Any prospect of The Wild Bunch getting a plush rerelease?

[Kit_Taylor]

Cracking film and I've just ordered the DVD after unearthing an old VHS copy, but although the current DVD is a nonanamorphic flipper they've already went to the trouble of creating a 5.1 remix and restoring the print, so I'm not hopeful of an SE release.

I suppose it's just a dream but is there any prospect of Criterion picking it up? Seeing it's such as textured film with plenty of history in it it's ripe for an expert commentary, and from what I've read of him Sam Peckinpah sounds as interesting as the film itself, what with his troubled psyche and right wing views.

Anyone know anything?

[Mike]

Nil chance of Criterion getting hold of it since Warners never, to my knowledge, license their titles out to other DVD labels.

A special edition seems a remote possibility - perhaps in 2004 when the film is 35 years old - but I wouldn't hold your breath. Anyone interested in Sam should get hold of the 1992 BBC Documentary "Man Of Iron" if you want to know more, or read David Weddle's excellent biography. Then watch "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia", "Straw Dogs", "Junior Bonner", and "Pat Garratt And Billy The Kid", all of which are almost up there with "The Wild Bunch" and all of which serve as rounded examples of his world view and filmmaking skill.

As for Sam's politics, apart from his views towards gun control, he was politically liberal in so far as he had any political affiliations at all. In many ways, he was an ageing hippie. His views on the "nature of the beast" are beyond politics and go into much more profound areas of human existence (rather like John Milius's, although Milius is a more straightforward Reaganite right-winger). He has a very pessimistic view of the inherent urge to violence in the male, largely based on his own experience, and his basic philosophy is summed up rather well by the Chinese proverb which supplies "Straw Dogs" with its title. Peckinpah despised the Vietnam War and had no time at all for either Johnson or Nixon - his hatred of Nixon and other Republicans verged on the pathological. As for his treatment of women, it is much too complex to simply be labelled sexist or misogynist - he loved them and hated them at the same time and they, for some reason, seemed to love him. They certainly kept coming back to him for whatever reason.

You're right about the troubled psyche though - although alcoholism and drug abuse have more to do with it than inherent psychiatric difficulties.

The problem with Special Editions of Peckinpah's work is that he still isn't all that critically fashionable in the way that, say, Howard Hawks or John Ford are. I think there are about three or four writers who have produced anything worthwhile on his filmmaking, and one of those - Pauline Kael - is no longer with us. There's a great book to be written about "Straw Dogs" which challenges the tedious and blatantly wrong assumptions about it which still keep it unreleased on UK Video - but I don't see anyone writing it and I doubt there's much interest in his work from the film lists of the various publishers. Even Weddle's biography is better on the period up to 1969 than the last 15 years.

Fashionable or not, Peckinpah is, imo, the greatest of all American filmmakers. He deserves a lot better than he gets at the moment.

[Narshty]

I heard that his final film, the curious but thrilling "The Osterman Weekend" was heavily re-edited by the studio, leaving barely any trace of its director behind. I really liked it, even for all its flaws.

A bit of a cult thriller, like Blood Simple used to be, that needs an Anchor Bay whizz-popping SE release.

[John Hodson]

There are some scenes in Pat Garratt And Billy The Kid - and I'm thinking particularly of the raft on the river scene - that ranks amongst the best work Peckinpah produced. Weddle's biography reveals an alchoholic, self-destructive filmaker, who could hit dizzying heights of cinematic genius.

The Wild Bunch is simply one of the best westerns ever made. People found - find - it hard to get past the slow motion scenes of gut wrenching violence (Monty Python's Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days anyone?), but when he was at his best, and on the (very rare occasions the studios gave him his head (or re-released directors cuts in the case of The Wild Bunch and - post mortem - Pat Garrett ), he produced films of great humanity, intelligence and beauty.

Give the man his due; a feature packed box set.

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So many films, so little time...

[Mike]

If only the re-edit of "PGABTK" included the scene between Garratt and his wife, it would be perfect.

[Joe91]

Nil chance of Criterion getting hold of it since Warners never, to my knowledge, license their titles out to other DVD labels.
I agree that there is no chance of Criterion releasing a DVD now, but just to be pedantic, Warner Bros have licensed a number of titles to Momentum for (so-called) special editions comprising of a book, a big box, and little else :(.

Back in the days of laserdiscs, Criterion released a few Warner films on disc - 'Blade Runner' for example.