Retrospective Film Review

The Wild Bunch (1969) • 55 Years Later — the film that destroyed American myth

An ageing group of outlaws look for one last big score as the “traditional” American West is disappearing around them.

The year is 1913. A posse of men with leathery faces, windswept hair, and downturned mouths stride into a railroad payroll office — guns drawn. These men are outlaws, remnants of a bygone era. They are not the heroes folklore has made them out to be. They are barely heroes at all: blood on their hands and dust on their clothes, there is nothing glamorous about their existence. These mythical figures are demystified before our very eyes.

Pike Bishop (William Holden) hoped this heist would have been his final job. Leader of a notorious gang, he guides his men through unforgiving terrain, desperately evading capture. His former partner, Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), is in close pursuit, leading his posse in a relentless chase. As Pike leads his ragtag crew from town to town, ceaselessly moving to stay ahead of the law, it becomes clear that these ageing outlaws…