tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294916540840535575.post73569547052298086..comments2024-03-22T08:29:01.459-07:00Comments on Are the hills going to march off?: The Wild Bunch (1969) A Film by Sam PeckinpahCarson Lundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10164962777812861110noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294916540840535575.post-88044588170651511152010-04-18T21:45:25.427-07:002010-04-18T21:45:25.427-07:00Thanks for your expertise, Adam. I'll be sure ...Thanks for your expertise, Adam. I'll be sure to check those out first, although I have seen <i>Straw Dogs</i>.Carson Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10164962777812861110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294916540840535575.post-75052798893654881132010-04-18T01:17:32.358-07:002010-04-18T01:17:32.358-07:00Carson, if you're in need of recommendations, ...Carson, if you're in need of recommendations, I strongly recommend watching either <i>Ride the High Country</i> or <i>Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia</i> next. These three films are his masterpieces, in my opinion. His "flawed great films", to me, are <i>Straw Dogs, The Ballad of Cable Hogue</i> and <i>Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid</i>.<br /><br />I'm conflicted on <i>The Getaway</i>, which I consider little more than amusing. <i>Cross of Iron</i> is a curious case, though. I'm not sure if it's good, great, or not very good at all. This may be due to the poor Fullscreen DVD transfer currently in print.Adam Zanziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294916540840535575.post-65029048502636198092010-04-17T21:44:48.544-07:002010-04-17T21:44:48.544-07:00Thanks for the kind words, Doniphon. I know a good...Thanks for the kind words, Doniphon. I know a good amount of people who hold Peckinpah in high regard. I haven't become a big fan as of yet, but I can definitely see what's so stirring, raw, and complex about <i>The Wild Bunch</i>. This was actually a paper I wrote for a class in which the purpose was to emphasize the importance of the film as a part of the New American Cinema, which probably forced me to overemphasize his distance from John Ford. <br /><br />Adam, I agree that Peckinpah is a more fascinating director. Thanks for commenting.Carson Lundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10164962777812861110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294916540840535575.post-16057983115009288782010-04-17T13:54:32.443-07:002010-04-17T13:54:32.443-07:00Amazing work here, Carson. The Wild Bunch is my al...Amazing work here, Carson. <i>The Wild Bunch</i> is my all time favorite Western: the kind of Western I might have wanted to make. Between Peckinpah and Sergio Leone, I prefer Peckinpah, who pushes the violence throttle to such an uncomfortable extreme that his movies are ultimately against violence. You don't much get that with Leone, whom I love, but whom I don't find as fascinating.Adam Zanziehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14524618281515322239noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-294916540840535575.post-84729919333661400772010-04-16T15:10:32.390-07:002010-04-16T15:10:32.390-07:00Peckinpah is one of my favorite filmmakers, and I ...Peckinpah is one of my favorite filmmakers, and I think you are right to point out that he is not the nasty, misogynistic right wing fascist he is often characterized as today, and that his films are complex in a way that people still find uncomfortable. I would hesitate to position him too far from John Ford, though, and I think that in recognizing the genre values still present in The Wild Bunch you note that. In many ways he's updating many of Ford's themes, and certainly the way Peckinpah deals with progress and loss in his films could be characterized as Fordian. That's why I'd actually disagree with the assertion often made that Peckinpah "reinvented" the western, or that he made so-called anti-westerns. Peckinpah presents a more grotesque world than Ford's or Hawkss, but he retains the moral relations between these characters. That line you mention involving becoming like an animal is so important. Yes, these men are bandits and killers, but the values of the genre still define them, and in that sense they are still heroic (albeit in an extremely complex way).Doniphonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02407443845368110678noreply@blogger.com