The Wild Bunch2025-03-18
Vancouver, BC
"It ain't like it used to be, but it'll do."
The western to end all westerns -- even if there's a handful of other films that have just as rightful of a claim to that title (mainly thinking of Once Upon a Time in the West and Unforgiven). Alike Red River in the way it dissects what it means to age against the looming emergence of the new guard, but Sam Peckinpah's cutthroat style, having been freed from the clutches of the Hays Code, makes for such an inherently violent film that I can't help but feel that this really is forcefully closing the curtains on the classic western. So poetic in its suggestion that there maybe really isn't an alternative on the other side when you've truly lived an experience your entire life.
Watched at the VIFF Centre in Vancouver. This was their March 2025 presentation in their Pantheon series. After having read so much about Peckinpah in Quentin Tarantino's Cinema Speculation, I'm glad to finally catch something from his filmography, and in a theatrical setting to boot! This desperately needs a 4K remaster.