2.
Technology, specifically the railroad and the telegraph, is shrinking the West into a place where bandits can no longer freely operate. The Bunch are trying to make one last score so they can afford to retire, but the brutality central to their existence is catching up with them.
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The End
2.
The oldest of them stepped forward and struck me on the chest with an open palm. Confident and aggressive.
‘We saw you walking up the beach,’ he said, smiling.
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2.
The governing metaphor of Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch is impressed on both protagonist and audience alike in the first moments of the film.
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The Duellists
Writing about my intention to harm another person physically is wandering onto the wrong side of the law in a way that may forever be used against me. However, art is a more important consideration, and the more risky a piece of art, the better.
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I re-watched Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch recently. Like all ‘great’ works of art, you see different things every time you look at it, and it gives the appearance of changing as you do. In part, the film is concerned with ageing.
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2.
What I like about Peckinpah is that you never know what you’re going to get. You’re certainly not there to be ‘entertained’. Like David Fincher says, it’s going to leave a scar.
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1.
Surgery is a major life event. I had a hip replacement, which means full derailment; it’s a paradigm shift quite unlike any other. And most of the time, paradigm shifts find you stranded in a world that’s changed and requires that you develop new skills in order to cope. In my case, I return to the world with a certain ability that I had lost, namely, the ability to walk and stand square and strong, without pain.
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2.
Once he discovers his newfound friends and mentor are actually the ex-presidents, Johnny draws his line. During a botched stakeout shortly after, Utah reveals his identity when he pursues them in an attempt to capture.
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“Hitler, as the point of convergence for so many nostalgias, resentments and anxieties, became a historical figure.”
– Joachim Fest, Hitler
In the wake of the Sandy Hook School Shooting in 2012, President Obama gave a press conference during which he beseeched Americans to support the introduction of basic mental health screenings for gun buyers. Continue reading
Theme Park at its Darkest 