Good, but not great

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2003)

Watched this again the other day, probably 10 years since I'd last watched it, and sadly its appeal seems faded. I note from some other posts here that a lot of Butch's fans are perplexed as to why this film hasn't really been elevated to the western pantheon. Well, IMHO Butch is far too slick, glib even, to compare to a genuine masterpiece such as The Wild Bunch. Bunch was filmed and released almost contemporaneously with Butch, but despite the similarity of source material (Butch's gang was called The Wild Bunch) any comparison between the two movies is pointlessly invidious: Bunch is profound, lyrical, challenging, complex; Butch is witty and well-made, but it's unashamedly a star vehicle. There's just no depth here. Plus the ending's a total cop-out.