The Wild Bunch is a famous western film known for its unprecedented level of gun violence, with around 90,000 blanks fired during filming. It has influenced filmmakers like John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese. The film was almost given an “X” rating for violence, and its portrayal of the West as corrupt and futile was groundbreaking. The film also features interesting trivia, such as actor Ernest Borgnine’s real-life injury and the famous line “If they move, kill them.”
The Wild Bunch is an iconic western film directed by Sam Peckinpah. It is famous for a level of gun violence never before seen in American cinema. In fact, it is believed that around 90,000 blanks were fired during the making of the film. Supposedly, there were more blanks fired during the filming of The Wild Bunch than live shots fired during the Mexican Revolution of 1916, the event on which the film was loosely based.
The Wild Bunch was influential enough that John Woo, Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese have described it as a landmark film that has influenced their views on filmmaking and filmmaking. The level of violence was so evident that the Motion Picture Association of America threatened it with an “X” rating (NC-17 had not yet been introduced), although the MPAA ultimately went with an “R” rating for the theatrical release. In his review published in the New York Times on June 26, 1969, Vincent Can wrote: “The Wild Bunch takes the basic elements of the myth of western cinema, which once defined a simple and morally understandable world, and bending them transforms them into symbols of futility and aimless corruption.
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Actor Ernest Borgnine didn’t have to fake his limp in the film. He had broken his foot while filming an earlier film and wore a cast while filming.
The line “If they move, kill them” was voted no. 72 in a list of “100 Greatest Movie Lines” in 2007 by Premiere magazine.
Sam Peckinpah estimated that he shot approximately 333,000 feet (101,000 m) of film for the film.
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