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Books
DOING IT RIGHT:
THE BEST CRITICISM ON SAM PECKINPAH'S
THE WILD BUNCH
Michael Bliss,
ed.,
(Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University
Press, 1994)
Illustrated.
224 pages.
Paperback.
ISBN: 978-0809318636
Review by Dr.
Kirk Bane,
Central Texas Historical Association
February 3, 2024 |
Skillfully
directed by Sam Peckinpah and featuring a brilliant cast, which includes
William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, Edmond
O'Brien, and Robert Ryan, THE WILD BUNCH ranks as one of cinema's
greatest Westerns. Released in 1969, the film was exceptionally realistic,
full of grime and gore. "It's a very uncompromising film," asserted
Peckinpah at the time, "the language, the action, the details, the
lives of these people are as I imagine they were. We tried to recreate
an environment, an era, and I think we were reasonably successful
with it. It's a disturbing film; people who've seen it call it a shattering
film. The strange thing is that you feel a great sense of loss when
these killers reach the end of the line." Indeed, those who've seen
THE WILD BUNCH will never forget the film, particularly its brutal
conclusion, The Battle of Bloody Porch, in which the aging desperadoes
meet their violent demise.
Comprised of eleven pieces written by both journalists and academics,
this book offers, as the subtitle states, "the best criticism" on
Peckinpah's masterwork. The essays date from 1969 to 1994 and initially
appeared in such publications as FILM QUARTERLY, CINEMA, FILM HERITAGE,
WESTERN HUMANITIES REVIEW, and THE NEW YORK TIMES. Excerpts from several
important books, such as HORIZONS WEST (1969) by Jim Kitses, Paul
Seydor's PECKINPAH: THE WESTERN FILMS (1980) and JUSTIFIED LIVES:
MORALITY AND NARRATIVE IN THE FILMS OF SAM PECKINPAH (1993) by Michael
Bliss, are also included.
"Both praised and condemned, THE WILD BUNCH incites agreement on at
least one point: it is one of the most influential motion pictures
ever made," contends Bliss. "Directed and cowritten by Sam Peckinpah…the
film is the director's masterpiece. Nowhere else in Peckinpah's work
does there exist such a powerful and effective meeting of form and
content, stylistics and theme, casting and character. When he finished
editing the film, Peckinpah pronounced himself 94 to 96 percent satisfied
with the results; for those of us who have been studying and admiring
the film ever since, the degree of satisfaction is even higher." Well
stated.
Note One: Several superb books have been written about THE
WILD BUNCH, its making, reception, and legacy. These include Stephen
Prince's SAM PECKINPAH'S THE WILD BUNCH (1999), W. K. Stratton's THE
WILD BUNCH: SAM PECKINPAH, A REVOLUTION IN HOLLYWOOD, AND THE MAKING
OF A LEGENDARY FILM (2019), and THE WILD BUNCH: THE AMERICAN CLASSIC
THAT CHANGED WESTERNS FOREVER (2019) by Bill Mesce, Jr. Moreover,
Professor Bliss has edited a new collection of trenchant essays about
the picture, A UNIQUELY AMERICAN EPIC: INTIMACY AND ACTION, TENDERNESS
AND VIOLENCE IN SAM PECKINPAH'S THE WILD BUNCH (2019).
Note Two: In addition to his work on Peckinpah, Dr. Bliss,
who teaches at Virginia Tech University, has authored such studies
as MARTIN SCORSESE AND MICHAEL CIMINO (1986), WHAT GOES AROUND COMES
AROUND: THE FILMS OF JONATHAN DEMME (1996), and DREAMS WITHIN A DREAM:
THE FILMS OF PETER WEIR (2000). |
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