Major Dundee

We open on a massacre of civil war soldiers and farmers, an Indian chief sits on his horse over the bloody body of a wounded soldier, he looks down in triumph and gloats, "Morning soldier, I am Charriba, who will stand against me now?" And then bold emblazoned words "MAJOR DUNDEE" come blazing out of the screen, as if in answer to Charriba himself.

Thus starts what many regard as Sam Peckinpah's first major motion picture (albeit one that studio execs attempted to wrestle away from him and re-edited at their whim) and a deadset underrated classic western. The film contains many themes that can later be seen in many of Peckinpah's films, and I've read in more than a few places that hardcore Peckinpah fans see Major Dundee as the logical precursor to the much-celebrated The Wild Bunch.

Major Dundee (Charlton Heston) is a disgraced Union civil war officer put in charge of a prison. Upon investigation of Charriba's latest massacre he sees a chance for some glory that will possibly redeem his name, so he takes it upon himself to recruit some soldiers from amongst the prisoners themselves - offering the possibility of a pardon to those who do well by him. Key to his personal army's success is his relationship with Captain Tyreen (Richard Harris), an old friend and rival from the opposite side of the civil war who is currently in residence at the gaol. It is via Tyreen alone that Dundee has any hopes of keeping control of the Confederate portions of his army. The journey to capture and kill Charriba takes them into Mexico and beyond the law and Dundee's motley rag-tag mix of Confederate and Union troops begin to doubt their quest when they encounter hardship. Soon Dundee's personal obsession is all that drives them.

This is an interesting and thoughtful western that takes the 'cowboys and indians' formula and breaks it apart completely. Dundee's journey becomes so elaborate that Charriba begins to feel like an irrelevant facet of the film, and Peckinpah uses the journey to investigate the dynamics of male comradeship... the rough and ready rapport of tough men and the ways in which battle makes all men equal (in this respect the film is ahead of it's time in it's depiction of racial bigotry). This is highlighted in two scenes (that stand out in my mind, at least)... the scene where a Confederate soldier asks a black Union soldier (Brock Peters) to take his boots off and the tense situation that arises from this clash, and a later (lighter) scene that sees the same black soldier laughing alongside an old Confederate soldier whilst they watch a young man shave for the first time.

Peckinpah has the film narrated by a young grunt named Ryan (Michael Anderson Jr.) to give us a common view of the journey and a detachment from the film's titular character. Fleshing out the supporting cast are James Coburn as a grizzled, one-armed Apache expert, Jim Hutton as the comic relief (and his resemblence to his son Tim Hutton is uncanny), and Western stalwarts Warren Oates, Slim Pickens and Ben Johnson. The real meat of the story (as is to be expected) lays well and truly with Major Dundee though, and Charlton Heston gives a great performance as the fearless, obsessive and ruthless son-of-a-bitch that drags his men all over the wilderness in the name of revenge and glory. Richard Harris is well-utilised as the man's caddish rival too, with real-life tension betwee Harris and Heston used to good effect.

I enjoyed this movie. It has to be noted though that I watched the recently released director's cut... a restored version said to be more in keeping with Peckinpah's original vision. The action was good, the story was good, the dialogue was great and it sits with me as one of the great westerns of the 1960s.

Said Dundee to the priest... "With all due respect, this has nothing to do with God. I intend to smite the wicked, not save the heathen".

DIRECTOR: Sam Peckinpah
WRITER/SOURCE: Script by Harry Julian Fink, with some material from Sam Peckinpah and Oscar Saul.
KEY ACTORS: Charles Heston, Richard Harris, Brock Peters, Michael Anderson Jr., James Coburn, Jim Hutton, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Michael Pate, Slim Pickens

RELATED TEXTS:
- Peckinpah drew on previous westerns and historical epics such as The Searchers, Lawrence of Arabia, Red River, Fort Apache and Vera Cruz, as well as the classic novel Moby Dick.
- Peckinpah kept the American western alive as a critically viable genre throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s nearly entirely on his own - after Major Dundee he continued to explore the genre with The Wild Bunch, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Junior Bonner and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.