Major Dundee (1965)

Director:

Sam Peckinpah

Writers:

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

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 | Prisoner Of War

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

Also Known As:

Mayor Dundee (Spain) (Venezuela) [es]
I taxiarhia ton ekdikiton (Greece) [el]
Juramento de Vingança (Brazil) [pt]
Juramento de venganza (Mexico) [es]
Kahraman binbasi (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Major Dundee (Denmark) [da]
Major Dundee (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
Major Dundee (France) [fr]
Majuri Dundee (Finland) [fi]
Sierra Charriba (West Germany) [de]
Sierra Charriba (Italy) [it]

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:

L.Q. Jones narrates the trailer for the re-release of the extended version.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the final battle, Captain Tremaine is struck by Tyreen and falls from his horse into the river, but in the very next shot he is back in the saddle.

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 Red River (1948)

Soundtrack:

Major Dundee March

One of his best

With the proviso that there are at least 30 mins cut and its a particularily horrible panned and scanned print - this is still a terrific Pekinpah movie.

Charlton Heston in the titular role as a digraced Major in the Union Army towards the end of the Civil War in charge of a Confedarate prison camp. Local Apaches are on the warpath and Dundee has no choice but to recruit Confederate volunteer's to go after them.

The catch being that Captain Tyree (Richard Harris)who leads the Conferderates used to serve under Dundee before the War. Dundee is himself a Southerner who choose to fight for the Union so both see the other as a traitor. This mutual dis-trust is amplyfied by soldiers on both sides augmented by a platoon of black soldiers serving under the Union.

To complicate matters even more the Apaches escape to Mexico which was under French rule at the time so they find themselves at war with them as well. A teriffic script examines the conflicting loyaties and contrasts the repressed Dundee with the flamboyant Tyree.

Heston and Harris are both exellent - their roles changing over time as events impact on how they expect the mission to go. The usual Pekinpah faces are all here - Warren Oates,Slim Pickins,RG Marshall and the use of music is exellent. They counter-point the main theme with Dixie,The Battlehymn of the Repbublic and My Darling Clemintine which anchors the story firmly in the period.

There is a terrific scene towards then end where Heston is shot and has to rest up in a small town and hits the bottle - the repressed Major comes apart and has to be rescued by Harris in a nice role reversal.

One of Sam's finest and one day , maybe , the full print will be discovered and restore the wonderful film to its former glory