Anyone else just really hate the ending?

I find the movie to be so exhilarating on so many levels. It basically reminds me of those nights spent in childhood breaking curfew and running around at night with my friends making up tall tales in our heads and encountering rival "gangs" that we were pretending to be at "war" with. The film has an excellent cast of relative no-names who put in great performances. It really takes advantage of the degraded NYC streets of the late 70's especially the subway system. It also has an excellent attention-keeping plot of trying to get home through hostile territory with everyone out to get you, coupled with hypnotic cinematography and entrancing synth music.

Then what happens? We have a lousy knife-throw on a beach and they all just walk off into the sunset while "The Eagles" plays? I mean, WTF? All that build-up and hard core thrills just for that? The whole tone of the ending feels like a completely different movie, not just because it's during the daytime.

But doesn't it just break the spell? This movie could have been so much more if they knew how to end it. I can think of 10 different endings right now, like a big violent fight with The Riffs, Night of the Living Dead-style, where The Warriors take several casualties but Swan and Mercy get away... or Ajax escapes jail and epically shows up again at the end right when it looks like Lucifer has them cornered, and he heroically takes the final bullet for his friends while going down swinging.