On this special A Word on Westerns compilation, host Rob Word and producer/co-host RJ Word examine Sam Peckinpah’s masterpiece, The Wild Bunch, a Western that redefined on-screen violence, through five voices who survived its famously tumultuous shoot. Producer/assistant director Howard Kazanjian (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Return of the Jedi) recounts corralling Peckinpah’s temper and fending off mass firings, while stuntman Gary Combs recalls being fired—then rehired—on the very same project. Costume designer-turned-producer Gordon Dawson describes frantic on-set scrambles and last-minute improvisations, and the late, great Bo Hopkins and LQ Jones share behind-the-scenes tales of squib-laden chaos, epic gunfights, and Sam’s restless search for inspiration.
From Mexico’s sweltering backlots to the slow-motion carnage that forever changed Hollywood’s depiction of brutality, these firsthand accounts reveal Peckinpah’s tempestuous methods and the artistry that made The Wild Bunch a landmark Western—altering how cinema portrays loyalty, violence, and a vanishing frontier.