The Wild Bunch | 1969
Sam Peckinpah’s masterpiece, conjuring poetry from dust and blood, was filmed in Mexico. The town of ‘Starbuck’ is Parras, one of the oldest towns in north Mexico, some 600 miles north of Mexico City, midway between Saltillo and Torreon on Route 40. The ever-present dust of the Mexican desert required a camera mechanic to be permanently on duty dismantling and cleaning the cameras.
Pike Bishop (William Holden) puts the wounded Buck out of his misery at the Duranzo Arroyo, Torreon. And it’s here, too, behind the Perote Winery, that the bounty hunters bed down for the night.
The village of Angel (Jaime Sánchez) is El Rincon del Motero.
Old man Sykes (Edmond O'Brien) waits at El Romeral with horses for the bunch to return from Starbuck. The robbery of the munitions train involved the use of a period locomotive on a rail spur south of La Goma.
The blowing up of the bridge, and the river crossing, take place on the Rio Nazas just south of Torreon.
The climactic massacre, supposedly in the town of ‘Agua Verde’, took eleven days to film, at the Hacienda Cienega del Carmen, an abandoned winery outside of Parras, between Torreon and Saltillo.
