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)

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:

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 Fort Apache (1948)

Soundtrack:

Laura Lee

Major cuts = minor disappointments, but still worth a look.

The problems behind the scenes of this Civil War-era western (director vs producer over final cut, director's excesses and delays causing budget issues) are legendary. Thankfully, though the finished product is far from perfect, enough good things remain to make the film watchable and entertaining. Heston plays the square-jawed title character, an action-loving soldier who resents being put in charge of a prison camp. When a local settlement is slaughtered by Apaches, he must set out to rescue three captured boys but finds that he can't do it alone and must rely on a ragtag assortment of helpers. One of the few "real" officers he gets is Hutton as a rather bumbling, by-the-numbers lieutenant. He fills out his party with several Confederate prisoners, notably Harris as an embittered Captain, one-armed scout Coburn, several Negro Union soldiers led by Peters and various criminals and degenerates including Taylor and Pickens. Heston and Harris forge a very uneasy alliance as they head south into Mexico to retrieve the captives. They stumble onto the remains of a village in which curvy Berger is tending to the sick and dying. Needless to say, she sparks the interest of both Heston and Harris, only adding to their enmity. Eventually, the motley band of soldiers finds itself hunting Apaches while being hunted by French soldiers who are occupying Mexico. This escalates into an almost impossible situation when Heston's group reaches a river with the enemy both in front of and behind him. All the elements for a grand-scale, epic story are in place, but it falls short of excellence because of the problems in the editing room. Heston is great as the damaged, but heroic Major. Harris, though oddly cast and sporting that goofy blue eyeshadow he favored in the 60's, is also strong and the two make great adversaries. Coburn's role is smaller, but he gives it impact. Berger's role epitomizes the words decorative and obligatory, but she is luminous, especially when she isn't continuously yanking on her shawl (which happens VERY often!) The cast is chock full of excellent actors who enhanced many western films and television series. Oates has a nice turn as a Confederate who tests Heston's mettle (though he is referred to many times as a boy and was 37 years old!) Anderson is very endearing as a young bugler who becomes a man during the conflict. (Palacios, who plays his love interest, married director Peckinpah after this.) The primary problems seem to come in the mid to late section of the film when many things happen to the characters in swift succession and it's hard to completely gather their motivations and the timing of the actions. This section was clearly cut, haphazardly, and it weakens the narrative and the pace of the film. (Note Heston's sudden beard which appears out of nowhere.) Also, some of the battle sequences are edited so choppily that it's difficult to see who's being killed off! One must just assume, from whoever's left at the end, that the rest of the characters didn't make it. Still, the action scenes in the film are excitingly staged and the actors go a long way in putting the story across. Though it is rarely shown in widescreen, that format is a must for fully appreciating the camera-work and composition of the film. Heston, who admired (but tangled mightily with) Peckinpah, wound up making no money for his work as he put up his salary to help defray the cost overruns.