W.K. Stratton's definitive history of the making of The Wild Bunch,
named one of the greatest Westerns of all time by the American Film
Institute.
Sam Peckinpah's film The Wild Bunch is the story of a gang of outlaws
who are one big steal from retirement. When their attempted train
robbery goes awry, the gang flees to Mexico and falls in with a brutal
general of the Mexican Revolution, who offers them the job of a
lifetime. Conceived by a stuntman, directed by a blacklisted director,
and shot in the sand and heat of the Mexican desert, the movie seemed
doomed. Instead, it became an instant classic with a dark, violent take
on the Western movie tradition.
Fifty years after its release, W.K. Stratton tells the fascinating
history of the movie and documents for the first time the extraordinary
contribution of Mexican and Mexican-American actors and crew members to
its success. Shaped by infamous director Sam Peckinpah, and starring
such visionary actors as William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond
O'Brien, and Robert Ryan, the movie was also the product of an industry
and a nation in transition. By 1968, when it was being filmed, the
studio system that had perpetuated the myth of the valiant cowboy in
movies like The Searchers had collapsed, and America was riled by
Vietnam, race riots, and assassinations. The Wild Bunch spoke to the
country when war and senseless violence seemed to define both domestic
and international life. Stratton's The Wild Bunch is the authoritative
history of the making of a movie and the era behind it.
