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To say that I find Ford more profound isn't to say that I find Peckinpah lacking in that area. Both filmmakers dealt with epic subjects in epic ways. Although your saying that Ford is like "oh, nice-- did people really used to believe those things?", you could argue that your political establishment still fights elections on the very same ideology that Ford reflected in his westerns. The drive to democratise the middle east and depose dictators is perfectly in line with the logic of a film like Liberty Valence. What Peckinpah tapped into is a more countercultural set of ideas which Ford obviously didn't, but outside of its liberal hotbeds, and from the outside looking in, I'd say massive sections of the US are still pretty Fordian. As you say, the Wild Bunch is 'a kind of bhagavad gita for modern atheists'. Maybe, but there are a helluva lot of Americans who aren't. I suspect you've got a lot more who, as Ford did, see the church as a progressive, unifying institution.
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