The Wild Bunch + panel discussion

At the end of the 1960s, The Wild Bunch responded to the horrors that America was experiencing at home and abroad. It did so with violence and despair.

A group of aging bank robbers, led by William Holden’s Pike Bishop, flee into Mexico only to find there is no place to hide. Their only choice: to decide how and when things should end.

In one of the greatest casts gathered for a single film, Holden is supported by a gallery of wizened old timers including Robert Ryan, Edmund O’Brien and Ernest Borgnine, Peckinpah regulars Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, LQ Jones, Bo Hopkins and Dub Taylor – and in addition, if that was not enough, Emilio Fernández, the legendary Mexican film director, writer, actor.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest westerns ever made, The Wild Bunch is a film that redefined what action on screen might look and sound like. Utilising widescreen cinematography (by Lucien Ballard), slow motion and montage style editing (by Lou Lombardo), Peckinpah’s approach to creating action on screen would influence future representations of violent action for decades to come.

Event/ This screening will be following by a panel discussion featuring Andy Willis (Senior Visiting Curator: Film at HOME) and Christina Newland (Writer, broadcaster and journalist).