10 Best Deaths In Western Movies

Sam Peckinpah's merciless western opens and closes with seriously blood-soaked spectacles. Through a crisscross of rapid-fire and slow-motion segments, he captures the gloriously horrifying escapades of Pike Bishop (William Holden) and his ageing band of outlaws. The seven-minute, climactic shootout sees the gang trying to rescue their imprisoned friend, Angel.

This being a Peckinpah film, the rescue turns into an apocalyptic shootout during which Pike and his men are slaughtered. Defiant to the end, Pike mans a maxim gun and gives the federales hell before a surprise bullet to the back incapacitates him.

He bleeds out with his best friend Dutch Engstrom (Ernest Borgnine), the two shot to bits in the midst of a war they could never win.

Witnessing first the deaths of his men, Pike's demise is symbolic of the wild west's death as a whole.