Major Dundee: The Extended Version (2005)
A re-edited and re-worked version
of Sam Peckinpah's 1965 film, this much longer version
purports to be closer to the director's original vision
as well as changes the musical score. The studio,
Columbia, supposedly really fucked with this film,
taking it away from Peckinpah before he had finished
shooting some scenes, cutting the hell out of it,
and adding music that the director hated so much that
he almost took his name off of it. History also claims
that star Charlton Heston told the studio that he
would give back all of his salary if they agreed to
let Peckinpah shoot more scenes. They did. He gave
them the money, and they still didn't allow any more
shooting to be done.
"Major Dundee" is a forgotten film
in many ways. It's certainly a great example of a
genre film that is now nothing more than interesting
historical revisionism masking as pure entertainment.
It's really interesting that Sony, which is pretty
much the same company as Columbia, has restored this
film and brought it back for the public to see. Especially
since the film is a bloody, racist, violent and politically
incorrect pseudo-Western/war film.
Peckinpah starts the film with a
bloody and grotesque scene where a village has been
ransacked by Indians. From almost the first moment,
we have to watch the film with an internal commentator
that reminds us that this is a historical film but
one that is mostly Hollywood entertainment and an
interesting study in genre, not one resembling historical
fact. This is a film that will stand among John Wayne's
Westerns. This is one that will treat Native Americans
with disrespect. One that continues to tread upon
racist image of the Native American as savage, marauder
and murderer.
But soon the film moves past this
somewhat racist idea and moves into the real plot,
a sort of "Dirty Dozen" set near the end of the American
Civil War where Heston's titular major is a overseer
of a Yankee prison camp filled with Indians, captured
Southern soldiers, thieves, murderers, drunkards,
and a few African-Americans. (Race relations between
whites and blacks are handled much more sensitively
here since the film is about the Civil War and since
it was made in the 60's during the beginning of the
civil rights movement). Heston's Dundee marshalls
the forces of his ragtag captives, as well as some
of his own Yankee soldier guards and one young bugler,
to go after the savage Indian killer.
The result is an interesting story,
a hodgepodge of Western and war film cliches that
fit together with Peckinpah's masculine filmmaking
and slapdash editing to create some sort of testosterone
driven masterpiece that finds time not only for violence
and blood but also womanizing and drunkenness. We
expect nothing less from the filmmaker.
The key here is the cast. And Peckinpah
picks the perfect actor for nearly every role. No
one could play Dundee as well as Heston. Handsome,
rugged, masculine and hard, it is easy to see why
Heston was popular with both males and females when
you watch him here. This is the type of role he seems
born to play and Heston swaggers through the movie
like a man with no self-conscious and an enormous
cock. He's the perfect leader, the perfect center-post
around which to build the film.
The supporting cast is equally adept.
Richard Harris is just manly enough and just wiry
enough to play Tyreen, Dundee's friend and nemesis.
His subtle charm and intellect is masked here, almost
hidden, allowing the actor to appear much more dangerous
and complex. Peckinpah really gets a great performance
from Harris. And while James Coburn is relegated to
a smaller sidekick role (and saddled with having to
appear to be missing an arm when it is obviously tucked
down his shirt by a bad special effects crew and costumer),
he is nonetheless masterful and fun. His scenes with
Heston ripple with chemistry and intensity as if the
two actors are constantly testing each other to see
who can pace the scene and out-act the other.
No better choice than Jim Hutton
exists (then or now) to play Lt. Graham. A star of
numerous Westerns and later to become TV's "Ellery
Queen," Hutton brings just the right amount of nervousness
and intellectual pomposity to his character. Stiff
enough to be a caricature yet human enough to be realistic,
Hutton's sensitive posturing is the perfect counterpoint
to Heston's cock-of-the-walk swagger. And young Michael
Anderson, Jr. is just as perfect as Ryan, the bugler
and would-be narrator of the film. Ryan is supposedly
a little younger than he looks. (When Ryan goes off
with a woman to have sex, Heston questions if he shaves
yet and the comment seems almost silly). Still, Ryan's
voiceover and seeming innocent charm give the film
a much needed break from the braggadocio of the Heston/Harris/Coburn
testosterone triumvirate.
This "Extended Version" of "Major
Dundee" may not be the perfect version of the film.
One wonders if it adds any necessary scenes or subtext
that were taken away from the original studio cut.
At two and a half hours, the film can be a bit plodding
at times. Never really boring, it does seem a bit
slow in places. And the new music is also quite a
failure. It sounds like the standard 60's Western
fare. There certainly nothing new or original about
it, nothing to market a re-release around.
Still, this revision of the piece
gives credence to the original film and Peckinpah's
unique directorial style. If nothing else, it acts
as an interesting sidenote to cinematic history as
well as a perfect introduction for the uninitiated
to a rebel filmmaker and the genre of films he served
so uniquely.
Notes:
In English with some scant dialogue
in French and Spanish which is not subtitled.
Also with Brock Peters, Dub Taylor,
Slim Pickens, Warren Oates, and Ben Johnson, none
of whom have much to do.
Shot on location in Mexico.
Viewed at a press sneak at the Dobie
in May of 2005. Also in attendance were Jaygar of
"The Austin Movie Show, Marjorie Baumgarten of "The
Austin Chronicle," and John Pierson, star of the documentary
"Reel Paradise"
and now a UT film professor.
