The Wild Bunch Sociology

Representing the Western genre, which was once popular, but started to be worn-out by the 50s, The Wild Bunch was a surprising reassessment of the American Old West. Instead of portraying lonely ’knights’ who discover the wild territories while looking for adventures, the film focused on aging outlaws whose possibilities and future prospects became limited and only their honour code is left for them. The gang tries to survive at any costs throughout the story – therefore the movie contains cruel killing scenes. The Wild Bunch, because of its violence, was immediately criticised by many.
Peckinpah was already under the influence of Penn’s film. The daring use of shootout sequences and the slow motion camera technique inspired him greatly. Looking back, it is not a surprise at all, that the picture Peckinpah directed was an amalgamation of …show more content…
“Always ready with a diagnosis of the latest pop-culture trends, in 1967 Time magazine referred to "the shock of freedom" in the new Hollywood films” (Prince 16).
Thirdly, they delivered a more realistic viewing experience in terms of violence. This meant that after the figurative portrayals of wounds and blood in classical cinema the creators concentrated on a more real depiction of injuries and deaths. The fact of dying became more ’physical’ (Pechter qtd. in Grønstad 130). Grønstad’s findings lend support to this claim, also stressing that “the construction of a new viewing position for the audience of film violence” was a valuable achievement, especially in Peckinpah’s films (154).
Even so, the shocking illustrations happened to be perceived as a controversial matter. Especially, by mainstream viewers and critics, who thought that violence is acceptable only “as long as it takes place within a clearly defined moral setting that contains the