Major Dundee

"Major Dundee" is a forgotten, much underrated masterpiece, though admittedly affected by many defects. Indeed, here the director Peckinpah is (almost) as much innovative as in his undisputed best work "The Wild Bunch". The realism of many scenes, like that of the camp-hospital, with the badly-wounded bleeding soldiers lying on the ground, was stark new at the time the film was made. The action scenes are fantastic. In particular, look at the furious violence of the final brief battle on the river, note that a pool of blood spreads out on the water where the horses are hit: never seen such stuff before!

The story is exciting. The photography is wonderful: the beauty of the Mexican locations is definitely stunning. The work of the whole cast is very good.

The clash between Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) and the Confederate war-prisoner Captain Tyreen (Richard Harris) is somewhat conventional, but the character of Dundee can be placed among the best depicted and most interesting in the history of western movies. This frustrated soldier, a typical born-to-fight fellow, has finally his chance to make war, pursuing the cruel Apache Sierra Charriba. And he fights, kills, makes war against everybody and everything (the Apaches, the French army in Mexico, his own soldiers if necessary). Then, suddenly, something goes to pieces inside him. He feels a mortal tiredness; he sinks into drunkenness, dirt, brutish dejection. Then the Apaches reappear, and Dundee finds the strength to exit from his self-built nightmare... and he restarts to fight, fight, fight... This fellow has really no other choice: either to be an assassin, or to be a brute. Strikingly original character!

It's true the movie have several faults. It is too long and often slow-paced. The martinet officer played by Jim Hutton is out of place: this comic character could be appropriate in a John Ford's movie, but he grates much with Peckinpah's tragic vision. The scout played by James Coburn and some other minor characters are uninteresting. And, of course, Senta Berger is completely pointless: but she's so lovely that we can easily forgive her presence.

I learn from other comments that "Major Dundee" was badly butchered by the producers. I saw it twice at the theaters, and some other times on the TV. I can say that the television version is very bad with respect to what I saw on the wide screen. Many interesting details and subtleties have been cut. And by no means we can forgive that two magnificent scenes are ruined: the ambush on the creek and the carnage at the Apache camp in the wide-screen version happen over-night! But in the TV version it seems that it's full light! This leaves a feeling of annoying nonsense on the viewer (are the Apaches sleeping during day?). Too bad!

Luckily enough, for all his misfortunes and troubles "Major Dundee" is a great, magnificent, innovative movie.

Originally intended as a searing epic by director Sam Peckinpah, Major Dundee was taken away from his guiding hands post production and edited into an almost incoherent mess. Here in the new millennium we are able to see a restoration of the film with added scenes that gives the film are more cohesive structure, and yes it improves the film ten fold because the characters have flesh on their bones. Yet still we are only really glimpsing three parts of Peckinpah's vision since there is another 30 minutes of film seemingly lost forever, and that is a crying shame because this film could have been a Western masterpiece had it been allowed to flourish.

There is still a lot to enjoy here though, Major Dundee leads a rag tag army of Union soldiers, Confederate rebels, convicts, loonies, and a one armed James Coburn into Mexico to hunt down an Apache army who are responsible for deadly attacks on U.S. bases in Texas. It's not so much "The Dirty Dozen", but more like the dirty army! And in the main here it's the fractious nature of this assembled army that gives the film its vigour and selling point. Almost certainly the film is one of the forerunners of Vietnam allegories, and like it or not it's the thematic undercurrent of soldiers under prepared that keeps the pic above average.

The cast are fine, it's like a roll call for the macho assembly, Charlton Heston is Dundee, a big square jawed brash man who tries to keep this army in line whilst dealing with his own nagging ego. Richard Harris owns the film as Tyreen, his on going personal war with Dundee gives the film added impetus. James Coburn plays a very interesting character, but it's a character that demands more time on screen than we actually get (perhaps the victim of the cretinous cuts?), and it leaves a hankering feeling that never quite leaves you.

It's a fine journey, it's a fine character piece, and everyone also note that the wide screen shoot is gorgeous, but at the end of the day Major Dundee is only hinting at the genius that would deliver The Wild Bunch four years down the line and Straw Dogs two years later, but it could have been so very different...

Forgive them for they know not what they do. 7/10

A textbook example of how a penny-pinching producer can ruin a potentially great movie by basically sandbagging its (admittedly truculent) director, MAJOR DUNDEE nevertheless works as an answer of thoughts to the glorious Cavalry westerns of John Ford. Sam Peckinpah, on his third film overall and first one with a large-scale budget, was somehow able to pull a good film out of his controversial hat, thanks in no small part to his cast.

Heston plays an ambitious, ego-driven warden of a prison outpost in New Mexico in the closing months of the Civil War. When a rampaging band of Apache slaughter a family at a nearby ranch and then take apart a regiment he sends out to destroy them, Heston sees his way to get out of his routine job and get promoted. But to do this, he must form a garrison of troopers comprised of civilians, blacks, and Confederate prisoners. One of the latter is Ben Tyreen (Richard Harris), who had once been his friend but is now his worst enemy. Furthermore, his pursuit of the Apache, once it starts, will take the troopers across the Rio Grande into French-occupied northern Mexico. Now, they'll not only have to worry about hunting down the Apache and keeping the peace amongst themselves, they also have to worry about French lancers.

Despite the film being butchered so maliciously to the point where many critics rightly complained about its incoherence, plus a marital music score that Peckinpah detested royally (he could have used Jerry Goldsmith here), MAJOR DUNDEE succeeds by pulling out as many stops as it can. It benefits from being shot almost exclusively on location in Mexico (under truly ghastly conditions, which would have happened even without studio interference). The photography by Sam Leavitt is also quite good (though, in another case where the producer overrode the director, Peckinpah couldn't use his favorite cameraman Lucien Ballard on the shoot). And there are those moments of violence and bloodshed that predate, though in a more 'PG-13' fashion, Peckinpah's next film, the far more violent 1969 epic THE WILD BUNCH.

Heston is as good as ever in the title role. But surprisingly, he is nearly matched on screen by Harris, who plays his role as an Irish supporter of the Confederacy with great dash and insight. James Coburn also does good journeyman work as the one-armed scout Sam Potts. Peckinpah rounds out the cast with his Usual Suspects: Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, R.G. Armstrong, L.Q. Jones, John Davis Chandler, Slim Pickens, and Dub Taylor.

In spite of all its flaws, MAJOR DUNDEE is still quite viewable, which is why I rank it an 8 out of 10.

NOTE: In 2005, for its 40th anniversary re-release, Sony Pictures released an extended version of MAJOR DUNDEE on DVD, with twelve minutes of footage once thought irretrievably lost placed back in; and they've replaced the original marital music score in favor of one by Christopher Caliendo. It is closer to what Peckinpah had in mind, but with thirty minutes of additional footage irretrievably lost, there's no telling whatsoever how much better this film might have been had Peckinpah not been sandbagged. Nevertheless, it still stands as a slightly flawed but never dull Civil War western.

Exciting and enjoyable Western with a very fine cast , luxurious cinematography and gorgeous outdoors from Mexico . This cultured actioner Western contains impressive feats , dashingly violent scenes , rider pursuits , breathtaking Indians attacks and loads of crossfire .Interesting and mythical film follows a misfit group across Mexican territory to chase a renegade Apache called Sierra Charriba who is loosely based on the real-life Apache warrior chief Vittorio . It is set during the last winter of the Civil War, cavalry officer Major Amos Charles Dundee (Charlton Heston) leads a contentious troop of Army regulars along with a band of Confederate prisoners led by Captain Benjamin Tyreen (Richard Harris) who volunteer to go into Mexico and track down a band of rampaging Apache Indians .

This is a flawed but watchable Peckinpah including thrills , emotion , shootouts , go riding and a love story between Heston and Senta Berger. An overlong film , approx. 124 minutes , being severely cut from its premiere , and directed with typical verve by the great Sam Peckinpah . Rich in texture and including intelligent screenplay full of incredibly lyrics scenes . Taut excitement throughout , beautifully photographed and spectacular bloodletting . Vibrant as well as brilliant all-star-cast displays exceptional performances . Very good acting by main actors , as Heston as tough officer leading assorted misfits against Apaches and Richard Harris as two-fisted rebel Confederate . Although Charlton Heston famously did not get along with Richard Harris, who frequently stayed up drinking into the early hours and was often late on set. During filming, Sam Peckinpah was so obnoxious and abusive towards his actors that Charlton Heston actually threatened the director with a saber ; Heston later remarked that this was the only time he had ever threatened anybody on a movie set . Lavish production by Columbia Pictures that wanted to dismiss Sam Peckinpah but Charlton Heston convinced it not to, when he threatened to return his $300,000 fee and leave the project. Support cast is frankly well , plenty of familiar faces . Many of the actors who came to be known as the "Sam Peckinpah Stock Company" appeared in this film and four years later in Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch (1969): Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L. Q. Jones, Dub Taylor, Aurora Clavel, Enrique Lucero. Furthermore , other actors regular in Western movies and Peckinpah films as James Coburn , R. G. Armstrong , Karl Swenson , Michael Pate and John Davis Chandler. Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Daniel Amfitheatroph . Glimmer and evocative cinematography in Panavision by excellent director of photography Sam Leavitt , though Peckinpah, replacing his ordinary cameraman Lucien Ballard, with whom he had had a good working relationship since "Ride the high sierra" (1962) .

The motion picture was spectacularly directed by Peckinpah , though he downed it , being strongly cut by producers . After the success of Sam Peckinpah's later Wild Bunch (1969), Columbia Pictures told him they would allow him to re-shoot parts of this film that had been cut from the released version , Peckinpah, eventually, declined the offer .

Major Dundee (1965) was a test of wills between Sam Peckinpah and the studio heads, it was also a proto-type for his true master piece The Wild Bunch. The movie seems to be edited by foreign hands and out of place music has been added to the soundtrack. The most annoying thing about this film (besides the bad editing and music) is the narration, it seems so out of place.

Major Dundee is about a drunken battle harden officer who must lead a rag tag bunch of p.o.w.s, prisoners and calvary men across the southwestern desert and into Mexico searching for some "wild Indians". As they travel further and further across the arid plains, the people within the troop discover death, disease and horror along the way. They also learn something about themselves.

What could have been an epic western drenched in booze and blood was sloppily edited so it theaters could fit in more viewings and the content shocked the movie board. This led to Sam Peckinpah to become disillusioned with Hollywood and drift in and out of television before he got another chance at making another film within the studio system.

Recommended for Sam Peckinpah fans, others need not apply.