch would forever be measured against a movie that not only challenged the rules of what could and could not be shown on the screen but finally set the seal on the ascent of the Hollywood maverick director. And Peckinpah was the biggest maverick of all.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">If the overall theme of the movie is the passing of the West and \u2018men out of their time\u2019, then it was also a curtain call for a group of actors who between them had worked considerably within the Western genre over a number of years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4449\" src=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/The-Wild-Bunch-2.jpg\" alt=\"The Wild Bunch image\" width=\"519\" height=\"393\" \/>William Holden as gang leader Pike Bishop, Ernest Borgnine as Dutch, Ben Johnson as Tector Gorch, Edmond O\u2019Brien and the underrated Robert Ryan give career-best performances, with the likes of Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones and Warren Oates as Lyle Gorch bolstering the cast.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The movie is topped and tailed by two celebrated sequences of slow-motion bloodletting and orgiastic violence that has to be seen to be believed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Even after nearly fifty years the film still manages to shock in its depiction of violent death and callous disregard for human life.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There\u2019s a theory that this was all due to the influence at the time of the Vietnam War but that\u2019s not an opinion I subscribe to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Wild Bunch is an invitation to view the world through the vision of a director not afraid to show what it looks like when a bullet pierces the flesh, when men turn on each other, when they are loyal to each other despite the consequences and the bloody result of those consequences shown in all its graphic horror.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">There are so many brilliant moments and set pieces in this film that a short review such as this cannot do the film justice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The scene, for instance, in which Ryan, as Deke Thornton, one-time gang member turned bounty hunter and his fellow posse members ride across a bridge primed with explosives that disintegrates beneath them is forever seared in the memory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The moment prior to the climactic bloody shoot-out when the four remaining gang members, Pike, Dutch, Lyle and Tector decide to liberate Angel, their Mexican companion, from the clutches of Mapache, the corrupt Mexican general, the four of them marching in unison to a certain death accompanied by the clashing cymbals and drum beat of Jerry Fielding\u2019s superb soundtrack.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I could go on but you really need to see this film for yourself in order to judge how superb The Wild Bunch is.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I\u2019ve used the old clich\u00e9, \u201cthey don\u2019t make films like this anymore\u201d numerous times over the past few years when reviewing Western movies. Not only do they not make films like The Wild Bunch any more, but the fact is that sadly, in a world constrained by political correctness in which freedom of speech is constantly challenged and repressed, there\u2019s no way in hell a film like this could be made today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I severely doubt that the recently announced <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/2018\/09\/mel-gibson-the-wild-bunch-remake-directing-writing-warner-bros-sam-peckinpah-1202470272\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">remake of The Wild Bunch by Mel Gibson<\/a> will be anywhere near as good as the original.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In the final analysis, you either hate The Wild Bunch or you love it. For those of you who love it &#8211; we ride at dawn!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Part 2 of The Best Western Movies of The 1960&#8217;s From my Childhood Catch up with the first part of my Best Western Movies of the 1960s including the introduction and the first five &#8211; not in any particular order &#8230; <a title=\"Best Western Movies of the 1960s Part 2\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/best-western-movies-1960s\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Best Western Movies of the 1960s Part 2\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[112,106],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4442"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4455,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4442\/revisions\/4455"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostlywesterns.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}