Peckinpah’s bloody breakthrough feature was seen by Kael as “comparable in scale and sheer poetic force to Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai… Pouring new wine into the bottle of the Western, Peckinpah explodes the bottle.” Led by William Holden and tracked by former comrade Robert Ryan, an outlaw gang heads to Mexico circa 1913, forsaking an American West within which they can no longer flourish in and hoping for a last great ride — but another destiny awaits.