Great stuff... thoughts after seeing uncut version

It's a common fallacy that the Director's cut is the "uncut" version. Yes, it has restored removed footage of important scenes that were removed for the film for general release, however the original pre general release version was much more violent than the "director's cut". Scenes were obviously alternately produced and inserted in the later cut, or just cut out completely. For example:

(a) Crazy Lee being shot several times with blood spurting in slow motion

(b} bullets impacting on the woman and boys when Crazy Lee shoots them

(c) several bystanders shot in bloody slow motion during the opening battle in the street

(d) the scene where Dutch says "we don't do that!" was cut in a scene showing some tortured villagers who had been crucified

(e) an extreme close up of the outlaw who was shot in the face with a shotgun - very gruesome

(f) the addition of dialogue "finish it mister Pike" was not in the original cut and inserted later. The wounded bandit was begging to be taken along when Pike shot him, making Pike appear to be considerably more ruthless or pragmatic.

Tragically, the out takes are now in a landfill somewhere and apparently the original prints no longer exist.

Methinks some people's memories are betraying them here . As has been pointed out already, none of the authoritative, exhaustively researched accounts of the making of The Wild Bunch - eg those by such acknowledged Peckinpah authorities as David Weddle, Garner Simmons or Jeff Slater - make any mention of these alleged 'censorship cuts'.

What is documented is that Peckinpah himself made some trims to the violence after the previews - including, I seem to recall, the 'head blasting' scene in the opening massacre. He is on record as saying that he did this because (I paraphrase) he didn't want the violence per se to overwhelm or obscure the film's general thematic content - if one or two people walked out of the cinema because of the violence he said that was okay, but 20 or 30 was too many. It seems these cuts are lost forever - but then that was the way Sam wanted it, so we shouldn't complain.

What Sam was incandescent about were the cuts imposed by the studio after TWB was released, to shorten the film so they could fit in an extra screening per day. It is these cuts that are - largely - restored in what has come to be known as the director's cut.

As for the UK censorship history of TWB, here is is from the horse's mouth, the BBFC (as posted on their website):

The Wild Bunch was passed X for UK cinema release in 1969 after seven cuts had been made to moments of violence in the massacre scene at the film’s climax. These small cuts were to images of blood spurts after bodies are hit by gunshots and to images where a man is seen to be ‘gloating’ as he fires a machine-gun. The total amount of cut material amounted to just seconds. The subsequent lack of bloody detail and sadism was intended to lessen the impact of what was felt to be a very realistic and visceral scene. However, the cuts did not assuage the concerns of some members of the British public and, in a letter from the time, a correspondent complained that: "I felt unable to continue to watch the film…It appeared to me to be nauseating in its pointless violence…The exploitation of violence for its own sake cannot be tolerated as entertainment in the commercial cinema."

The video of The Wild Bunch was submitted soon after the BBFC was given the authority to classify such works under the Video Recordings Act 1984. It was first examined in May 1984 and great consideration was given to the violence in the massacre scene and to the fact that cuts had been written for the film version. Of the three examiners who saw the film on its first viewing, two felt that the violence was still strong enough to warrant two small cuts at 18. These examiners acknowledged in their reports that the film is ‘one of the most brilliant pieces of film-making there has ever been,’ but felt that "the artistic defence is lessened by the fact that many average film-goers … may not know that this is such a classic."

In July 1984, the film was seen by the BBFC’s Director James Ferman, to whom the final classification decision had been referred. He stated that the "context and knowledge of the genre mitigate the violence, which is nevertheless tough.’ Ferman deliberated on the two cuts recommended and ultimately decided that ‘the machine-gunning would not be reduced at 18 today and the blood spurt is not important enough to justify cutting in a great many videos already on release." The film was therefore passed at 18 without cuts. Due to the backlog of video works created by the introduction of the Video Recordings Act, the final certificate was not issued until April 1988.

A restored ‘director’s cut’ of The Wild Bunch, lasting some six minutes longer than the original, was submitted for classification on film in June 1995. Examiners stated that the ‘violence is as shocking as ever’ and did not hesitate in awarding the film an 18 certificate. The video submission of this restored version was also given an 18 when it was last submitted in April 1998.