[](https://youtu.be/Syk7Lu11Ta8?si=hEbY0W85bZOmy7ML)
(Extended Cut)
**
**
God, what a seismic leap forward for Sam Peckinpah as a filmmaker. Surpasses and overlaps his two previous outings several times over. Major Dundee drips with a very distinct personality seeping out of the frame and into your living room. For better and for worse, I found the two films to come before this one to essentially feel like theatrically released television westerns. Bonanza if they were allowed to push the envelope just ever so slightly. This, even though it very obviously went through what was his usual turmoil between artist and studio, feels like a much more singular and defined artistic expression. It’s bigger, grander, the emotional charge is so much more forceful. I’m finally getting a mouthful of that patented Bloody Sam nihilism that I’ve heard so much about, and now I’m having to reckon with the taste. What I can tell you— I am pretty smitten with Peckinpah very deliberately taking John Ford’s affinity for and sweeping romanticism for the US Cavalry and putting a bullet through its head. The violence and the war sweeping over the territory feels extremely out of control and spiraling and beyond justification, and it’s being headed by a man who is obsessed with extermination of the enemy he’s been directed towards. Arrow Video’s restoration is just a beauty. Those absolutely jaw dropping frames being composed by Sam Leavitt have to be seen to be believed. The things he and Peckinpah are accomplishing with the camera are genuinely just spellbinding. They capture such wide, vast frames with so many people filling each corner of the screen at any given moment. An image that flickers repeatedly in my head is one of the titular Dundee slowly walking his way through his armada’s camp, ravaged after a losing battle, and the way the camera very gently and quietly careens behind him. That, and that departing visual of them finally crossing the river and back into the States. Cannon fire exploding behind them. The apocalyptic hell of war a dull roar down by the water. And then the way they ride off, as if it’s all business as usual. They live in and with violence, and just for today it did not claim them. Seen a lot of people not really knowing how to reconcile Charlton Heston the man with Charlton Heston the actor, but for me I found him to be seismic. He lurks and looms and hulks over the picture in a way that didn’t feel unlike Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer. I absolutely believed him as this cold, rigid machine of a man who is bloodthirsty and prejudiced and deeply hypocritical in his own way. Standing right alongside him and towering over the picture in his own right is Richard Harris. He struts and smirks and charms his way as a rather direct and striking foil for the stoic obsessive that we’ve got as a lead. One of the things I found most captivating was their dynamic and the way that Peckinpah never truly got excuses or absolves either men of their flaws, rather choosing to present exactly as they are and forcing you to sort out your feelings about them. Both men are racists, both men are at the direct epicenter of great violence. The alarming part is that it’s the Confederate insurrectionist who more frequently shows flashes in the span of humanity and a willingness to compromise for his fellow man. These are two deeply complicated man in a complicated, spiraling world that is increasingly getting further and further out of their control. Dundee leads his men with such quiet but palpable, vindictive rage. What starts out under the pretense of a rescue mission descends rapidly into a murder raid. And the violence that is presented here is far more in line with the expectations I’ve always had from a man nicknamed Bloody Sam. Harris’ death in particular struck me as especially gruesome for the time. His limp body hitting the ground, everything from the neck down a deep shade of scarlet is still reeling over and over in my head. I read very recently while preparing for this watch that Peckinpah once described the production and eventual studio tampering that occurred with Major Dundee as one of the most painful experiences of his life, and that he felt it could have been his masterpiece. I say this fully aware of the caveat I have from only now seeing Arrow’s extended restoration, but I don’t think he was very far off. I came out on the other end finding a very striking and harrowing, angry (yet very darkly funny) Western that captures the bleakness and endless pointlessness of warfare in a way that so few of its contemporaries ever could have at the time. The shot of Heston kicking Charriba’s corpse and watching it tumble down the side of that mountain is one of the more genuinely troubling expressions of the cruelty of battle that I’ve seen in some time. I will find myself wondering what Dundee and his company thought when they crossed the river, came back from their conquest and learned that the Civil War has ended and that Lincoln has been murdered. And I find it hard to believe that it would make even a little bit of a difference. War makes men into monsters.

[](https://youtu.be/Syk7Lu11Ta8?si=hEbY0W85bZOmy7ML)
(Extended Cut)
**
**
God, what a seismic leap forward for Sam Peckinpah as a filmmaker. Surpasses and overlaps his two previous outings several times over. Major Dundee drips with a very distinct personality seeping out of the frame and into your living room. For better and for worse, I found the two films to come before this one to essentially feel like theatrically released television westerns. Bonanza if they were allowed to push the envelope just ever so slightly. This, even though it very obviously went through what was his usual turmoil between artist and studio, feels like a much more singular and defined artistic expression. It’s bigger, grander, the emotional charge is so much more forceful. I’m finally getting a mouthful of that patented Bloody Sam nihilism that I’ve heard so much about, and now I’m having to reckon with the taste. What I can tell you— I am pretty smitten with Peckinpah very deliberately taking John Ford’s affinity for and sweeping romanticism for the US Cavalry and putting a bullet through its head. The violence and the war sweeping over the territory feels extremely out of control and spiraling and beyond justification, and it’s being headed by a man who is obsessed with extermination of the enemy he’s been directed towards. Arrow Video’s restoration is just a beauty. Those absolutely jaw dropping frames being composed by Sam Leavitt have to be seen to be believed. The things he and Peckinpah are accomplishing with the camera are genuinely just spellbinding. They capture such wide, vast frames with so many people filling each corner of the screen at any given moment. An image that flickers repeatedly in my head is one of the titular Dundee slowly walking his way through his armada’s camp, ravaged after a losing battle, and the way the camera very gently and quietly careens behind him. That, and that departing visual of them finally crossing the river and back into the States. Cannon fire exploding behind them. The apocalyptic hell of war a dull roar down by the water. And then the way they ride off, as if it’s all business as usual. They live in and with violence, and just for today it did not claim them. Seen a lot of people not really knowing how to reconcile Charlton Heston the man with Charlton Heston the actor, but for me I found him to be seismic. He lurks and looms and hulks over the picture in a way that didn’t feel unlike Cillian Murphy as Oppenheimer. I absolutely believed him as this cold, rigid machine of a man who is bloodthirsty and prejudiced and deeply hypocritical in his own way. Standing right alongside him and towering over the picture in his own right is Richard Harris. He struts and smirks and charms his way as a rather direct and striking foil for the stoic obsessive that we’ve got as a lead. One of the things I found most captivating was their dynamic and the way that Peckinpah never truly got excuses or absolves either men of their flaws, rather choosing to present exactly as they are and forcing you to sort out your feelings about them. Both men are racists, both men are at the direct epicenter of great violence. The alarming part is that it’s the Confederate insurrectionist who more frequently shows flashes in the span of humanity and a willingness to compromise for his fellow man. These are two deeply complicated man in a complicated, spiraling world that is increasingly getting further and further out of their control. Dundee leads his men with such quiet but palpable, vindictive rage. What starts out under the pretense of a rescue mission descends rapidly into a murder raid. And the violence that is presented here is far more in line with the expectations I’ve always had from a man nicknamed Bloody Sam. Harris’ death in particular struck me as especially gruesome for the time. His limp body hitting the ground, everything from the neck down a deep shade of scarlet is still reeling over and over in my head. I read very recently while preparing for this watch that Peckinpah once described the production and eventual studio tampering that occurred with Major Dundee as one of the most painful experiences of his life, and that he felt it could have been his masterpiece. I say this fully aware of the caveat I have from only now seeing Arrow’s extended restoration, but I don’t think he was very far off. I came out on the other end finding a very striking and harrowing, angry (yet very darkly funny) Western that captures the bleakness and endless pointlessness of warfare in a way that so few of its contemporaries ever could have at the time. The shot of Heston kicking Charriba’s corpse and watching it tumble down the side of that mountain is one of the more genuinely troubling expressions of the cruelty of battle that I’ve seen in some time. I will find myself wondering what Dundee and his company thought when they crossed the river, came back from their conquest and learned that the Civil War has ended and that Lincoln has been murdered. And I find it hard to believe that it would make even a little bit of a difference. War makes men into monsters.

1965 | Sam Peckinpah | Charlton Heston | Richard Harris | James Coburn | Mario Adorf | Ben Johnson | R. G. Armstrong | L. Q. Jones | Slim Pickens | Western

I watched the extended version of the film which includes the restored scenes and is the closest thing to what Peckinpah wanted, but we will probably never get a version of the film that exactly matches his vision. After I loved "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" yesterday I was hoping to find "Major Dundee" good as well and those hopes were fulfilled, well, at least initially.

I have to say that in my opinion the film starts extremely strong and maintains this level for quite some time. I liked the whole beginning in prison very much and especially their arrival at night and the scene in which the major has all the prisoners together and announces that he is looking for volunteers was very atmospheric and visually great. I also liked what happens afterwards and I really liked the beginning of their expedition and the film also managed to establish the conflicts within the group. In addition, the sets and locations are really great.

But then there was a moment when the film lost me a little and then never really caught me again. The party in the mexican village tore me out and was not only perhaps the weakest moment of the film for me but also the point from which I liked the film less. What happens after that is not bad, not at all, but in my opinion weaker than the first half. Unfortunately, I didn't like the second half as much, also because it might have taken too much time at a few points.

Otherwise the cast with Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Mario Adorf and a lot of other Peckinpah and western regulars is of course considerable and the characters over all also nice and likable, but especially Major Dundee himself was not tangible enough. Here it was much more the supporting characters that I liked the most. And Captain Tyreen, with his rivalry with the Major, was great.

After the first half, "Major Dundee" could have been one of my favorite Sam Peckinpah films and a fantastic western too, but after the second half it is neither. Still a good film that I liked a little bit better than "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid", but not as good as "The Wild Bunch" and nowhere near as good as "The Ballad of Cable Hogue".

1965 | Sam Peckinpah | Charlton Heston | Richard Harris | James Coburn | Mario Adorf | Ben Johnson | R. G. Armstrong | L. Q. Jones | Slim Pickens | Western

I watched the extended version of the film which includes the restored scenes and is the closest thing to what Peckinpah wanted, but we will probably never get a version of the film that exactly matches his vision. After I loved "The Ballad of Cable Hogue" yesterday I was hoping to find "Major Dundee" good as well and those hopes were fulfilled, well, at least initially.

I have to say that in my opinion the film starts extremely strong and maintains this level for quite some time. I liked the whole beginning in prison very much and especially their arrival at night and the scene in which the major has all the prisoners together and announces that he is looking for volunteers was very atmospheric and visually great. I also liked what happens afterwards and I really liked the beginning of their expedition and the film also managed to establish the conflicts within the group. In addition, the sets and locations are really great.

But then there was a moment when the film lost me a little and then never really caught me again. The party in the mexican village tore me out and was not only perhaps the weakest moment of the film for me but also the point from which I liked the film less. What happens after that is not bad, not at all, but in my opinion weaker than the first half. Unfortunately, I didn't like the second half as much, also because it might have taken too much time at a few points.

Otherwise the cast with Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Mario Adorf and a lot of other Peckinpah and western regulars is of course considerable and the characters over all also nice and likable, but especially Major Dundee himself was not tangible enough. Here it was much more the supporting characters that I liked the most. And Captain Tyreen, with his rivalry with the Major, was great.

After the first half, "Major Dundee" could have been one of my favorite Sam Peckinpah films and a fantastic western too, but after the second half it is neither. Still a good film that I liked a little bit better than "Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid", but not as good as "The Wild Bunch" and nowhere near as good as "The Ballad of Cable Hogue".