The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film

by W. K. Stratton

Overview

W.K. Stratton's definitive history of the making of The Wild Bunch, named one of the greatest Westerns of all time by the American Film Institute.

Sam Peckinpah's film The Wild Bunch is the story of a gang of outlaws who are one big steal from retirement. When their attempted train robbery goes awry, the gang flees to Mexico and falls in with a brutal general of the Mexican Revolution, who offers them the job of a lifetime. Conceived by a stuntman, directed by a blacklisted director, and shot in the sand and heat of the Mexican desert, the movie seemed doomed. Instead, it became an instant classic with a dark, violent take on the Western movie tradition.

Fifty years after its release, W.K. Stratton tells the fascinating history of the movie and documents for the first time the extraordinary contribution of Mexican and Mexican-American actors and crew members to its success. Shaped by infamous director Sam Peckinpah, and starring such visionary actors as William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Edmond O'Brien, and Robert Ryan, the movie was also the product of an industry and a nation in transition. By 1968, when it was being filmed, the studio system that had perpetuated the myth of the valiant cowboy in movies like The Searchers had collapsed, and America was riled by Vietnam, race riots, and assassinations. The Wild Bunch spoke to the country when war and senseless violence seemed to define both domestic and international life. Stratton's The Wild Bunch is the authoritative history of the making of a movie and the era behind it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632862136
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	05/05/2020
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	1,014,829
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

W.K. Stratton is the author of five books of nonfiction and three of poetry. He has written for Sports Illustrated, Outside, GQ, and Texas Monthly, and was named a fellow of the Texas Institute of Letters in 2017. He is a longtime resident of Austin, Texas.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Roy N. Sickner was by any measure a piece of work. He was born Roy A. Cooley in Arizona, but his family relocated to Los Angeles when he was young. For all intents and purposes, he was an L.A. kid. Before his twelfth birthday, both his middle and last names changed. His near-lifelong friend Buck Holland remembered him as being a wild guy, even back in junior high school — wild, but also a hell of an athlete and a tough hombre. Sickner told school friends that his father was a full-blood Apache from Tree Branch, Arizona. They bought into it, even if they were not sure where exactly Tree Branch, Arizona, was — or even if it actually existed. As he tore up the football field at Santa Monica High, he did indeed seem like some sort of latter-day Jim Thorpe. He ran faster than anyone else, he was stronger than anyone else, and he possessed a winner's spirit. He also took up skiing and was a natural at it, enough so that he turned pro for a couple of years after high school. (Skiing would remain a passion for him, and eventually on the slopes he met businessmen who helped shape his career.) Beyond his athletic prowess, Sickner could endure endless physical punishment. He kept on keeping on, even if injured, never slowing down. He also indulged in crazy high jinks that filled the whiskey hours between dusk and dawn. He grew up to be one of those 1950s guys who could booze it up all night and still show up early for work to put in a hard, full day, impressing everyone he worked with, even if word spread to use caution before accepting an offer to go out drinking with him.

As an Angeleno with athletic skills and an unbreakable constitution, Sickner found his way into his hometown's highest-profile industry. Filming movies had always required the services of stuntmen, going all the way back to the age of the silent two-reelers. When the fifties turned out to be a golden age of the Western, it upped the need for doubles willing to fall off buildings or be dragged by horses. As with most other things in his life, Sickner was a natural at it. Though he convinced his high school buddies that he was half-Apache, Sickner never became much of a horseman, at least in the estimation of his friend Holland, who joined him as a stuntman. Sickner mastered everything else. He befriended Roy Jenson, another rowdy stuntman and actor, about whom Jenson's friend Texas-born novelist James Crumley wrote, he "makes looking mean, downright rock-hard bad, look easy." Sickner and Jenson developed the reputation for staging fight scenes better than anyone else in the business, using at least in part what they learned in real barroom brawls during the wee hours. By the beginning of the 1960s, Sickner was at the absolute top among the stuntmen working in Hollywood.

The major studios were all but moribund, victims of the passing of the moguls who'd built them, the assault on their audience base by TV, the anti-Hollywood sentiment of the Second Red Scare, the taxing of imported American movies by foreign markets, and the antitrust court rulings that forced the studios to sell off their theater chains. The studios also struggled to adapt to the tastes of a changing America, especially those of younger moviegoers. RKO, one of the Big Five studios, ceased production before the 1950s ended. A television production company, Desilu, owned by Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, bought RKO's facilities and used the soundstages that gave birth to Citizen Kane to churn out thirty-minute installments of idiot-box pabulum.

But the decline of the studio system brought about opportunities in Hollywood that were all but inconceivable twenty years earlier. More and more, the studios were acting as distributors for films made by independent production companies. Often, this absolved the studios of actually investing money and resources into the making of a movie, though sometimes the studios did pony up some production money. A person with Sickner's connections could put together a project and sell it to an independent production company. After that, all involved would have to chase the money, recruit the star power, and then convince a studio that their product was worthy of distribution. If all the pieces fell into place, someone could go from stuntman and bit actor to producer pretty quickly. It just required the right project. The right star connected to it. And the right set of moneymen lined up to support it.

In 1963, Sickner worked stunts on a Yul Brynner flop from United Artists called Kings of the Sun alongside Jenson and another friend, Chuck Hayward, who often doubled for John Wayne. While in Mexico shooting the movie, Sickner began to talk to Hayward about an idea he had for his own film. The main characters were vague, and the storyline rudimentary at best: In the 1870s, a group of gringo outlaws rob a train someplace north of the Rio Grande, then escape to Mexico with a posse hot on their heels. Mexican authorities also get involved with the chase, leading to a big shoot-out at the end. Even though the story wasn't much, Sickner described several action scenes he envisioned. Hayward liked what he heard and added some of his own thoughts to the mix. The two men left Mexico in agreement that this movie concept was something worth pursuing. Within a short time, Sickner was calling his germinating film project The Wild Bunch.

It is unclear exactly how Sickner arrived at that title. The term the wild bunch turns up in King Vidor's 1955 cowboy picture Man Without a Star, in which characters refer to a gang of ruffians by that name in the screenplay written by Borden Chase, himself a onetime driver for a Prohibition-era bootlegger. There's no evidence that movie influenced Sickner in any way. It's likely the wild bunch came from newspaper stories about real-life criminals based in Wyoming working in the late 1800s into the early 1900s. The Wild Bunch was one of the names applied to the criminal operation headed up by Robert Leroy Parker, better known to history as Butch Cassidy. The group was also known as the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. At the time Sickner conceived of his movie, which was years before the Paul Newman/Robert Redford hit movie, Cassidy and the outlaws associated with him were not well-known beyond Wyoming old-timers and a relatively small group of Western historians. Sickner seemed to have some knowledge of Cassidy, however, and mentioned him in conversations around the time he began talking up his ideas for the movie.

Before the term the Wild Bunch was applied to Cassidy and company, newspapers used it widely as the name for an intriguing group of bank and train robbers led by Bill Doolin in Oklahoma and Indian Territories in the 1890s. This Wild Bunch, sometimes called Oklahombres or the Doolin-Dalton Gang (later celebrated by the Eagles on their Desperado album) grew out of the remnants of the Dalton Brothers gang following the demise of its core members on the dusty streets of Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1892. Doolin had been a respected range foreman who turned outlaw rather than surrender to advancing barbed wire and plowed fields in what is now central Oklahoma. Most of the members of this Wild Bunch were like him, cowboys driven to outlawry by changing times and the loss of open range to homesteaders, as well as the cursed advancement of technology. Government leaders and railroad men attempting to "civilize" the area gave Doolin and his compatriots no truck. To a man, Doolin's Wild Bunch were tracked down and killed by deputy U.S. marshals, sheriffs, and posses. Here, too, no evidence suggests that Sickner had this group of plains desperadoes in mind when he chose the title for his movie. Another possibility is that he lifted the title from an early 1940s novel by Ernest Haycox.

Haycox was a Portland, Oregon–based author who published dozens of novels and short stories over twenty years. He distinguished himself by writing with a literary flair absent from the Western books that came before him. Slick magazines such as Collier's serialized his novels and paid him top dollar for his work. A young Sam Peckinpah numbered among the thousands of readers who valued Haycox's writing. Hollywood loved him, too. A dozen or so movies grew out of his stories and novels, including the seminal John Ford film Stagecoach. Such high-profile directors as Cecil B. DeMille and Anthony Mann also directed adaptations of Haycox's work. As someone who worked in the industry, Sickner had to have been aware of the Oregon writer's books and short stories, even if the story Haycox told in his novel The Wild Bunch had nothing in common with Sickner's Mexican shoot-out yarn. However Sickner arrived at The Wild Bunch, he could not have selected a more effective title.

Sickner began exploring the feasibility of his plans for the movie with different people. In 1964, he was hired on to double for Richard Harris in a movie being shot in Mexico, Peckinpah's Major Dundee. Sickner pitched The Wild Bunch to him on location, but Peckinpah was not in a place to be considering future films. He sat at the helm of a disaster in the making, and saving his current project was his sole concern. He would fail at that mission.

(Continues…)

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Table of Contents

The Wild Bunch Roll Call xi

Preface xiii

Introduction: Son of Liberty Valance 1

Part I "A Wild Bunch" 13

Part II "Who the Hell Is They?" 51

Part III "We're Gonna Stick Together Just Like It Used to Be" 81

Part IV "This Time We Do It Right!" 151

Part V "I Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way Either" 187

Part VI "It Ain't Like It Used to Be. But It'll Do" 281

Acknowledgments 307

Sources 313

Notes 319

Index 329

Editorial Reviews

In his detailed and passionately argued history of The Wild Bunch, writer W.K. Stratton takes the debate to a higher level and convincingly positions the film as the best Western ever made-and among the greatest of movies. Stratton collects the kinds of elements required for a lively movie backstory: a talented if irascible director, quirky cast and crew members, a difficult location shoot and a controversial reception by moviegoers and critics. Best of all, he recounts how an idea becomes a film and the creative, economic and fate-driven roadblocks it faces.” —Associated Press

“Reading W.K. Stratton's fine book after watching The Wild Bunch can make for a rich aesthetic feast.” —The Washington Post

“Definitive . . . Stratton's book is part making-of chronicle, part appreciation, part personal reminiscence. . . . He's not a film critic, but a passionate and knowledgeable generalist who knows how to drill deep.” —Vulture

“Sam Peckinpah's classic western is lovingly picked over in this obsessive treatment of its making and reception.” —New York Times Book Review, in New & Noteworthy

“Insightful and engaging, Stratton's book will hold the attention of even those who despise the movie.” —Roundup Magazine

“No person of sensibility who has seen The Wild Bunch has not felt the extraordinary richness of lived experience that courses throughout the film. This is one of many things that lifts it far above the action genre and the Western to the epic. It is a singular achievement of W. K. Stratton's book on its making that he shows this was not adventitious . . . Stratton documents how Peckinpah's masterpiece became not only a great film but one of the enduringly great artworks of the past century.” —Paul Seydor, author of THE AUTHENTIC DEATH AND CONTENTIOUS AFTERLIFE OF PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID: The Untold Story of Peckinpah's Last Western Film

“Stratton's book examines the history of the Western and details the ambition and, at times, lunacy of making what has become an American classic.” —Newsweek

“Muscular study . . . Stratton pulls together big strands of story: the history of the Mexican revolutionary period, Peckinpah's own fascination with Mexico, the history of U.S.-Mexico relations, the history of moviemaking itself. . . Essential reading for fans of the epochal (and reportedly soon to be remade) movie as well as movie-history and Western buffs generally.” —starred review, 11 Early 2019 Books We Love, Kirkus Reviews

“Stratton paints a wonderfully full portrait of director Sam Peckinpah and his quest for a more realistic depiction of violence at a time when the brutality of the Vietnam War was increasingly penetrating American living rooms. . . . What's most striking here is the depth of Stratton's research, with attention given to every aspect of, and player in, the film. This engaging, well-researched book belongs in every library and in the hands of every student of cinema.” —starred review, Library Journal

“Stratton does a fine job of putting the film in its historical context . . . THE WILD BUNCH is a valuable addition to the literature of American film history and will be greeted by Wild Bunch devotees with adoration.” —starred review, Booklist

“Stratton's thorough research yields a fascinating perspective on how Peckinpah created a western of unparalleled realism and intensity.” —Publishers Weekly

“My favorite kind of film books tend to be those that go behind the scenes, that provide inside looks at how celebrated films were put together, [THE WILD BUNCH] falls squarely in that category.” —Critic's Choice, Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times

“Stratton loves “The Wild Bunch” (he succinctly writes, 'I've never seen a better movie'), but this is not a gushing fan letter. Stratton's meticulous research, exhaustive interviews and scholarship all combine to create a fascinating portrait of a maverick filmmaker working at the top of his game and pushing the boundaries of moviemaking.” —Shelf Awareness

“Stratton's anecdote-packed book explores when, why and how The Wild Bunch was made.” —Dallas Morning News

“Stratton has written an ambitious and lively history . . . At the heart of [THE WILD BUNCH] are dozens of informative and colorful interviews, conducted with everyone from screenwriters and stuntmen to Hollywood producers and Mexican film stars.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Stratton provides a casually written but carefully researched account of the making of one of the key films of its time. In so doing, he also helps to show how Westerns have managed to maintain their firm hold on the imaginations of American moviegoers.” —Commentary

“Stratton has steeped himself in every last detail of the genesis and production of a movie he plainly knows by heart. He's also a spirited guide to Peckinpah's abrasive worldview, which he's no less plainly besotted with. But partly for that reason, his book inadvertently doubles as a reminder of the hoary time capsule Wild Bunch aficionados now inhabit, whether they like it or not. They're sure to be delighted by Stratton's lively, massively informed chronicle of how The Wild Bunch came to be.” —Barnes & Noble Review

“The book digs into how timing and lucky coincidences brought the cast and crew together in Mexico to make the movie happen.” —Salt Lake Tribune

“Stratton's book goes into fine detail about the origin of the story . . . If you're the kind of movie fan who loves to read the trivia offered by imdb.com, Stratton's 'The Wild Bunch' is a gold mine.” —Oklahoman

“An essential addition to the Peckinpah bookshelf. His vivid account of the hugely difficult creation of the classic western is engrossing” —Film Stage

“W.K. Stratton's The Wild Bunch sets a new standard for film-biography.” —TrueWest Magazine

From the Publisher

10/01/2018
The process of making a great film is often as fascinating as the film itself, a point amply illustrated by Stratton (Backyard Brawl) in his behind-the-scenes look at Sam Peckinpah’s brutal 1969 masterpiece, The Wild Bunch. Stratton traces the basis for the film, about a band of American outlaws fleeing to revolution-era Mexico to escape changing times, not to a professional screenwriter but to stuntman Roy Sickner, who came up with the idea on the set of another film in the early 1960s. Stratton also recounts Peckinpah’s earlier career, including the debacle of his previous film, also a Mexico-set western, Major Dundee, and the career revival he enjoyed thanks to an acclaimed TV version of Katherine Anne Porter’s story “Noon Wine.” For preproduction, Stratton discusses casting decisions, notably Peckinpah’s then-unusual move to cast almost exclusively Mexican actors (with the exception of Puerto Rican–born Jaime Sánchez) in the film’s Mexican roles. Finally, he suggests that, over the course of the shoot, cast and crew came to resemble their own version of the Wild Bunch: Hollywood outsiders, up-and-comers, and fading studio veterans trying to find their way in a rapidly changing industry. Stratton’s thorough research yields a fascinating perspective on how Peckinpah created a western of unparalleled realism and intensity. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 2018-11-12

Muscular study of Sam Peckinpah's groundbreaking 1969 film, "the last Western."

Texas journalist, historian, and poet Stratton (Floyd Patterson: The Fighting Life of Boxing's Invisible Champion, 2012, etc.) charts the evolution of Peckinpah's classic and perhaps best-known movie at the half-century mark. Peckinpah had had glimmerings of the story years before making it, with a script and cast that grew and changed considerably owing to several influences, not least of them the violent time in which it was finally made. Stratton pulls together big strands of story: the history of the Mexican revolutionary period, Peckinpah's own fascination with Mexico, the history of U.S.-Mexico relations, the history of moviemaking itself. On the latter, the author draws a straight line from John Ford's 1939 film, Stagecoach, to The Wild Bunch 30 years later, both for its less-than-virtuous heroes and its paving the way for "a stampede of Western movies with increasingly sophisticated characters and plotlines." Peckinpah wrote the movie with Lee Marvin in mind as the central figure, Pike Bishop, but Marvin's agent wasn't enthusiastic; in any event, Paramount lured Marvin with an unheard-of $1 million fee for another Western, the painfully terrible Paint Your Wagon. Peckinpah and his producer, Stratton reveals through some careful filmic detective work, considered Robert Mitchum, Sterling Hayden, and Charlton Heston before landing on William Holden, "a first-rate actor but also a deeply troubled man, a real-life killer himself." Holden wasn't the easiest actor to work with, but with Robert Ryan, who had "a deeply lined face that seemed to be cut from boot leather," he anchored what Stratton doesn't hesitate to brand "a love affair between two men"—a "bromance," that is, one that broadened to include such players as Ernest Borgnine, L.Q. Jones, Strother Martin, Jaime Sánchez, and Ben Johnson. And a blood-soaked, protest-inducing bromance at that….

Essential reading for fans of the epochal (and reportedly soon to be remade) movie as well as movie-history and Western buffs generally.

Kirkus Reviews