During the opening moments of "The Wild Bunch," as the credits briefly stop the action every couple of moments, the title gang (led by William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson and Jaime Sanchez) is on horseback, heading toward a dusty Old West town, the camera observing a group of rag-tag children taunting a scorpion that is being attacked by a barrage of red ants.

The leader of The Bunch, Pike Bishop (Holden), glances down at the commotion and the kids look up at him and laugh. Then they return to their activity, turning the scorpion over onto its back.

From this early moment, it's obvious that we're not in John Wayne territory, and 1969 movie audiences probably didn't have any idea what they were in for.

As those opening credits wind down, The Bunch rides into town, enters the local bank and doesn't seem to notice the guns aimed at them from surrounding rooftops. Then, just before the final credit goes up on the screen, the bank customers are taken hostage and Holden speaks his first line: "If they move, kill 'em!" Finally, "Directed by Sam Peckinpah" fills the screen.

Of course, "The Wild Bunch" changed the face of movie Westerns forever. And it firmly established Peckinpah as a maverick moviemaker to be reckoned with.

Critics of the period were divided, many in the moviegoing audience was appalled and before the film's run was over, movies were changed forever. And for good or ill, "The Wild Bunch" became firmly entrenched in a serious place in film history, and its influence on cinema that followed is still evident today.

Yet, by today's standards, one might wonder what all the fuss was about. Compared to "Total Recall," "Terminator 2," the "Die Hard" and "Lethal Weapon" trilogies, etc., "The Wild Bunch" is pretty tame.

That isn't to say "The Wild Bunch" is not bloody or violent — of course it is. But the bloodletting does not seem gratuitous. It's not "let's-laugh-together-at-death," as often seems the cry of more recent films.

In "The Wild Bunch," death is horrifying, chilling and deeply felt, especially when innocent bystanders die by the truckload just because they happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And Peckinpah wastes no time in demonstrating the latter, as the bank robbery in the opening sequence goes awry and quite a number of citizens who just happen to be passing by the bank — men, women and children — are caught in the crossfire. It's unpleasant, but it makes the point.