There’s nothing like a One Last Ride movie. Sometimes it’s a pure good-vibes hangout film, where the gang reunites for one final heist/game/weekend/etc. The other type of One Last Ride movie — my favorite version of the trope — finds a group, usually made up of grizzled character actors, deciding that their time is up and they’re going down with the proverbial ship. Perhaps the ultimate version of this story is The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah’s foundational 1969 revisionist Western. The Wild Bunch’s (fairly despicable) gang of aging antiheroes goes out in a bloody blaze of glory, taking the film’s (even more despicable) collection of terrorizing bounty hunters with them. Peckinpah’s film was a lightning rod at the time of release thanks to its trailblazing editing style and lack of anyone to root for. It was the perfect Western to lead American cinema into the bleak, innovative ’70s. There are no raindrops falling on the heads of Butch and Sundance in this shoot-’em-up. The Wild Bunch is screening on 35 mm as part of the Belcourt’s Milestones of the Last Quarter Century series. For showtimes, visit belcourt.org.
May 23-24 at the Belcourt
2102 Belcourt Ave.
