Major Dundee is a 1965 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Harry Julian Fink and Oscar Saul. It stars Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson Jr., Mario Adorf, Brock Peters, and Senta Berger. The film is about a Union cavalry officer who leads a contentious troop of Army regulars, Confederate prisoners, and Indian scouts on an expedition into Mexico during the American Civil War to destroy a band of Apaches who have been raiding United States bases and settlements in the New Mexico territory.
The film was shot in various locations in Mexico, filmed in Eastman Color by Pathécolor, print by Technicolor. Major Dundee became notorious for its difficult shoot and post production, which saw the movie greatly cut from Peckinpah's original vision. He later called the film "one of the most painful things that ever happened in my life."Weddle p 253
The film was released by Columbia Pictures on March 16, 1965. Initial critical response was largely negative, but retrospective reviews have been highly positive, following the release of an extended cut closer to Peckinpah's original vision in 2005.
Plot During the American Civil War, Union cavalry officer Major Amos Dundee is relieved of his command for a tactical error at the Battle of Gettysburg and sent to head a prisoner-of-war camp in the New Mexico Territory. After a family of ranchers and a relief column of cavalry are massacred by Apache war chief Sierra Charriba, Dundee sends his scout Samuel Potts to locate Charriba and begins raising his own, unauthorized force. He attempts to recruit Confederate prisoners led by his former friend, Captain Ben Tyreen. Tyreen bears a grudge against Dundee and refuses his request. Before the war, Dundee had cast the deciding vote in Tyreen's court-martial from the United States Army for participating in a duel, leading to Tyreen's dismissal. Dundee is a Southerner, but fought for the Union.
Dundee's recruits include bugler Tim Ryan, the only survivor of the massacre (and the film's narrator), as well as a horse thief, a drunken mule-packer, a vengeful minister, and a small group of black soldiers who are tired of doing menial tasks. Dundee reluctantly appoints the inexperienced Lieutenant Graham as his second-in-command. Eventually, facing a hanging which may or may not be a bluff on Dundee's part, Tyreen binds himself and 20 of his men to loyally serve Dundee, but only until Charriba is "taken or destroyed".
When the diverse factions of Dundee's force are not fighting each other, they engage the Apaches in several bloody battles. Though they rescue several young children captured by the Apaches, Dundee's men lose most of their supplies in an ambush, forcing them to raid a village garrisoned by French troops supporting Emperor Maximilian. However, little remains to be looted, and Dundee ends up sharing some of his dwindling food with the starving Mexicans. Beautiful resident Teresa Santiago, the Austrian widow of a doctor executed for his support of the rebels under Benito Juárez, causes further tensions between Dundee and Tyreen, as they compete for her attentions. Dundee makes escaping easy for his French prisoners. When they return with reinforcements, Dundee surprises the French column and makes off with badly needed supplies. After this success, the men begin to get along. However, one of the Confederates, O. W. Hadley, attempts to desert. Dundee orders his execution, but Tyreen shoots Hadley himself to quell any resentment from his men.
Teresa and Dundee have a brief affair. In an unguarded moment, he is attacked by the Apaches and wounded in the leg, forcing him to seek medical help in French-held Durango. The doctor removes the arrow, but Dundee has to remain to recuperate. He is tended by a pretty Mexican, whom he eventually takes to bed. When Teresa comes upon them, her relationship with Dundee comes to an abrupt end. Dundee starts drinking heavily. Graham leads a small group of men to distract the French, while Tyreen shames Dundee into resuming his mission. Dundee has no hope of catching the Apaches, so he pretends to give up and starts back for the United States. The Apaches give chase and fall into Dundee's trap. Ryan kills Charriba in the ambush.
Dundee and Tyreen prepare to resume their private vendetta, but the French appear. They position a portion of their force on the American side of the Rio Grande. Two other columns come up fast south of the river. The Americans and the northern French contingent charge each other, fighting in the river. Tyreen sees a French soldier seize the regimental colors. He takes back the flag and hands it over to Dundee. Shot in the stomach, Tyreen singlehandedly charges the French cavalry, enabling the others to cross the Rio Grande. Only Yankees Dundee, Graham, Potts, Ryan, and Sergeant Gomez, plus Confederates Chillum and Benteen and a few others survive.
As Dundee's force heads home, the narration notes that it is now April 19, 1865. The soldiers are unaware that Lee has surrendered, the Civil War is over, and Abraham Lincoln has been assassinated.
Cast
Credits from the AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
Production Screenplay The script was based on an extended treatment by Fink called And Then Came Tiger. This was read by producer Jerry Bresler, who had made a number of successful films for Columbia Studios including Diamond Head starring Charlton Heston. The studio had a commitment with Heston to make another film, and Bresler showed the actor the material in June 1963. Heston was interested, as he wanted to make a film that explored the Civil War, "a real film; not a film about the 'Gallant Grey Ghosts of the Confederacy', you know."Shay p 115
Bresler thought Sam Peckinpah might be an ideal director for the material. He showed Heston Ride the High Country (1962), Peckinpah's latest movie. Heston admired it, writing in his diary, "He's made a damn good Western, for almost nothing, though MGM blew it in release. I'd like to work for him."Heston p 173 Peckinpah agreed to direct Major Dundee for a fee of $50,000.Weddle p 230
Actor R. G. Armstrong, who had a small part as a reverend who tags along with the expedition, referred to the 156-minute version of the film as "Moby-Dick on horseback".
While Fink wrote a draft, Peckinpah scouted locations in Mexico. Filming was to begin in December 1963, but when the director read Fink's script in September, he was dissatisfied with it. Bresler agreed to push filming back until February, the latest they could move it before Heston started work on The Agony and the Ecstasy. He then arranged for Oscar Saul to work on the script with Peckinpah.Weddle p 232
Heston was sent a full script in November. He wrote in his diaries, "There's a lot of good work in it, but I'm more than a little disappointed. The characters are there, and the bones of the story, but there's a lot of excess mishmash."Heston p 183
Peckinpah rewrote the script, but at the start of filming, Heston reflected, "There are holes in it; serious holes, I think. That means either he [Peckinpah] knows a lot less about scripts than I do ... or a lot more. I'm perfectly willing to accept the latter premise, but it's a bit spooky just now. The main thing wrong is the girl's part, which is very sloppily written."Heston p 192
Heston later recalled the main lesson he learned from Major Dundee was to "never, never, never start shooting without a complete script... it was a major stumbling block on Dundee". Heston said part of this "was the fault of a very inadequate writer who was on at first and worked for six months without really producing anything remotely shootable, forcing the studio into what finally became a five-month postponement." According to Heston, the studio asked Peckinpah to rewrite it, but "we still weren't really ready when the second shooting date came up. Also, it may be that we all had different films in mind: the studio, Sam, and me."
Casting Richard Harris had recently starred in the British art-house success This Sporting Life, and Heston and Peckinpah were discussing him as a possible second lead as early as July 1963. In November, though, Heston wrote that Anthony Quinn had turned down the role and the studio was going to offer it to Steve McQueen. He also wrote that they hoped for Lee Marvin to play Potts and Omar Sharif to play Gomez. Harris was cast in December. The actor selected Dundee over a British project, The Luck of Ginger Coffey because the Hollywood film paid more, a decision he never regretted.Callan p 81
The film was the first of several Coburn made with Sam Peckinah. It was Jim Hutton's first film made outside MGM since becoming a star.
Filming Filming started in February 1964 and took place in Mexico. According to Peckinpah, just prior to filmmaking, the new management at the studio (Mike Frankovitch replacing Sol Schwartz as head of production) cut the budget from $4.5 million to $3 million and removed 15 days from the schedule.Weddle p 234-235
The production of the movie was very troubled. Peckinpah was often drunk on the set, and was supposedly so abusive towards the cast that Heston had to threaten him with a cavalry saber to calm him down; he even charged Peckinpah on horseback at one point, leading the director to panic and order the camera crane he was working on to be raised fast.
Peckinpah also fired a large number of crew members for very trivial reasons throughout the shoot. Columbia studio executives feared that the project was out of control, and that Peckinpah was too unstable to finish the picture, so they cut the shooting schedule of the film by several weeks.
Harris and Heston clashed during filming. Harris collapsed during the shoot, in part because of his heavy drinking.Callan p 91-92 Heston wrote in his diary that Harris "does seem to be one of those people who enjoys ill health. In any event, on this picture, he was from time to time spectacularly taken with a seizure of one kind or another."Heston p 194 He also called Harris "something of a fuck-up, no question" for making mistakes during the film, although Heston later called himself "unfair" for making such judgements. "It was a grueling location, and Dick [Harris] wasn't used to working with either horses or guns," wrote Heston. "If he was a fuck-up, I was a hard-nosed son of a bitch."Heston p 197
Heston recalled, "As the schedule neared its end, more and more pressure began to be exerted from the studio to curtail the shooting in some way — to eliminate this or that; to somehow cut down the mounting overages."Shay p 116
Heston was worried Peckinpah would be fired and lobbied the studio in support of his director. Heston called Columbia's studio head, Mike Frankovich, and offered to give up his entire salary for the film to keep Peckinpah on the project. The studio staff originally refused, but changed their minds and took Heston's money.Heston p 195
Filming finished on 30 April 1965. The movie went $1.5 million over budget, which meant it cost as much as originally budgeted.Weddle p 244 Heston wrote shortly afterwards, "I get the feeling Bresler would almost be willing to have the film fail, if only to justify his misgivings about Sam."Heston p 198
Post-production