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The Wild Bunch directed by Sam Peckinpah is probably the best Western Film ever made. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a close second.

It's a good film but I saw it last year for the first time and didn't really see why is gets so much praise.

Originally posted by MildPossession
It's a good film but I saw it last year for the first time and didn't really see why is gets so much praise.

The final shooting of the film was very violent for it's time. Even though Spaghetti Westerns were the first to depic extreme acts of violence in a western movie. The Wild Bunch (because it was made by an American Studio) got more recognition for it's over the top shooting and realism.

There is also the controversy of four Americanos (gringos) killing Mexicans left and right...that didn't set too well with Mexican-Americans. Even worse this was around the time Cesar Chavez was organizing protests agaisnt California farm labor organizers.

It's a great film with hidden symbolism and controversy.

Never trust Mexicans with our borders was also consider the message of the film.

Got to see The Wild Bunch in a theatre in a restored print, first time I saw it. One of my five favourite westerns, along with Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid (interestingly, coming out the same year & about the SAME group of outlaws), Once Upon A Time In The West, The Outlaw Josey Wales (kind of a mid-westerner, instead of a western), and Unforgiven, maybe the greatest of all.
John Ford made a lot of important movies that were westerns - important in how they moved along the evolution of cinema from the 1930's to the 1960's - but his films contained some racist messages he tried to repent for by the time he made Cheyenne Autumn. For me, the western means Sergio Leone, Sam Peckinpah, and Clint Eastwood.

It was a groundbreaking film for its time. The directors cut is better. I still stand by what I said. Best western ever.

I absolutely love this film, this film paved the way for ultra-violent films. The final shoot-out scene gets me hard, seriously.