Why Not!

The final scenes of The Wild Bunch are a triumph of excess.

Angel, their young partner, has been taken prisoner by Mapache. Pike is tested: How close to death do have to go to discharge your duty to your partners? The gang is trapped. The bounty hunters are coming up behind, so the only place to go is into Mapache’s den where they have to witness the brutal torture of their former partner. They can be scoundrels and avail themselves of the booze, shelter and whores while their partner dies, or they can go out like men…

The final departure of the Bunch is one that few viewers ever forget, and, incredibly, it was one that Peckinpah built out of no more than three or four lines of script. As written, Pike, the Gorches and Dutch (Borgnine) walk into the General’s banquet and a gun battle ensues. What actually shows up on the screen is a masterpiece of luxurious suspense and emotion. These are men who, with the battle cry of “Why not?,” have made the decision to walk themselves into certain death… partially because there really isn’t much more to live for. Partially because of their code. And partially because, after all the whoring and drinking and evading capture, what more can they do to entertain themselves? They are spent cartridges, and they know it.

As the actors walked through the dirt road, Peckinpah built the scene from imagination. Add a few gambling soldiers here, a cluster of drunken singers there. A few scared women holding children. By layering the activities of extra groups, and my having only the slightest of response quiver through the crowd as the heavily-armed old-timers cross into the courtyard, Peckinpah has created one of the coolest sequences ever filmed. And he did it out of nothing but air and atmosphere!

There is a beautiful moment when, after the object of their fight has been resolved, everyone freezes. It becomes clear to them and to us that they could just leave if they wanted to. But, with a smile of childlike play, Pike refuses the offer to walk, and what unravels from there is a timeless scene of waste and destruction.

Yet, in the end, there may not be hope exactly, but there is some assurance that the gang will keep going. The remaining members are weak, old and facing fewer days than they have passed, but as long as there is a saddle and trail to travel, there will always be some remnant of the Wild Bunch, even if they are getting pushed further and further away by the modern world.

The End.