Wild Rovers (1971)

William Holden is Ross Bodine; Ryan O’Neal is Frank Post, cowboys — one older, one young — working on Walt Buckman’s R-Bar Ranch.

At the end of one work day, a horse goes wild and throws its owner against a fence, killing him instantly.

That prompts Bodine and Post to wonder what their futures hold. It might be brighter, Bodine jokes, if they quit being cowboys and started robbing bands, then headed off to Mexico.

Over time — and after a bar right leaves them with damages to pay off — the suggestion becomes more than a joke.

Finally, they decide to do it. And they decide to rob the bank in the nearby town, not even bothering to hide their identities.

They make off with $36,000. They manage to rob the bank without having to harm anyone.

But that’s about the last thing that goes right for Bodine or Post, who wind up fleeing on a single horse.

Buckman wants them brought back for justice so badly that he sends him sons — John and Paul — out after them, even though roundup is the next day, even though a sheepherder is crowing his range.

After all, no R-Bar hand has ever done anything like robbing the local bank before. And he swears none will ever consider it in the future.

William Holden as Ross Bodine, the aging cowboy wondering about his future in Wild Rovers (1971)

Ryan O’Neal as Frank Post, explaining why he has no qualms about robbing a bank in Wild Rovers (1971)

Review:

A serious Western directed by Blake Edwards of Pink Panther fame. And he considered it one of his best films, until the studio got its hands on it.

Forty minutes of footage was cut from the official release. The ending was changed. Edwards disowned the movie and used his dispute with the studio as the basis for another film starring Holden, “S.O.B.”, released in 1981.

Today, much of the cut footage has been restored in an official “director’s cut”” that runs 136 minutes, 30 more than the official release.

And it’s an impressive film, seeming more realistic than most Westerns.

Neither Holden nor O’Neal are your typical badmen. The latter takes an orphaned pup along on the get-away; finding it milk becomes one of the duo’s problems.

As for Holden, he leaves behind enough money to cover the R-Bar payroll, $500 for the banker and his wife for their troubles and later leaves $100 for a whore after seeing the squalor in which she lives.

Tom Skerritt as John Buckman, one of the brothers told to track down the bank robbers in Wild Rovers (1971)

Jon Don Baker as Paul Buckman, one of the brothers seeking the bank robbers in Wild Rovers (1971)

Directed by:
Blake Edwards

Cast:
William Holden … Ross Bodine
Ryan O’Neal … Frank Post
Karl Malden … Walter Buckman
Lynn Carlin … Sada Billings
Tom Skerritt … John Buckman
Joe Don Baker … Paul Buckman
James Olson … Joe Billings
Leora Dana … Nell Buckman
Victor French … Sheriff Bill Jackson
Rachel Roberts … Maybell
Sam Gilman … Hansen
Charles H. Gray … Savage
William Bryant … Hereford
Jack Garner … Cap Swilling
Caitlin Wyles … Bodine’s girl

Runtime: 136 min.

Karl Madden as Walter Buckman, laying down the law to his sons in Wild Rovers (1971)

Leora Dana as Nell Buckman, Walter’s patient wife in Wild Rovers (1971)

Memorable lines:

Ross Bodine: “The thing that scares a man the most is to find out and discover just how uncertain life really is.”

Ross Bodine: “You show me a young cowboy or an old cowboy or an in-between cowboy who’s got more than a few dollars in his poke, and I’ll show you a cowboy who stopped being a cowboy and started robbing banks.”

Walter Buckman: “Roundup starts tomorrow morning, and your boys are more interested in a two-bit whore from Kansas City.”
Nell Buckman: “Why is it whenever they do something you disapprove of, they’re ‘my boys’?”

Walter Buckman: “No R-Bar hand ever done anything like this before. And it’s gonna be a cold day in hell before one even thinks about tryin’ it again.”

Ross Bodine, on life and fate: “The more it goes, the more I see ever day, the less I wouldn’t swear that we ain’t really got much to say about it. Maybe it’s all been figured out up front. And except for a couple of measley details which is left to us, to make it seem like we’re really callin’ the shots, we’re just doin’ what it was decided the day we popped into this ol’ world.”

Ross Bodine: “Just goes to show when it comes to something special, like lovin’ a woman, or judgin’ a man, man just don’t know shit.”

William Holden as Ross Bodine and Ryan O’Neal as Frank Post ride to town after a tragic accident on the ranch where they work in Wild Rovers (1971)

James Olson as banker Joe Billings, trying to protect his customer’s deposits in Wild Rovers (1971)

William Holden as Ross Bodine, turning bank robber in Wild Rovers (1971)

Ryan O’Neal as Frank Post, in a game of poker that’s about to turn violent in Wild Rovers (1971)