Two movies last night.
Rambo (2008)
I went in to this one hearing how the depictions of violence and gore are actually more accurate here than they are to other movies. For instance, they show more graphically how gorey explosives are, there's not a lot in the way of the typical clean wounds most movies depict. That part was cool, but honestly I considered this one too violent. So freaking over the top. I kept calling Stallone "Rocky" in my head, watching it, he uses so many of the same mannerisms for his old Rocky as he does his old Rambo. Not very good, honestly. The actress who played the lead blonde girl was fucking horrible too.
The Wild Bunch (1969)
Probably the most violent Western I've ever seen. I had heard this movie heralded as one of the best Westerns ever made and even one of the best movies ever made, so I went in with the bar much higher than I did for Rambo. Ultimately it is beautifully made, reminiscent of that genuine quality that Leone's Westerns have. The depiction of the West is grimey, dirty, he seemed like he actually cast locals to play most of the parts and it paid off. Apparently the wenches in the movies were hired from a local whorehouse in Mexico, which gives this movie an extra boost.
Regarding the violence it seems like the director's intent was to over saturate the viewer to it and make it seem unpleasant and vile. It's almost like he's showing how the violence in the West actually was and not how it was communicated in other Westerns, i.e. glamorous bouts of glory, clean gunshot wounds, all that narrative bullshit. In reading later he makes a comparison to some of the more violent scenes and Vietnam, which makes sense in hindsight but definitely went over my head on first viewing.
This one deserves another watch. I honestly didn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as Leone's Westerns and had somewhat of a hard time following it/understanding what the characters were saying (I didn't have subtitles), so that didn't help.