Major Dundee (1965)

 

Please click the link to read my review of Crocodile Dundee

Synopsis: Civil War-era US Army officer makes up his own orders, recruits a bunch of Confederate prisoners, enters a foreign country and launches completely unprovoked attacks on the French Army. Wait - WTF?!?

Blurb From the DVD jacket: “A Restored Masterpiece! Sam Peckinpah’s first big budget film was also the first to be taken away and released in a shortened version.” 

What Did I Learn?: 1) Any man who has a just cause should travel with the word of God. 2) The tequila was excellent in Northern Mexico circa 1847. 3) Mighty is the arm of the Lord. 

You Might Like This Movie If: You'll gladly watch anything (and I mean anything) with the word "Dundee" in the title.

Really?: 1) See: “Synopsis.” Holy shit, Dundee could have started a war with France at a time when the Union was still fighting the Confederacy! 2) So… the Confederate prisoners don’t like the black soldiers or the abolitionist preacher….there’s an Austrian woman in a small Mexican village and she falls for Dundee… Lt. Graham is second in command of the outfit, and we barely hear a peep out of him for long stretches of the mission. Why introduce so many characters and sup-plots if you have no intention of developing them? 3) Funny how the movie ends in the spring of 1865 - shortly after the Southern surrender - yet there’s no denouement or recognition of this fact when the rescue party returns from Mexico. 

Rating: Major Dundee features an interesting cast (including James Coburn as a one-armed ne’er-do-well), and it’s not bad for an evening’s entertainment, but this odd Western is also far too long, and suffers from a number of script and credibility problems (see: “Really?”). I understand the studio refused to pay for several important scenes, and then butchered Peckinpah’s work in the editing room, so it’s possible that Major Dundee could have been a much better film. 6/10 stars. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059418/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0