Although there are exceptions such as "Straw Dogs" and "Cross of Iron", most of Sam Peckinpah's films are Westerns of one sort or another. The likes of "Junior Bonner", "The Getaway" and even "Convoy" can be regarded as modern-day Westerns, but "Major Dundee", his third film, is a cavalry Western in the tradition of John Ford.
During the American Civil War, Major Amos Dundee, the commander of a Union prisoner-of-war camp in New Mexico, raises a force to hunt down a troublesome Apache war chief named Sierra Charriba. Dundee's force includes not only Union troops but also Confederate prisoners. (Although the story told by the film is fictitious, it is a historical fact that some captured Confederate soldiers, known as "Galvanized Yankees", did volunteer to fight for the Union, normally against Native Americans).
Peckinpah concentrates less on the military conflict between the Cavalry and the Apaches than on the personal conflict between Dundee and his second-in-command, Captain Ben Tyreen, one of the "Galvanized Yankees". (Similarly, Ford's "Fort Apache" explored the conflicts between two officers, John Wayne's Captain York and Henry Fonda's Colonel Thursday). Oddly, Dundee is a native-born Southerner whereas Tyreen is not. Dundee, however, is passionately opposed to secessionism, whereas Tyreen, originally a poor Irish immigrant, has adopted the lifestyle and values of a Southern gentleman. (He talks in something resembling an upper-class British accent). He remains fiercely loyal to the Confederacy and despises the North; he only agrees to serve under Dundee because the alternative is execution on a charge of killing a guard while attempting to escape. Moreover, he also bears a personal grudge against Dundee, who cast the deciding vote in a court-martial from the U.S. Army on a charge of taking part in a duel. (This incident may also explain Tyreen's animus against the Union).
"Major Dundee" could have been an excellent film, comparable to "Fort Apache", which is one of Ford's best. That it is not is largely due to Peckinpah's eccentric behaviour during shooting. He was often drunk and frequently crossed swords with both cast and crew, firing several crew members for trivial reasons. ("Crossed swords", incidentally, is not necessarily a figure of speech; there are rumours that the film's star, Charlton Heston, actually threatened Peckinpah with a sabre during one altercation). When Peckinpah became too drunk even to turn up on set, Heston, who had already agreed to forego his actor's salary in a desperate attempt to ensure that the film was completed, ended up directing several scenes himself. (Ironically, Heston had originally asked to appear in the film because he was eager to work with Peckinpah, whose previous film, Ride the High Country, he had admired).
Eventually, Peckinpah submitted a director's cut that was, according to some reports, 278 minutes long, making Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" look like a quickie. This was, of course, greatly reduced in length, to 156, to 136 and finally to 123 minutes, after the 136-minute version flopped on its initial release. It is the 123-minute version which is normally seen today, and given the film's troubled production history it is hardly surprising that it does not hang together as a coherent whole. The initial plot line about the war against Charriba's Apaches tends to get lost when Dundee leads his troops across the border into Mexico, where they get embroiled in the civil war between supporters and opponents of the Emperor Maximilian and Maximilian's French allies. (This war has been used as the backdrop to other Westerns, including "Vera Cruz" and "Two Mules for Sister Sara"). There is also a subplot about Dundee's romance with Teresa, the Austrian-born widow of a Mexican doctor executed by the French for supporting the rebels.
There are some good things about the film; both Heston and Richard Harris as Tyreen play their parts well, and the battle scenes are well-handled. By Peckinpah's standards the film, at least in its shortened version, is not particularly gory, probably because the most bloodthirsty scenes ended up on the cutting-room floor in the various edits of the director's cut. Daniele Amfitheatrof's repetitive, strident and bombastic musical score would doubtless be ill-received were it ever to be performed in a concert hall, but in the context of the film it works surprisingly well, even though the director reportedly hated it.
Reports of Peckinpah's behaviour on the set of "Major Dundee" were among the factors which got him sacked from his next project, "The Cincinnati Kid", on which he was replaced by Norman Jewison. After that debacle it was surprising that he was ever able to work in Hollywood again, but he was able to pull off one of the most sensational comebacks in cinema history when he returned with "The Wild Bunch", a film which also deals with a group of Americans who become involved in a Mexican civil war, in that case in the 1910s. Some have claimed "The Wild Bunch" as a masterpiece, and although I would not go that far it is nevertheless in my view a well-made film, considerably better than the often muddled and incoherent "Major Dundee". The earlier film is perhaps best regarded as a sort of ruined monument, the wreck of something which potentially could have been so much better. 6/10
During the American Civil War, Major Amos Dundee, the commander of a Union prisoner-of-war camp in New Mexico, raises a force to hunt down a troublesome Apache war chief named Sierra Charriba. Dundee's force includes not only Union troops but also Confederate prisoners. (Although the story told by the film is fictitious, it is a historical fact that some captured Confederate soldiers, known as "Galvanized Yankees", did volunteer to fight for the Union, normally against Native Americans).
Peckinpah concentrates less on the military conflict between the Cavalry and the Apaches than on the personal conflict between Dundee and his second-in-command, Captain Ben Tyreen, one of the "Galvanized Yankees". (Similarly, Ford's "Fort Apache" explored the conflicts between two officers, John Wayne's Captain York and Henry Fonda's Colonel Thursday). Oddly, Dundee is a native-born Southerner whereas Tyreen is not. Dundee, however, is passionately opposed to secessionism, whereas Tyreen, originally a poor Irish immigrant, has adopted the lifestyle and values of a Southern gentleman. (He talks in something resembling an upper-class British accent). He remains fiercely loyal to the Confederacy and despises the North; he only agrees to serve under Dundee because the alternative is execution on a charge of killing a guard while attempting to escape. Moreover, he also bears a personal grudge against Dundee, who cast the deciding vote in a court-martial from the U.S. Army on a charge of taking part in a duel. (This incident may also explain Tyreen's animus against the Union).
"Major Dundee" could have been an excellent film, comparable to "Fort Apache", which is one of Ford's best. That it is not is largely due to Peckinpah's eccentric behaviour during shooting. He was often drunk and frequently crossed swords with both cast and crew, firing several crew members for trivial reasons. ("Crossed swords", incidentally, is not necessarily a figure of speech; there are rumours that the film's star, Charlton Heston, actually threatened Peckinpah with a sabre during one altercation). When Peckinpah became too drunk even to turn up on set, Heston, who had already agreed to forego his actor's salary in a desperate attempt to ensure that the film was completed, ended up directing several scenes himself. (Ironically, Heston had originally asked to appear in the film because he was eager to work with Peckinpah, whose previous film, Ride the High Country, he had admired).
Eventually, Peckinpah submitted a director's cut that was, according to some reports, 278 minutes long, making Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" look like a quickie. This was, of course, greatly reduced in length, to 156, to 136 and finally to 123 minutes, after the 136-minute version flopped on its initial release. It is the 123-minute version which is normally seen today, and given the film's troubled production history it is hardly surprising that it does not hang together as a coherent whole. The initial plot line about the war against Charriba's Apaches tends to get lost when Dundee leads his troops across the border into Mexico, where they get embroiled in the civil war between supporters and opponents of the Emperor Maximilian and Maximilian's French allies. (This war has been used as the backdrop to other Westerns, including "Vera Cruz" and "Two Mules for Sister Sara"). There is also a subplot about Dundee's romance with Teresa, the Austrian-born widow of a Mexican doctor executed by the French for supporting the rebels.
There are some good things about the film; both Heston and Richard Harris as Tyreen play their parts well, and the battle scenes are well-handled. By Peckinpah's standards the film, at least in its shortened version, is not particularly gory, probably because the most bloodthirsty scenes ended up on the cutting-room floor in the various edits of the director's cut. Daniele Amfitheatrof's repetitive, strident and bombastic musical score would doubtless be ill-received were it ever to be performed in a concert hall, but in the context of the film it works surprisingly well, even though the director reportedly hated it.
Reports of Peckinpah's behaviour on the set of "Major Dundee" were among the factors which got him sacked from his next project, "The Cincinnati Kid", on which he was replaced by Norman Jewison. After that debacle it was surprising that he was ever able to work in Hollywood again, but he was able to pull off one of the most sensational comebacks in cinema history when he returned with "The Wild Bunch", a film which also deals with a group of Americans who become involved in a Mexican civil war, in that case in the 1910s. Some have claimed "The Wild Bunch" as a masterpiece, and although I would not go that far it is nevertheless in my view a well-made film, considerably better than the often muddled and incoherent "Major Dundee". The earlier film is perhaps best regarded as a sort of ruined monument, the wreck of something which potentially could have been so much better. 6/10