Abstract
“Unchanged men in a changing land. Out of step, out of place and desperately out of time.”—so it says on the movie poster for Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch from 1969. The tagline is all the more poignant since it can and should be read on more than one level: It is not just the movie’s (anti-) heroes that have outlived their time but also the whole genre of the western, which may have become anachronistic in the late sixties. And finally, the movie’s very setting itself is—both geographically and temporally—on the edge.
Ere we reach the shining river,
Lay we every burden down;
[…]
Soon we’ll reach the silver river,
Soon our pilgrimage will cease;
Soon our happy hearts will quiver
With the melody of peace.
Robert Lowry, “Shall We Gather at the River”.
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Notes
- 1.
In his interest for this radical aspect of the cinematic out-of-field Peckinpah is much akin to the European master of the off-screen: Michelangelo Antonioni. In fact, Peckinpah himself will cite Antonioni as a filmmaker, whose movies Deserto Rosso and Blow-Up he was particularly impressed by (see Farber 2008, p. 45). For a Lacanian reading of the off-screen space in Antonioni see (Binotto 2009).
- 2.
I have to thank Chris Lukinbeal and his sharp geographer’s eye for pointing this out to me.
- 3.
It is interesting to note that also The Wild Bunchʼs General Mapache drives an automobile, thus making clear how anachronistic the westerners on their horses have become.
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List of Films
The Wild Bunch – Sie kannten kein Gesetz. USA 1969. Direction: Sam Peckinpah.
Stagecoach. German Höllenfahrt nach Santa Fe. USA 1939. Direction: John Ford.
My Darling Clementine. German Faustrecht der Prärie. USA 1946. Direction: John Ford.
Ballad of Cable Hogue, German Abgerechnet wird zum Schluß. USA 1970. Direction: Sam Peckinpah.
The Getaway. USA 1972. Direction: Sam Peckinpah.
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Binotto, J. (2019). Crossing Another River: Border and Transgression in the Films of Sam Peckinpah. In: Stiglegger, M., Escher, A. (eds) Mediale Topographien. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-23008-1_6
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