Major Dundee

At the end of the Civil War, a driven cavalry officer (Charlton Heston) enlists the support of a Confederate prisoner (Richard Harris) for an unauthorized raid into Mexico in pursuit of a band of Apaches.

Major Dundee is a flawed masterpiece. Tensions between director Sam Peckinpah and the studio, Columbia Pictures, resulted in the film being wrapped early and Peckinpah being excluded from much of the editing process. In the studio’s defense, Peckinpah was apparently drunk and abusive throughout much of the shoot, so much so that at one point star Charlton Heston actually threatened him with a saber.

Still, there’s enough potential here to make you wish Peckinpah’d had his way. Given his first choice of Lee Marvin for James Coburn’s role, and his first choice of Lucien Ballard for cinematographer, or his original, longer, and significantly darker script, its clear Peckinpah was planning to de-romanticize the cavalry picture the same way he did the western with his previous picture, Ride the High Country, and despite all the studio interference he still partially succeeds.

Ultimately though, Major Dundee is an epic story with missing chapters. Yet it’s still worth a look, if only for the superb performances and the glimpses at what might have been. Though it’s definitely uneven, when it works, Major Dundee shines.