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Tuesday, April 19th, 2005
MAJOR DUNDEE-The Extended Version
Whenever there is a restoration, director’s cut or extended version of ANYTHING, you can pretty much bet I’m going to be front row center. I’ve always greatly admired the work of Sam Peckinpah. Whenever people ask me to list my most favorite films I almost always mention THE WILD BUNCH. I’m also a fan of RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY. There is just something about Peckinpah that I respond to. His work has this sort of electric raw energy pulsating through every frame. Since I had never seen MAJOR DUNDEE before, I was very excited to discover the film and to see it on the big screen.
The film chronicles the exploits of MAJOR DUNDEE (Charlton Heston) an iron willed Army officer who rounds up a rag tag group of prisoners and Confederate soliders (including Richard Harris) to chase a group of Apaches.
While there are moments in the film that are pure Peckinpah touches, overall MAJOR DUNDEE is really lacking in focus. The film was taken out of Peckinpah’s control in the editing room and recut so that much of the character development was deleted from the most important section of the film.
The problem that I had with the film is that it drags and fails to keep your interest. Manohla Dargis of the NY Times said, “It’s amid the dust and desperate festivities that ‘’Major Dundee’’ wanders beautifully off point, and the lack of narrative focus matters not a whit.” With all due respect to Miss Dargis, I disagree. It DOES matter....at least it mattered to me.
I was disappointed by MAJOR DUNDEE and I was expecting it to be much more, HOWEVER I’m still glad I saw it. The film is important to anyone studying Peckinpah’s work and how this film fits into the larger puzzle of his cinematic universe.
To read more about this film in the NY Times, click here.
Written by Karie (site owner) on 04/19 at 11:57 PM Post the First Comment!
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