Major Dundee. I think this is actually the first time I have seen this, at least as far as I can recall. Opted for the extende version with the new soundtrack. Will flip through the other versions soon to see if that was the best idea. Great film, lots of Peckinpah ideas, lots of ambition, Senta in a wet dress and funny looking French legionnaires.
The extended version is the one to go for, no doubt about that. It is the âproducerâs cutââ though, not a DC, but so far every minute more makes the film better.
But new score versus the old score, thatâs a bit tricky âŚ
Havenât watch this one, sounds like trully a classic old school western
I might give it a go. I tend to blow hot and cold with Peckinpah films. I like Ride the High Country and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid but I just couldnât get into The Wild Bunch or The Ballad of Cable Hogue.
I find the new score a bit too anachronistic in a way, without having checked out the old one. Not very Peckinpah and a bit too much grandeur for what is essentially a prequel to The Wild Bunch
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Agreed - the original has the very cheesy song in the credits, which isnât very Peckinpah either - but the biggest problem is having the goofy unfunny comic antics of Jim Hutton in the supporting cast ⌠bad move.
But Hutton changes within the film, and that makes his character work. I donât like the comical stuff in Dundee, there is some, but at least Hutton is a different man at the end.
The new score is not bad, but has some problems either. Maybe they should have sticked to the old score, and just changed its use here and there, and skipped of course the idiotic song used for the credits, thatâs pretty terrible, thatâs the worst part of the old score.
I think Major Dundee works very well in the known version. People often complain that the second half loses focus when the hunt for the Apaches is for a longer time not anymore in the center of the film, but thatâs actually the filmâs intention.
A Peckinpah cut would have run about 180 min, and would surely have been differently edited also in the scenes we know. And it would have been a much bloodier film, and already would have used slo mo shots for the violence.
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His character could have been a bungling incompetent fool without it being played for laughs ⌠laughs which arenât there. Thatâs a directorial decision and thereâs no getting around that it weakens the film - also, a guy like Huttonâs character wouldnât have lasted 10 minutes in that scenario.
I mean, it is a weird movie anyhow and was never gonna win a big audience: a big budget western epic around a gung-ho US Army cornel who invades Mexico to fight⌠the French? I mean that is quite a stretch even for those familiar with the history books 
I donât think so.
The comical stuff is a problem, yes, I would preferred the film easily to be without that, but Huttonâs character is from the beginning on more than that, other than many characters in Ford westerns. There is already something more serious in him, and he isnât an incompetent fool either imo, not for a second.
Whatever, looking at him back from the ending, I donât bother much with the comical stuff from the beginning.
I thought Peckinpah films are all a bit strange.
My Dad was a history teacher so I am quite good with my general knowledge of the French intervention in Mexico. The best way I treat stuff that is far fetched is that it is a work of Hollywood fantasy. My Dad isnât so generous. He hates this movie.
But the purpose was to avoid any trouble with the Mexicans and the French troops, only to kill the Apaches.
Well, it is again a film about losing, and Dundee knew the risks and had lost his game already early in the film. And that he still went on is what Peckinpah interested. And while Dundeeâs defeats are filmed in a spectacular manner, his victory over the Apaches looks just like a routine butchering. Dundee lives at the end, but he has lost nevertheless when he fights the French.
Ok, but the French were in Mexico at that time, werenât they?
I never checked the historical facts, and actually donât expect from westerns to be historical correct (only few are), but whatâs so completely wrong about Dundee?
The French were in Mexico from 8 Dec 1861 â 21 Jun 1867. I am not sure of the date in Major Dundee I know it is post Civil War. So the French should still have been there.
I have never seen Major Dundee so I canât really have an opinion Stanton. But my Dad is a REAL stickler for historical accuracy and regularly buries films and documentaries.
In short I donât actually know what is wrong with Major Dundee, I will have to watch it.
Nope, Major Dundee is set towards the end of the civil war, I think in 1864.
Unlike other Peckinpah westerns it is not a twilight western about the end of the west, but also not that far away from these filmâs themes. The French, if historical correct or not, bring at least a kind of an anachronistic feeling in the film, similar to the camel and the car in Ride the High Country.
At least with Vera Cruz another major western already brought the French lancers before into a western.
Two Mules for Sister Sara did too. I think itâs an interesting period of the old West. Vera Cruz is a film I want to revisit. I havenât seen it in years. I know it influenced the way The Magnificent Seven was made.
I only mentioned Hutton in brief, I could never stand him in other films either - I do like the film âMajor Dundeeâ and there are a vast array of very interesting characters to discuss, rather than the comedy relief buffoon.
Some of the best western character actors are there, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, R.G Armstrong etc ⌠and of course special mention to the stunningly beautiful Senta Berger ! ⌠why her character falls for the pompous Angus Dundee is another area for debate ? LOL 
Yep, the richness supplied by all the actors, and there are many more, is definitely a strongness of the film. And in a 180 min cut they surely would have some more scenes. Some disappear without that we see what ultimately happened to them in the 135 min version.
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Dundee is Charlton Heston? Most women fell for him back then! 