Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965)

Reading the articles, it seems to me at any rate, that the scenes where Peckinpah emphasises the illeagality of Dundee’s mission would likely have been shot as they are mainly all part of larger scnes that still exist within the film and thus could well be lurking in Columbia/Sony’s archive somewhere. The assertion of “thousands of hours of slow-motion footage” I’ve seen repeated at various places strikes me as a possible exaggeration, despite Peckinpah’s perference (no doubt learnt from his time in television) for multiple-camera set ups.

The Blu Ray has arrived, I’ll probably watch it in the next few days.

Do let us know what the picture quality is like!

[quote=“John Welles, post:43, topic:499”]Do let us know what the picture quality is like![/quote]Will do.

Fuck me!!! It’s let me quote a post!!!

Nice one !

I watched it last night, absolutely loved it. Why did it take me so long to check this film out?

Probably because it has a bad name

Haven’t seen it yet, must give it a shot soon.

I watched it last night, absolutely loved it. Why did it take me so long to check this film out?

I’m guessing you watched the extended cut? That Twilight Time release is really nice.

Yeah, the extended version.

I reckon this film could be cut down even further to make a more typical cavalry western. I am sure that if Peckinpah had final cut, it would have been much more interesting but the problem is that it remains a flawed epic regardless of which version you watch. Using the extended cut, I’d like to make my own shorter cut. I’m sure it sounds like heresy but I’m surprised they didn’t try and make a 90-100 minute film if that’s what they wanted.

For some reason it’s not one of my favorite Peckinpah films either , great cast , but the studio chopped the hell out of it , I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Peckinpah’s original version or the studio hack job which left me feeling like it was , Eh ok

Peckinpah’s version isn’t available, only the theatrical cut and the extended cut. The latter is the closest to Peckinpah’s version but still not what he originally intended. I find that there’s too much packed in this one and the pacing is quite bad. It starts off good but soon gets pretty boring once the Apaches disappear. I’d cut it down further to remove the romance and so on.

Seems like poor Peckinpah was cursed when it came to cuts of his own films :neutral_face:

" Who you send to edit me now ?? "

I would love to have seen the results of Dede Allen cutting a Peckinpah film - the back and forth between them would have created some outstanding results. There are moments in films like “Dog Day Afternoon” that really make me feel like I’m watching something directed by Peckinpah.

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