History Trivia / TheWildBunch

* AllStarCast: Creator/WilliamHolden, Creator/ErnestBorgnine, Creator/RobertRyan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Strother Martin, L.Q. Jones, Albert Dekker, Emilio Fernandez, etc.

** Creator/LeeMarvin was Creator/SamPeckinpah's original choice for Pike Bishop, but he turned the role down because of its similarities to ''Film/TheProfessionals'' (another tale of Americans in Mexico during UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution, with Creator/RobertRyan in a big supporting role). He chose to star in ''Film/PaintYourWagon'' because it paid more. Creator/SterlingHayden, Creator/CharltonHeston,[[note]]He'd already worked with Peckinpah on ''Film/MajorDundee'' and didn't care to repeat the experience.[[/note]] Creator/BurtLancaster, Creator/RobertMitchum,[[note]]He turned it down in favour of ''Five Card Stud'', arguing that "They were both Westerns".[[/note]] Creator/GregoryPeck and Creator/JamesStewart also passed on it.

* HeAlsoDid: The majority of the film was shot in Parras de la Fuente, a town in Coahuila that was most famous for being the home of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_I._Madero Francisco Madero]], the ill-fated president of Mexico whose 1913 assassination was the central event in UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution. The elderly man seen among the attendees at the Temperance Union meeting in the opening scene was Raúl Madero, 79 at the time, Francisco's brother. Raúl had also been an important figure in the Revolution, and Mexican audiences seeing the film would've immediately recognized him. The schoolteacher who suffered Crazy Lee sticking his tongue in her ear was also played by a Madero family member.

* CreatorChosenCasting: Creator/SamPeckinpah cast Bo Hopkins as Crazy Lee after seeing him on television.

** Among those considered to play Dutch Engstrom were Creator/CharlesBronson, Creator/SammyDavisJr, and Creator/SteveMcQueenActor.

** Creator/JasonRobards was considered for Sykes.
** The role of General Mapuche was originally offered to Creator/MarioAdorf but he turned it down because he felt uncomfortable playing such a violent character.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Averted, unusually for a Creator/SamPeckinpah film. Peckinpah and producer Phil Feldman worked well together, and Peckinpah was grateful that Feldman defended the film's violence against objections from Warner Bros. (in marked contrast with ''Film/MajorDundee'', where Jerry Bresler reflexively sided with Columbia). Peckinpah's only objection was that Feldman (under pressure by the studio) cut the flashback showing Pike's lover Aurora being killed by her husband, feeling it was crucial to Pike's character, but admitted that the finished project was still "96 percent" his work.

* UsefulNotes/AFIS100YearsSeries:
** AFIS100Years100Movies: #80
** AFIS100Years100Thrills: #69
** AFIS100Years100Movies10THAnniversaryEdition: #79
** AFIS10Top10:
*** #6, Western

* AFIS100YearsSeries:

** Mario Adorf, another ''Film/MajorDundee'' veteran, was asked to play Mapache. Adorf objected to the level of violence in the screenplay and turned it down. He regretted his decision after seeing the final movie.

** Creator/LeeMarvin was Creator/SamPeckinpah's original choice for Pike Bishop, but he turned the role down because of its similarities to ''Film/TheProfessionals'' (another tale of Americans in Mexico during UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution, with Creator/RobertRyan in a big supporting role). He chose to star in ''Film/PaintYourWagon'' because it paid more. Creator/SterlingHayden, Creator/CharltonHeston,[[note]]He'd already worked with Peckinpah on ''Film/MajorDundee'' and didn't care to repeat the experience.[[/note]] Creator/BurtLancaster, Creator/RobertMitchum,[[note]]He turned it down in favour of ''Five Card Stud'', arguing that "They were both Westerns".[[/note]], Creator/GregoryPeck and Creator/JamesStewart also passed on it.

** Creator/LeeMarvin was Creator/SamPeckinpah's original choice for Pike Bishop, but he turned the role down because of its similarities to ''Film/TheProfessionals'' (another tale of Americans in Mexico during UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution, with Creator/RobertRyan in a big supporting role). He chose to star in ''Film/PaintYourWagon'' because it paid more. Creator/SterlingHayden, Creator/CharltonHeston[[note]]He'd already worked with Peckinpah on ''Film/MajorDundee'' and didn't care to repeat the experience[[/note]], Creator/BurtLancaster, Creator/RobertMitchum[[note]] He turned it down in favour of ''Five Card Stud'', arguing that "They were both westerns"[[/note]], Creator/GregoryPeck and Creator/JamesStewart also passed on it.

* GenreKiller: One of several post-Hayes Code westerns that tore the genre apart. This one was singled out by Creator/JohnWayne, however.
--> ''"Dammit, Peckinpah, you killed the Western.'' '''- John Wayne'''
* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/SamPeckinpah would drive his crew so hard that it sometimes created friction and confrontations between him and certain cast members. Early in the shooting, Creator/WilliamHolden threatened to walk off the set if Peckinpah continued to verbally abuse the crew in his presence. Creator/RobertRyan threatened to punch the director after he made Ryan spend ten days in costume and makeup without filming any scenes or allowing him a few days off. Creator/ErnestBorgnine also promised to "beat the shit out" of Peckinpah if the director didn't allow him some relief from the throat-clogging dust that was affecting the actor's breathing on location. Editor Lou Lombardo would later recall, "Over time, we became the Wild Bunch. I saw what Holden was doing. He was playing Sam. He was running the bunch like Sam ran the crew."

-->He was barely 30 at the time and he was like a kid in a candy store. He just loved playing with his gun and he got to be a real fast draw. But it got to be irritating, having him constantly pull his six-shooter on us.

* GenreKiller: One of several post-Hayes Code westerns that tore the genre apart. This one was singled out by John Wayne, however.

* MissingEpisode: A number of scenes from the movie's premiere cut have apparently been lost (though it's unlikely whether Peckinpah intended to include them in the final version). Two scenes have been confirmed through surviving stills: a longer flashback to Thornton's time in Yuma, and the bounty hunters finding the corpse of Buck (the wounded member of the Bunch killed by Pike after the opening robbery). Others (like an even longer and bloodier version of the opening shootout) have long been rumored, but unconfirmed.

* ExecutiveMeddling: Averted, unusually for a Creator/SamPeckinpah film. Peckinpah and producer Phil Feldman worked well together, and Peckinpah was grateful that Feldman defended the film's violence against objections from Warner Bros. (in marked contrast with ''Film/MajorDundee'', where Jerry Bresler reflexively sided with Columbia). Peckinpah did object when Feldman cut about 15 minutes of footage for its general release, but conceded the missing scenes didn't cripple the film.

** [[spoiler:The bounty hunters' death scene was to be an elaborate shoot-out but producer Phil Feldman suggested killing them off-screen entirely. Creator/SamPeckinpah liked it so much he wrote him to thank him saying, ""Your idea of taking out the killing of the bounty hunters was absolutely correct."]]

** Creator/SamPeckinpah originlly wanted Creator/RichardHarris (who had co-starred in ''Film/MajorDundee'') for Deke Thornton, but he was never formally approached. Other actors considered for the role were Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/GlennFord and Ben Johnson, who was later cast as Tector Gorch.
** Robert Blake was the first choice to play Angel.

** Creator/SamPeckinpah originlly wanted Creator/RichardHarris (who had co-starred in ''Film/MajorDundee'') for Deke Thornton, but he was never formally approached Other actors considered for the role were Creator/HenryFonda, Creator/GlennFord and Ben Johnson, who was later cast as Tector Gorch.

* ActingForTwo: Mexican singer-actress Yolanda Ponce appears in three different scenes. First she's trampled by a horse in the opening shootout, then she serenades Mapache's troops from the back of a train during the train station battle, and finally she shoots Pike in the final shootout. Presumably the last two are supposed to be the same character. In fact, Ponce was seriously injured by the horse, but chose to do the other scenes while she was still recovering.

* HeAlsoDid: The elderly man seen among the attendees at the Temperance Union meeting in the opening scene was Raúl Madero, 79 at the time, the brother of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_I._Madero Francisco Madero]], the ill-fated president of Mexico whose 1913 assassination was the central event in UsefulNotes/TheMexicanRevolution. Raúl had also been an important figure in the Revolution, and Mexican audiences seeing the film would've immediately recognized him. The schoolteacher who suffered Crazy Lee sticking his tongue in her ear was also played by a Madero family member.

* HostilityOnTheSet: Creator/SamPeckinpah would drive his crew so hard that it sometimes created friction and confrontations between him and certain cast members. Early in the shooting, Creator/WilliamHolden threatened to walk off the set if Peckinpah continued to verbally abuse the crew in his presence. Creator/RobertRyan threatened to punch the director after he made Ryan spend ten days in costume and makeup without filming any scenes or allowing him a few days off to campaign for Sen. Robert Kennedy. Creator/ErnestBorgnine also promised to "beat the shit out" of Peckinpah if the director didn't allow him some relief from the throat-clogging dust that was affecting the actor's breathing on location. Editor Lou Lombardo would later recall, "Over time, we became the Wild Bunch. I saw what Holden was doing. He was playing Sam. He was running the bunch like Sam ran the crew."