Major Dundee (1965)

Director:

Sam Peckinpah

Writers:

Harry Julian Fink (story)
Harry Julian Fink (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

15 March 1965 (Denmark)

Genre:

Adventure | War | Western

Tagline:

THE EPIC STORY OF THE GREAT SOUTH-WEST !

Plot:

During the last winter of the Civil War, cavalry officer Amos Dundee leads a contentious troop of Army regulars...

Plot Keywords:

Apache | Confederate | Mexico | Prisoner | Texas

Cast

Charlton Heston	...	Major Amos Charles Dundee
Richard Harris	...	Captain Benjamin Tyreen
Jim Hutton	...	Lieutenant Graham
James Coburn	...	Samuel Potts
Michael Anderson Jr.	...	Trooper Tim Ryan
Senta Berger	...	Teresa Santiago
Mario Adorf	...	Sergeant Gomez
Brock Peters	...	Aesop
Warren Oates	...	O.W. Hadley
Ben Johnson	...	Sergeant Chillum
R.G. Armstrong	...	Reverend Dahlstrom
L.Q. Jones	...	Arthur Hadley
Slim Pickens	...	Wiley
Karl Swenson	...	Captain Waller
Michael Pate	...	Sierra Charriba
John Davis Chandler	...	Jimmy Lee Benteen
Dub Taylor	...	Priam
Albert Carrier	...	Captain Jacques Tremaine
José Carlos Ruiz	...	Riago (as Jose Carlos Ruiz)
Aurora Clavel	...	Melinche (as Aurora Clavell)
Begoña Palacios	...	Linda (as Begonia Palacios)
Enrique Lucero	...	Doctor Aguilar
Francisco Reiguera	...	Old Apache (as Francisco Reyguera)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Whitey Hughes	...	Confederate trooper (uncredited)
Cliff Lyons	...	(uncredited)
Jody McCrea	...	Lt. Brannin (uncredited)
Dennis Patrick	...	(uncredited)
Rockne Tarkington	...	Jefferson (uncredited)

Directed by
Sam Peckinpah

Writing credits
Harry Julian Fink		(story)
Harry Julian Fink		(screenplay) &
Oscar Saul		(screenplay) and
Sam Peckinpah		(screenplay)

Produced by
Jerry Bresler	....	producer

Original Music by
Daniele Amfitheatrof
Christopher Caliendo		(2005 restored version)

Cinematography by
Sam Leavitt

Film Editing by
Howard Kunin
William A. Lyon
Donald W. Starling		(as Don Starling)

Art Direction by
Alfred Ybarra		(as Al Ybarra)

Costume Design by
Thomas S. Dawson		(as Tom Dawson)

Makeup Department
Larry Butterworth	....	makeup artist
Ben Lane	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Francisco Day	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Floyd Joyer	....	assistant director
Cliff Lyons	....	second unit director
John Veitch	....	assistant director

Art Department
Joe LaBella	....	property master (as Joe La Bella)

Sound Department
James Z. Flaster	....	sound
Charles J. Rice	....	sound supervisor
Rafael Ruiz Esparza	....	sound (uncredited)

Special Effects by
Augie Lohman	....	special effects (as August Lohman)

Stunts
Jerry Brown	....	stunts (uncredited)
Archie Butler	....	stunt coordinator (uncredited)
Joe Canutt	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bill Catching	....	stunts (uncredited)
Philip Crawford	....	stunts (uncredited)
Richard Farnsworth	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jerry Gatlin	....	stunts (uncredited)
Chuck Hayward	....	stunts (uncredited)
Robert 'Buzz' Henry	....	stunts (uncredited)
Bob Herron	....	stunts (uncredited)
Whitey Hughes	....	stunts (uncredited)
Leroy Johnson	....	stunts (uncredited)
Walt La Rue	....	stunts (uncredited)
Cliff Lyons	....	stunts (uncredited)
Hal Needham	....	stunts (uncredited)
Carl Pitti	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jim Sheppard	....	stunts (uncredited)
Roy N. Sickner	....	stunts (uncredited)
Buddy Van Horn	....	stunts (uncredited)
Jack Williams	....	stunts (uncredited)
Henry Wills	....	stunt coordinator (uncredited)
Henry Wills	....	stunts (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Gordon T. Dawson	....	set costumer (uncredited)

Other crew
Rick Rosenberg	....	assistant to producer
'Chema' Hernandez	....	head wrangler: Mexico (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation (presents)
• Jerry Bresler Productions

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1965) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia-Bavaria Filmgesellschaft m.b.H. (1965) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1966) (USA) (TV) (original airing) (pan/scan)
• GoodTimes Home Video (1988) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• Columbia Pictures Home Video (1996) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)
• Columbia TriStar (1995) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2008) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Columbia (1965) (France) (theatrical)
• Opção (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (198?) (USA) (VHS) (pan/scan)

Other Companies

• Intrada  score album released by (limited edition) (signature edition)
• Pathé  Eastman color by
• Sony Pictures  restoration (2005 restoration)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for violence and some sensuality. (2005 re-issue)

Runtime:

123 min | 136 min (2005 restored version) | Spain:117 min | USA:152 min (unreleased director's cut)

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Spanish

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Iceland:16 | West Germany:12 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:PG-13 (re-release) (2005) | USA:Approved (Certificate #23829)

Filming Locations:

Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Sam Peckinpah originally wanted Lucien Ballard, with whom he had had a good working relationship on Ride the High Country (1962), as the director of photography, but producer Jerry Bresler refused the request, making him work with Sam Leavitt, whose credits included Diamond Head (1963), a previous Bresler production, and Cape Fear (1962). Although Leavitt did get along fairly well with Peckinpah, this was the first sign of tension between the director and the producer.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The type of howitzer used by Lieutenant Graham in the M1841 12 pounder Mountain Howitzer, a small but effective piece used primarily as horse artillery. In the final battle, Graham orders that the piece be elevated to 28 degrees; the highest level that can be reached for this piece is ten degrees.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: In the territory of New Mexico towards the end of the Civil War, an Indian, Sierra Charriba, and his Apache warriors raided, sacked and looted an area almost three times the size of Texas.

Movie Connections:

References My Darling Clementine (1946)

Soundtrack:

Major Dundee March

War of attrition

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: Sony Pictures has just released an extended version of this movie, 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.