Major Dundee

Major Dundee was a 1965 Western film starring Charlton Heston and Richard Harris, and directed by Sam Peckinpah. It has become notorious for the feud between Peckinpah and the producing studio, Columbia Tristar, during its production and editing.

Plot Summary/Historical Basis

The plot of the movie involves the title character, played by Heston, a Union cavalry officer during the American Civil War, who has been banished for misconduct to a prisoner-of-war camp in New Mexico Territory. After a family of ranchers and a relief column of cavalry is massacred by an Apache warlord named Sierra Charriba (Michael Pate), Dundee seizes the opportunity for glory, raising his own private army of Union troops (black and white), Confederate POWs led by his old friend and rival, Captain Tyreen (Harris), several Indian scouts, and a gang of civilian mercenaries to pursue Charriba into Mexico. Dundee's force pursues Charriba, engaging him in several bloody battles, as well as coming into conflict with French troops who are occupying Mexico under Emperor Maximillian of Mexico. Also, an Austrian doctor (Senta Berger) who is sympathetic to the Rebels under Benito Juarez joins up with the army, causing further tensions between Tyreen and Dundee. The film is narrated by Tim Ryan, a young bugler played by Michael Anderson, Jr., whose diary is meant to serve as an ironic counterpoint to the action, though in the cut version this intention by Peckinpah/Fink does not come across very well.

The screenplay, written by Harvey Julian Fink (who also wrote the film's novelization), Oscar Saul, and Peckinpah, was loosely based off of historical precedents, though contrary to claims by the production team at the time, it was not actually based off of a true story. During the Minnesota Sioux Uprising of 1862, Union forces in that state were forced to recruit Confederate prisoners from Texas to make up for their meager numbers in fighting the Indians. Unlike in the movie, where there is much animosity between the Union and Confederate troops in Dundee's command, the Rebels, called "Galvanized Yankees", fought well and without much complaint. Both Union and Confederate forces also battled Apache, Navajo, and Comanche Indians throughout the war along the U.S.-Mexico border, making the scenario of the movie at least somewhat plausible.

Some critics of the film have also pointed out similarities between this and Herman Melville's classic novel Moby Dick. Many of the characters are similar to those from that book, with Dundee as Captain Ahab, Tyreen as Starbuck, Ryan as Ishmael, and other minor characters, with Sierra Charriba and his Apache tribe substituting for the whale, as is the general plot line (an obsessive idealist drives himself to destruction, disregarding the affects on others). These references to Moby Dick were likely intentional on the part of the screenwriters. Some have also pointed out similarities of the plot to the Vietnam War, which are highly unlikely to have been intentional, as the war had not significantly escalated by the film's original production.

Besides the above, the superb cast also includes Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Brock Peters, Mario Adorf, and Peckinpah regulars Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L.Q. Jones, Slim Pickens, John Davis Chandler, and Dub Taylor. Veteran character actor Karl Swenson also puts in a brief appearance as Dundee's second-in-command at the POW camp. Jody McCrea appeared in an early deleted scene as Lieutenant Brannin, the young leader of the relief column killed in the movie's beginning.

Production

Peckinpah found the script in late 1963, and began making the movie into a complex character study about Dundee, making him a glory-hungry officer who would do anything to gain fame and recognition. Actor R.G. Armstrong, who had a small part as a Reverend who tags along with the expedition, referred to the uncut (156 minutes) version of the film as "Moby Dick on horseback". However, the production of the movie was very troubled: Peckinpah was often drunk on the set, and was supposedly so abusive towards the cast that Heston had to threaten him with a cavalry saber in order to calm him down. He also fired a large number of crew members for very trivial reasons throughout the shoot. Columbia studio executes feared that the project was out of control, and that Peckinpah was too unstable to finish the picture, so they cut the shooting schedule of the film by several weeks. Heston, however, gave up his entire salary for the film in order to keep Peckinpah on the project - a gesture rarely equalled in Hollywood history. However, the studio forced Peckinpah to wrap up shooting very abruptly; Heston alleged that Peckinpah, towards the end of the shoot, simply became drunk and wandered off the set, and that he (Heston) had to finish directing many portions of the movie.

Peckinpah's qualms with the movie continued into the post-production. Peckinpah's original director's cut was 156 minutes long and included several slow-motion battle scenes which were inspired by Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai. The movie was also fairly gory for the standards of 1965, and a lot of the more bloody and violent scenes were cut out. A musical score by Daniele Amfitheatrof was added to the film despite Peckinpah's protests, as was the title song, the Major Dundee March, sung by Mitch Miller and his Sing-Along Gang. At the film's initial release, it was 136 minutes long; after a disastrous premiere - the movie was almost universally panned by critics - an additional thirteen minutes cut out. Many viewers of the original movie feel that these cuts ruined the movie's scope and created significant plot holes.

Restored Version (April 2005)

In the summer of 2005, a restored 136-minute version, released by New York City's Film Forum featured several restored scenes, along with a new musical score by Christopher Caliendo. All of the cuts were edited out of the release version at the last minute; it is highly unlikely that Peckinpah's director's cut - which would presumably include a night-time Apache massacre which originally opened the film and has gained a measure of notoriety through screenwriting and film classes - will ever be fully restored.

Major Dundee has long been considered a lost masterpiece due to studio tampering. It also helped cement Peckinpah's image as a renegade film maker, which he would enhance with the conflicts on his later films, such as Straw Dogs, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.

Links/Sources

IMDB Article: [1]

The Charge of the Peckinpah Brigade (NY Times Article - Registration Required): [2]

The High Hat - Review: [3]

DVD Savant Review of the Extended Version: [www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1700dund.html]