YMMV / The Wild Bunch

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • While the Mexican Federals under Mapache are portrayed as corrupt and antagonists, take another look at just who the gang is gunning down, and then being gunned down by, in the final battle. It's not just soldiers, thugs, and officials, but normal townspeople including women and children. From the Mexican's perspective, Mapache is a generous warlord who's brought impoverished people expensive imports and is protecting them from the rebels. Rewatching the final gunfight now looks like a town trying to come together and fight back against a pack of foreign criminals after their lead official is shot down right in front of them.
  • As mentioned elsewhere, Dutch being in love with Pike is a popular interpretation. Most notably, he stays outside whittling his own stick while Pike and the Gorch brothers visit the prostitutes.
  • Also, Deke having feelings for Pike, and perhaps being jealous of Dutch, has been examined, making Pike, Dutch and Deke a bit of Love Triangle.
  • Angel as a Messianic Archetype, with Mapache as Pilate and Dutch as a cross between Peter and Judas. Jaime Sánchez says he approached the scene with that interpretation in mind, and Peckinpah, who, besides all his famous vices, was an avid reader of The Bible, may well have intended that subtext.
• Angst? What Angst?: The extended edition reveals that Crazy Lee was Freddie Sykes' grandson. The old man doesn't seem too broken up about his death.
• Award Snub: Its only Academy Award nominations were for screenplay and score, and it lost both, not even being up for Best Picture or Director. Lou Lombardo's groundbreaking editing work not even getting nominated is a particularly puzzling snub.
• Funny Moments:
  "You was matching whores, in tandem!"
  "What's that mean?"
  "That's one behind the other."
  "Yup, that what we was doing!"
  • Several of Mapache's men completely lose control of the machine gun when testing it out and shoot up the whole square to Overly Long Gag levels. Then they finally get it turned off, and one of them is stupid enough to pick it up and set it off again. Prior to the scene, poor Mohr is losing his mind yelling "IT MUST BE MOUNTED ON A TRIPOD" while Mapache tells him to shut up.
  • After the train heist the Bunch share a bottle liquor with everybody getting to take a swing...except Lyle who watches more and more anxiously as the bottle goes around until Angel finally finishes it and throws it to Lyle, who drops it on the ground and walks away in a huff. The Bunch promptly burst out laughing.
  • Deke and his posse are tracking the Bunch and learn that they're heading for a Mexican town. Deke asks what's there and Coffer replies, "Mexicans, what else?" The posse laughs, while Deke regrets his life choices.
• Ho Yay:
  • Pike and Dutch.
  • Coffer and T.C.. In fact, this was done deliberately by the actors, and Sam Peckinpah approved.
• It Was His Sled: The sudden appearance of Mapache's car is supposed to be a genuine shocker, informing the audience that a film we thought was taking place deep in The Wild West era was actually set in the Twentieth Century. But practically every write-up about the film notes that it takes place in 1913 (or thereabouts), and usually mentions the car, so the Intended Audience Reaction was long ago eclipsed.
• Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: In a film with bandits, bounty hunters and a crooked general, Harrigan, the belligerent asshole railroad baron stands out as being the most unsympathetic character in the film, showing absolutely no regard for the lives lost in the opening shoot-out and lacking even a sense of humour that even the more depraved characters have. Amazingly, he's not among the many many people who die in the film.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Both Pike and Deke reminisce on their separation. It's clear that both men regret how the circumstances. In fact, Sam Peckinpah had a hard time calling cut on the "I wouldn't have it any other way" bit because he was crying himself.
  • After the final shootout is over, Thornton and his band of bounty hunters come across the wreckage. As his subordinates are gleefully looting the dead, Thornton stops in his tracks when he comes across Pike's body. The camera zooms in on the six-shooter Pike has holstered which Thornton picks up. The look on his face while he's cradling it is just heartwrenching.
• Values Resonance: Its depiction of the unrest between the US and Mexico border is still as relevant as it was half a century ago.

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