So you have your revisionist Westerns, and I guess you have your revisionist reviews. I guess this is one of those. With the reputation of "The Wild Bunch", I'm just not seeing what all the fuss is about. The story is basically about two hard cases (Holden as Bishop, Borgnine as Dutch) teamed up with two relatively pragmatic brothers (Oates and Johnson as the Gorches), and a Mexican (Jaime Sanchez) along for the ride. They're a gang of outlaws, so it was never a question of this viewer finding anything remotely plausible to identify with regarding their circumstances. Their mission of running guns to the Mexicans is over long and tedious, and I just lost interest. When that happens, I just don't care about the outcome. With this film, that's saying a lot, because if you're a Western fan, you've probably heard about it before you've had a chance to see it. With the hype comes an expectation, and when that expectation isn't met, the result is a let down. Even the confrontation that's posited throughout the story, that of Deke Thornton tracking down the bad guys within thirty days or else - doesn't happen. There is no 'or else'. Presumably Harrigan (Albert Dekker) didn't have to pay up, and Robert Ryan's character goes home empty handed.
Too bad really, it was a fine cast and something could have reasonably been done with the basic plot. But it was aimless, and took a long time getting there. In my estimation, along with "The Searchers", two of the most overrated movies of the Western genre. For the record though, "The Searchers" was better.
Too bad really, it was a fine cast and something could have reasonably been done with the basic plot. But it was aimless, and took a long time getting there. In my estimation, along with "The Searchers", two of the most overrated movies of the Western genre. For the record though, "The Searchers" was better.