Nothing illustrates what we miss about the old days of moviemaking more than the bittersweet pleasure of looking at this still from Sam Peckinpah's 1969 classic The Wild Bunch. Neither William Holden or Edmond O'Brien could have been called "sex symbols" at this point in their long careers, but more importantly, they had morphed into far more interesting actors who just kept getting better as they aged. As we've said many times, actors whose faces displayed years of hard living are pretty rare in today's film business. Think of what The Wild Bunch would have been like if Peckinpah had cast pretty boys in the leading roles? This is a film in which the closest thing to a hunk was Ernest Borgnine! Don't worry- we hear Warner Brothers is pursuing their long-threatened contemporary remake of the film. Can't wait to see Owen Wilson and Chris Rock in the Holden/Obrien roles!- Lee Pfeiffer
(For Cinema Retro's extensive tribute to the films of Sam Peckinpah, see issue #3)