10 Most Violent Westerns Ever Made

Crooked, savage and twisted, Sam Peckinpah’s depiction of the West makes Wild an understatement - it’s pure brutality.

Set on the eve of World War I, The Wild Bunch begins with a colony of ants devouring a scorpion before it shifts attention to the likes of gunning down civilians and bombing bridges. In his story about a group of outlaws looking for one last score, Peckinpah uses the decline of the Wild West to usher in a new generation of Westerns that focus on the gloomy side of the badlands.

You don’t know who to root for in the Wild Bunch - your goodies are bad and the lawmen just as crooked. There is no hero and you have to live with it. Lou Lombardo’s editing on the film has gone down in history as some of the very best with his revolutionary and seminal use of slow motion truly bringing out the violence of the situation.

Ahead of its time and truly special, The Wild Bunch uses violence to ask the question "Is it better to burn out or fade away?" And the spectacular 2 hours that follow proves that sometimes you have to go out in a blaze of glory.