joan hue, I now know where you got a tolerance for blood in your entertainment. Or maybe you just read Macbeth too many times.
Whatever the case, The Wild Bunch and all its passion from its ultimately doomed men is a cut above most other "westerns". In fact, it's the remnants of romance in those doomed characters that drive them to avenge Angel's execution by Mapache.
They bring on their own demise, rather than suffer one imposed on them by "civilization".
BornOfAJackal, as usual, you provide us with excellent insights into this western. Yeah, I have to tolerate some blood or I wouldn't have been able to sit through Game of Throne. Also, I taught Macbeth to high school students.