"The Wild Bunch" wasn't just Peckinpah's best movie -- it is still one of the four or five best westerns ever made AND one of the Top 100 films in movie history. An amazing accomplishment.
A truly unique and original individual. Sam was a brilliant director and made some great films in spite of his constant battles with studio executives. Just imagine the phenomenal films he could have made if only the suits and bean counters had left him alone. Sam Peckinpah was a genius and made some remarkable films that are among the best ever produced. 👏👏👏
From David A. Wood: Hello today (Wednesday, August 20, 2024), fellow RU-vidrs! David from Kettering, Ohio is here this afternoon. I am going to do something that I wanted to do on a Sunday afternoon last April but could not because of an unfortunate interruption at the time. I want to write about my feelings concerning the monumentally compelling 1977 Sam Peckinpah movie "Cross of Iron." "Cross of Iron" is not only my favorite Sam Peckinpah movie, it is also still is, after all of these years, my all-time favorite War Movie. I was lucky enough to have seen the visually arresting, emotionally gripping, and ultimately ultra-violent movie during its theatrical run twice at the Loew's Ames that had been located in North Dayton. The first time was on Wednesday, May 25, 1977 and the second time was on Sunday, May 29, 1977. When I first saw "Cross of Iron" I was an intellectually curious and emotionally earnest Seventh Grader living in Dayton, Ohio who had copiously read about Military History as a childhood hobby. I was also just beginning my eight year-run of going to the Cinema as a youthful hobby. I first heard of "Cross of Iron" when I went to the Loew's on the evening of Wednesday, May 11, 1977 to see a cinematic double-header, the two, very lengthy Godfather films. The one striking thing, and also the first thing, that I loved about "Cross of Iron" was its German Childhood Nursery Rhyme theme song, which was an imaginatively touching juxtaposition against all of the grimly realistic mega-violence that would be presented later on within the film. I also loved how the theme song, whose name has unfortunately eluded me, played alongside actual newsreels showing the wartime progress of the German Military between 1940 to 1943. Most of all, what I loved about "Cross of Iron," which was Sam Peckinpah's only War Film, was its realistic depiction of German Army soldiers. Up to that point, especially in American and British War Films from the 1950s and 1960s, the "good guys" were always American and/or British characters and the German characters of any typical World War Two film from the immediate Post War years were mostly depicted as being stereotypically horrible Nazis or being despicably sympathetic to the World War Two goals of the ruling Nazis. In Peckinpah's 1977 film, the characters, played by actors mostly coming from what was then the nation of West Germany, were presented as multi-dimensional people instead of just boring one-dimensional characters, which was one of the things that I enjoyed when watching "Cross of Iron." The fourth thing that I loved about "Cross of Iron" was its cinematically propulsive and graphically realistic depiction of deadly Wartime Combat with all of its brutal and often sudden violence. In previous War Films, the only exception being 1967's strategically exciting "The Dirty Dozen," Military Combat was always presented, rather wrongly in my opinion, as being appropriately masculine, glamorously exciting, and bloodlessly clean instead of what War always has been and still truly is, a torturously lengthy, excessively sanguinary, relentlessly deadly, and socially uprooting/mentally destroying experience that physically/emotionally damages those "lucky" survivors of a gruesome military conflict...forever! The final thing that I enjoyed about "Cross of Iron" was its attention to period detail, which was probably aided by the movie being filmed in what was once the nation of Yugoslavia, which was a theater of intense Wartime Combat during the Second World War and as such, the Balkan country still had a great deal of World War Two uniforms and leftover military equipment from that turbulent historical period. All in all, Sam Peckinpah's only War Film is still my favorite War Film, and though I do not receive the heady rush of Emotion that I received when I first saw it, I still unabashedly enjoy watching "Cross of Iron!" Nuff Said and Peace Out from Kettering, Ohio, everybody. ☮️ 🇩🇪 🇺🇸😃👋✌️👍
Cross of Iron (1977) is Sam Peckinpah most underrated film. Lost money, didn't play well in the United States, no American soldiers. Still one of the best war movies ever made. What gets me IMDB rates Convoy 6.4 yet rates Cross of Iron 7.4 so list is not accurate.
no 5 Billy the kid no 4 Convoy no 3 goes jointly to Major DunDee/the Wild Bunch no 2 Ride the High Country gets the no 2 spot ( i love this film,but it just loses out to my no1 no 1 just has to be the Getaway , this is possible Steve McQueen at his screen best ? & the chemestry between him & Ali is pure magic making this film always a pleasure to watch...
You should have also included 'Cross of Iron' in your list. Sam Peckinpah and Stanley Kubrick were the two greatest and most difficult directors ever. It is the price that you pay to see these two geniuses' masterpieces.
While not a fan of explicit violence in film (too much of that IRL), I was interested in what motivated Sam to make them. In reading up on him, found that he served in the Marines beginning in 1943 in China, part of a group to oversee the disarming and repatriation of Japanese soldiers. He witnessed many acts of (vengeful) brutality by the Chinese against the Japanese, including torture and murder. The Marines were not permitted by their command to intervene. He also began his lifelong descent into alcoholism during this period. According to some, he also suffered from mental illness (likely intensified by his alcoholism), including manic depression and paranoia. All these may in part contribute to an understanding of his combative relations with many in the industry, and in his personal life. Yet there were also many in the industry devoted to him, who remained lifelong supporters. Life is stranger than fiction....
Thank you for that information, people are always products of their environment and experiences and I can see how this is relevant with Mr. Peckinpah .
Great video. While I know you are doing Peckinpah''s 10 best films it is worth noting that the 4 episodes of the TV Series 'Rifleman' that he directed rate 8.3 on IMDb. This is higher than most of the movies in this video.
Ride the High Country is my favorite featuring a wonderful ride into the sunset by cowboy movie legends Scott and McCrea. It is also far lighter to deal with than the ultra violent Wild Bunch; that admittedly is an outstanding "last gasp" Western.
In My Opinion “The Wild Bunch” Has To Be Sam Peckinpah’s Best Work Followed By “Ride The High Country” Then “Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid” Followed By “The Getaway,” Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia,” “Major Dundee,” “Straw Dogs”.
Bob Fosse took the movie musical and added a autobiographical, seedier element to make them grittier. Fosse’s Cabaret is a low class burlesque drag club in Pre-WWII Germany. Joel Grey is phenomenal as the MC. One of the saddest parts of entertainment in the 21st Century is the demise of the Night Club as a legitimate place to go to have a dinner, some drinks and see quality singers, dancers and comedians. Everyone from Eddie Cantor in the 1920’s and I am sure others before him to Sinatra, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin became huge stars by playing in Night Clubs. It was so normal that tons of movies have night club scenes in them.
Saw this movie when I was 14 years old. It left a lasting impression on me as I knew I had seen something very special. Still my favorite Peckinpah movie to this day..
Actually made 14. 1961 The Deadly Companions 1962 Ride the High Country 1965 Major Dundee 1969 The Wild Bunch 1970 The Ballad of Cable Hogue 1971 Straw Dogs 1972 Junior Bonner 1972 The Getaway 1973 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid 1974 Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia 1975 The Killer Elite 1977 Cross of Iron 1978 Convoy 1983 The Osterman Weekend
My name is hard to pronounce, a bunch of consonants and vowels that don't make a lot of sense, and my father always joked when people asked him how to pronounce it, "Just like it's spelled."
