Major Dundee

I you like classic westerns and Charlton Heston, then this movie may be at the top of your list. I do like Charlton Heston and some classic westerns, but this film just did not do it for me. In my opinion,... Full review

Sam Peckinpah's "Major Dundee", whose production is certainly one of the most legendary in Hollywood, is still extremely entertaining in my opinion, despite what naysayers may say. The movie does have a number of loose ends (certain characters disappear, etc.),... Full review

The extended version is playing in selected theaters around the country as I write this. See it if you can, along with Leone's extended "Good, Bad, Ugly".... It will rekindle fond memories of Big Screen westerns you saw as a kid.... Full review

Major Dundee (1965) was a test of wills between Sam Peckinpah and the studio heads, it was also a proto-type for his true master piece The Wild Bunch. The movie seems to be edited by foreign hands and out of... Full review

The problems behind the scenes of this Civil War-era western (director vs producer over final cut, director's excesses and delays causing budget issues) are legendary. Thankfully, though the finished product is far from perfect, enough good things remain to make... Full review

In his autobiography, Charlton Heston spent more time talking about this film than any other. Some other commentator said that it looked like someone took over the direction. The commentator was very observant. Heston had to take over the direction... Full review

Why isn't there a "director's cut" of this movie in DVD format? It's editing caused Sam to disown the finished cut. During production Charleton Heston charged Sam on horseback with saber drawn, quick boomwork averted disaster. He also offered to... Full review

With the proviso that there are at least 30 mins cut and its a particularily horrible panned and scanned print - this is still a terrific Pekinpah movie.Charlton Heston in the titular role as a digraced Major in the Union... Full review

A textbook example of how a penny-pinching producer can ruin a potentially great movie by basically sandbagging its (admittedly truculent) director, MAJOR DUNDEE nevertheless works as an answer of thoughts to the glorious Cavalry westerns of John Ford. Sam Peckinpah,... Full review

"Major Dundee" is a forgotten, much underrated masterpiece, though admittedly affected by many defects. Indeed, here the director Peckinpah is (almost) as much innovative as in his undisputed best work "The Wild Bunch". The realism of many scenes, like that... Full review

He frustrated Heston so much that legend has it that he chased Sam with sabre on horseback. They express how many moments telegraph better moments in The Wild Bunch. ... Full Review

Thus the movie, which failed anyway, entered lore as a castrated epic, ruined by callow commercial idiots. Then there's a number of conventional comic characters to leaven the macho intensity, most notably Jim Hutton in a comic arc as a prig-twerp cavalry officer who hates horses, wants to be an artillery officer, and is loosened up by the ordeal. ... Full Review

historically, it has been treated as a potentially great picture and a frustrating disappointment.....But the flaws of "Major Dundee" don't begin to nag at you until after the fact:....Major Dundee," Sam Peckinpah's first large-scale western, is a lost masterpiece of the imagination.....while the studio's butchery certainly didn't help "Major Dundee," some of the movie's problems may have been rooted deeper in its conception..... ... Full Review

As it is, it's half a great movie.....Maybe that's why the failings of "Major Dundee" are so frustrating --....As flawed as it is, "Major Dundee" maintains its dignity in the face of the injustices that were done to it.....Major Dundee" should have been one of the great movies of the '60s.....historically, it has been treated as a potentially great picture and a frustrating disappointment..... ... Full Review

Yet the film somehow manages to be an exciting, beautifully filmed action Western with a bold conclusion. Major Dundee has "outsider art" written all over it. ... Full Review

If today is your birthday, then you are in excellent company. February 21st was the birth date of several notable (or even notorious) individuals. Here they are: Hendrik Berlage, Dutch architect ( Amsterdam Stock Exchange ), was born on February... ... Full Article

Films like The Dirty Dozen reflected not just impatience with military tactics, but growing contempt for military institutions and authority in general.Altman's M*A*S*H (1970) made this sentiment plain. ... Full Article

Phillyist is a little ashamed of how we spent last weekend. We prefer not to admit in public that we ignored friends and family to watch murders, mutilations, maiming, mayhem, and a woman performing what may be the most personal... ... Full Article

By Harper Barnes Special to the Post-Dispatch 05/06/2005 The maverick director Sam Peckinpah, whose brilliant, bloody 1969 "The Wild Bunch" transposes the vengeful bitterness and internal strife of the Vietnam era to the American West, had tried to do something... ... Full Article