Scene of the Week: Battle of Bloody Porch

The Wild Bunch is one of the most influential action movies and turned the entire western genre on its head. Sam Peckinpah’s film shows aging outlaws dealing with the changing times and pulls no punches when it comes to violence and realistic depiction of the times. Not to mention the film techniques like quick-cuts and novel uses of slow motion that were revolutionary at the time when it came out in 1969. An all-star cast, highlighted by William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates make The Wild Bunch a must see for any fan of action movies.

This week’s Scene of the Week takes a look at the bloody ending to The Wild Bunch with the famous shootout at the aptly titled Bloody Porch. We could have easily looked at the opening bloody shootout at the bank (who could forget “If they move, kill ‘em”) but I have always found the ending to be more cinematic and moving. We witness the last stand of the titular Wild Bunch at a Mexican hacienda with lots of gunfire, especially from the Browning M1917 machine gun. Just ignore the fact that the film is set in 1913 and the M1917, as the name implies, came out in 1917.