Amidst all of the violence, the death of the West

I watched SAM PECKINPAH'S 1969 epic "THE WILD BUNCH" on DVD tonight.
In the past, I have watched the film for the spectacle -- appreciating Peckinpah's trail-blazing use of multi-angle camera shots, quick-cut editing and slow-motion action. All of his techniques would enter film's mainstream, to the point where we take them for granted now.
Tonight, I watched it for evidence of the movie's theme of the dying West.
Set circa 1912-13, the film explores the dying breed of the lawless and the law -- a era that closed with the encroaching civilization of the modern world. This enveloping modernism changed the West irrevocably.
Freddie Sykes (Edmond O'Brien) echoes the theme in his immortal line to Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan) at film's end:
"It ain't like it used to be, but it'll do."
Gang leader Pike Bishop (William Holden) knows the truth, too, when he says:
"We've got to start thinking beyond our guns. Those days are closing fast."
Peckinpah's use of violence blinded many contemporary cinemagoers to the film's true messages: That friendship is a man's most important bond and the modern world's encroachment of the gunslinger was the most one-sided fight of all.