Sam Peckinpah was an American film director who achieved iconic status following the release of his 1969 Western epic The Wild Bunch. He became one of the major filmmakers of the 1970s, with his innovative and explicit depiction of action and violence, as well as his revisionist approach to the Western genre. Peckinpah's films generally deal with the conflict between values and ideals, and the corruption of violence in human society. He was given the nickname "Bloody Sam" due to the violence in his films.