Dreadfully Boring

Brilliant and touching

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Major Dundee is Sam Peckinpah's first big studio film that has a lot of problems and one of its biggest ones is that it was cut by the studio. I have only seen the extended remastered edition, which is the closest thing available to Sam's original cut of the film. I did feel that after the first half of the film, it has parts that don't make much sense and parts that tend to drag on a bit. However, the cast is great and has a lot of Peckinpah regulars like Ben Johnson, Warren Oates(who would reunite next in Sam's masterpiece The Wild Bunch), James Coburn, LQ Jones, RG Armstrong, Slim Pickens, as well as Richard Harris,who was awesome as nemesis for leading man/antihero Charlton Heston, who gives one of his most interesting performances in this picture. While the film relies heavily on conventional elements of the genre, it also is ahead of its time as well. Peckinpah's west is much grittier and violent than previous masters of the genre like John Ford. The characterization is excellent and the characters are layered and complex and come across very authentic. The film falls short of being great, which Sam learned from this picture to make his untouchable masterpiece The Wild Bunch. However, this movie is far from bad and has brilliant dialogue and memorable performances.

I couldn't help thinking that this was just an OK Cavalry Western, and by the looks of it, a lot of folks here on IMDb are of the same opinion. It certainly had potential with the stellar principals and fine support from some of the better movie Western character actors of the era. The one who stood out for me was Richard Harris as Confederate Captain Ben Tyreen, continuously holding his men in line whenever circumstances arose to challenge Major Amos Dundee's (Charlton Heston) command of the ragtag Cavalry bunch. Taking out his own man O.W. Hadley (Warren Oates) for desertion could have been a turning point in the story, but the principled Captain managed to defuse an insurrection, even with Hadley's brother (L.Q. Jones) as part of the mix.Primarily a director of TV Western episodes (The Rifleman, Zane Grey Theater, The Westerner) prior to getting his big break with a major studio release, perhaps it was the big budget and not knowing what to do with it that caused Sam Peckinpah some problems with this film. It was 1971's "Straw Dogs" that got me first in tune with what a director's impact on a picture could be, so I keep that in mind whenever a film calls for violence. That was certainly a different kind of movie than "Major Dundee", though it does show a progression in the way Peckinpah developed his craft and instinct for people in intense situations.In this film, things seem to meander along, even though the original goal was to rescue three young siblings from an Apache band led by Sierra Charriba (Michael Pate). Once that's accomplished in totally underwhelming fashion, Dundee's soldiers confront a garrison of French soldiers in Mexico and manage to take on the Apaches once again. But for all of the build-up concerning the warrior leader, he's dispatched rather unceremoniously by bugler Ryan (Michael Anderson, Jr.), while a final confrontation with the French forces sort of dissipates on it's own when additional Union forces arrive on the scene. A final confrontation that's teased throughout the story between Dundee and Tyreen is also a wasted opportunity. Tyreen is dispatched during the final assault, leaving Dundee with a hollow triumph that one could hardly call a victory.

As the U.S. Civil War winds down, stiff-jawed prison warden Charlton Heston (as Amos Dundee) rounds up a motley crew of "civilians, criminals, Southerners and Negroes" to hunt down a hoard of bloodthirsty Apache Indians. Nasty business. Along the way, the group fights tension among themselves. Major Heston's main adversary is pre-war chum and present Confederate captive Richard Harris (as Benjamin "Ben" Tyreen). Young Union bugler Michael Anderson Jr. (as Timothy "Tim" Ryan) watches over the brandy, keeps a diary, and occasionally narrates. The brandy proves most difficult to keep in supply; it makes hapless lieutenant Jim Hutton (as Graham) a fine dancer...Showing off in her low-cut clothing, sexy Senta Berger (as Teresa Santiago) is a sight for sore eyes; in an arousing scene, she takes a dip in her slip. Moving along, Heston can't decide on a consistent hairline, and bearded James Coburn (as Samuel "Sam" Potts) plays Indian seer. All of this has been elongated by finds and restorations over the years. Because director Sam Peckinpah sandwiched this film between "Ride the High Country" (1962) and "The Wild Bunch" (1969), you'd think there must be some meat in "Major Dundee". Now, the film looks like it needs to be edited down.**** Major Dundee (3/15/65) Sam Peckinpah ~ Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Michael Anderson Jr., Jim Hutton

I grew up watching westerns, and saw this one every now and then on TV. Heston played one of my great heroes; a Federal Army Officer commanding a regiment squarely situated with Lincoln's United States, and under the command of General Ulysses S. Grant. He is out in the west, has men of honor under his command, save for the occasional horse thief and rebel.It's a tale of obsession. With Melville as the inspiration and Peckinpah helming the project, how could it go wrong?Well, as the historians on the commentary track reminded me, market forces were at work back at the studio. And so it was that what could have been a historic film about tracking down an Apache war-band, was turned into an overlong film involving a love interest and Imperial French guards.Oh boy.For the most part it's exceptionally staged. The only foible is the story itself. The main plot gets resolved in act two, and so the story falters there. The story also meanders with the love interest, and what started out as a plot driven story regarding justice and revenge in the never-ending struggle between the natives and the white-man, turns into an elongated adventure regarding the life and times of Major Amos Charles Dundee. Instead of a Melville like tale, we get a brief chronology of an army officer as went to resolve one issue, but stirred up others in the process. Huh.So, can we castigate it as a bad film? It's a tough call. I think it's better to say that the film started out on an almost misleading note, but promised on the title; a film about Major Dundee. We get the sense that the film is going to stay on one topic, one plot, one story, but winds up embracing a ton of others.For all that there is a lot of symbolism and deep stuff operating here. We examine Dundee's command decisions and his command detachment to pursue a single minded goal. Note Harris's change in shirts as Heston's character flirts with debauchery. Note the change in landscape as Heston and his forces pursue their goal. Note the uniforms and comment on contemporary social upheavals of the time (as was noted on the commentary track, but yes, I spotted it before it was pointed out).That's not all, there's also a coming of age tale here, as well as a romance (however retrofitted, and I'll go ahead and say it, I don't care how beautiful the Austrian actress is, and she is stunning, her role and tale do not belong).All in all it is an entertaining tale, and the ever sly mind might see the climatic finale as Peckinpah's comment on what power got us embroiled in conflicts involving US forces fighting native contingents. Ring any bells? That could be reading too much into it, but based on what I know about the director, I don't find it too far off the mark.It's almost an ingenious film. It's almost a classic. One could even call it a flawed classic. View it for what it's worth. If it seems somewhat odd, then keep what I told you in mind.