Major Dundee (1965) on Netflix
Approved19652h 3mAdventureWarWestern
After Gettysburg, Major Amos Dundee is posted to a prisoner-of-war camp in New Mexico. When Apache chief Sierra Charriba raids, Dundee raises a force and seeks recruits among the prisoners.
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- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
Union cavalry officer Major Amos Dundee is posted to run a camp for Confederate prisoners in New Mexico after a tactical error at Gettysburg costs him his command. When Apache war chief Sierra Charriba massacres a rancher family and a relief column of cavalry, Dundee sends his scout Samuel Potts after him and assembles his own unauthorized force: Tim Ryan, a bugler who alone survived the massacre, a horse thief, a minister out for vengeance, a mule-packer who drinks, and a small unit of black soldiers weary of menial duties. Dundee asks the Confederate prisoners led by Captain Ben Tyreen to join him. Tyreen bears a grudge and refuses; the two were once friends, and before the war Dundee cast the deciding vote in the court-martial that dismissed Tyreen from the Army.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Major Dundee (1965)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Charlton Heston offered to give up his entire salary for Major Dundee to keep Sam Peckinpah on the project; Columbia staff first refused, then changed their minds and took the money.
- Peckinpah was often drunk on the Major Dundee set and so abusive that Charlton Heston threatened him with a cavalry saber, once charging him on horseback and making the director panic and order his camera crane raised fast.
- According to Peckinpah, right before filming, new studio management cut the budget of Major Dundee from $4.5 million to $3 million and took 15 days off the schedule.
- Anthony Quinn turned down the role of Ben Tyreen in Major Dundee, and the studio planned to offer it to Steve McQueen before Richard Harris was cast in December.
- Major Dundee's original cut was 4 hours 38 minutes long, later edited down to 156 minutes, and included slow-motion battle scenes inspired by Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai.
- A bombastic score by Daniele Amfitheatrof and the title song "The Major Dundee March" by Mitch Miller and his Sing-Along Gang were added to Major Dundee over Peckinpah's protests, and the score used three anvils played back at half speed whenever the Apaches appeared.
- Major Dundee's premiere on March 16, 1965, was disastrous: its running length was cut from 136 to 123 minutes despite protests from Peckinpah and producer Jerry Bresler, ruining the film's scope and creating significant plot holes.
- In 2005, a restored version of Major Dundee premiered at New York's Film Forum with a new score by Christopher Caliendo; the missing soundtracks had been found in 2004, but Peckinpah's director's cut is unlikely to ever be fully restored.
