There’s a lot of recent talk of a “loneliness epidemic” for modern American men. In 1913, on the cusp of World War I, The Wild Bunch is wrapped up like the opposite — a gang of world-weary male antiheroes who kill, strum guitars, don their dirty hats, hook up with prostitutes, and ride at dawn, all in the company of one another. Yet what’s the point? The film seems to beg, still riding the undercurrent of — you guessed it — loneliness. The sepia dreamscape and downright poetic action scenes are made even more shocking, coated in the blood of lives lost as the men put the “wild” in Wild West. “Seeing this restored version is like understanding the film at last,” stated Roger Ebert 30 years ago when this version was released. Let us know if you agree. (Sam Peckinpah, US, 1969, 145 min.)
“One of the great defining moments of modern movies.” —Roger Ebert