{"id":9248,"date":"2014-07-23T23:23:10","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T03:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9248"},"modified":"2014-07-27T17:47:33","modified_gmt":"2014-07-27T21:47:33","slug":"br-major-dundee-1965","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=9248","title":{"rendered":"BR: Major Dundee (1965)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

\"MajorDundee_BR\"<\/a>Film<\/strong>: Good<\/p>\n

Transfer<\/strong>: Excellent \/ Extras<\/strong>: Excellent<\/p>\n

Label:\u00a0<\/strong>Twilight Time<\/a><\/p>\n

Region:<\/strong> All<\/p>\n

Released:<\/strong> \u00a0April 9, 2013<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> \u00a0Western<\/p>\n

Synopsis:<\/strong> Nihilistic western of a dogged and self-destructive major who almost loses his mind and most of his troupe after rescuing children abducted by the Apache.<\/p>\n

Special Features:<\/strong>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Disc 1: Expanded Cut \/ Audio Commentary with Nick producer Redman, Sam Peckinpah biographers Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons and David Weddle\u00a0\/ Isolated Stereo 2005 Score by Christopher Caliendo \/ 2005 trailer.<\/span><\/p>\n

Disc 2: Original Theatrical Cut \/ Isolated Stereo 1965 Score by Daniele Amfitheatrof \/\u00a0Extended Scene: “Major Dundee and Teresa” (:38) \/ \u00a0Incomplete Deleted Scene: “Knife Fight” (3:38) \/\u00a0Silent Extended Outtakes (4:21) \/ Trailer Artwork Outtakes (2:08) \/ Exhibitor Promo Reel Excerpt (1:19) \/ Original Theatrical Trailer.<\/p>\n

Limited to 3000 copies \/ Available exclusively from Screen Archives Entertainment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Review:<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the more infamous cases of a studio taking over the post-production of a film and releasing the end product without the director\u2019s approval, Major Dundee<\/strong> still bears the legendary brand of the Epic That Never Was, a lost masterpiece, and an example of genius booted from the set by the bean counters, and nearly 50 years since its release, the film makes its debut on Blu-ray via Twilight Time.<\/p>\n

Dundee<\/strong> had previously been released on DVD back in 2006 when Sony mounted a laudable effort to reconstruct the closest we\u2019ll ever see to the director\u2019s cut \u2013 an impossibility, because as the historical notes and quartet of Peckinpah historians describe on the commentary track, the script\u2019s last third was never properly refined, even during filming.<\/p>\n

The flaws within Dundee<\/strong> seem more evident with the newer material which consists of about 12 mins. worth of scenes retained by producer Jerry Bresler when he attempted to create a compromise between Peckinpah\u2019s cut and appease a worrisome studio.<\/p>\n

Peckinpah had reportedly wanted to make a film version of General Custer\u2019s last stand, but he opted to direct a script written by Harry Julian Fink – or rather an idea that never had much of an ending. With Oscar Saul brought in for a cleanup and the director making his own amendments, the shooting script was still weak in the end, and prior to filming, Columbia\u2019s reduction of the budget meant less time and money would affect the structure and pacing of what was designed as a visually splendid epic about a man driven nearly mad by his quest to retrieve stolen children from a band of Apache in Mexico, and bring back its chief, alive or dead, to answer for a brutal massacre.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a story not that different from John Ford\u2019s similarly flawed, dreary western Two Rode Together<\/strong><\/a> (1961), but where Ford and his writers had the good sense to punctuate the retrieval of the abducted kids with a lengthy commentary on racist stances against the Comanche, Peckinpah either couldn\u2019t lick the script\u2019s grievous flaws, or figured it would work itself out, either with rewrites during shooting, or perhaps in the editing room.<\/p>\n

Or maybe he just didn\u2019t give a damn, fueled by the confidence that he knew what he was doing.<\/p>\n

Even if there\u2019s a palpable sense of studio interference in the film\u2019s numerous time passage \/ dissolve sequences to compress tangents and perhaps mask the elimination of smaller scenes designed to enhance minor and mid-level characters, Dundee<\/strong>\u2019s first hour is still neat in setting up the story, characters, and conflicts: Major Dundee (Charlton Heston, really excellent as a bullheaded, moral crusader) wages a battle of will against his former friend Tyreen (equally strong Richard Harris), a captured captain from the south, whom Dundee needs in order to lead able and agile convicts in rescuing kids from Chief Charriba\u2019s northern Mexico turf, which is also an area controlled by Emperor Maximilian, a man hand-picked by France in a truly ludicrous attempt to establish a puppet regime and gain influence in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The seeds of racism and hatred just bubble in every faction of Dundee\u2019s mish-mash troupe, which is comprised of Confederate soldiers promised freedom at the journey\u2019s end, black soldiers, crooks, a fresh-faced bugle boy (Michael Anderson, Jr.), and a lanky, inexperienced munitions Lieutenant (Jim Hutton). James Coburn plays a one-armed half-breed tracker aided by Christian Apache, and R.G. Armstrong\u2019s a fire & brimstone preacher with a good right hand.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all familiar yet laudable archetypes designed to maintain a sense of stress within the troupe, and arguably the first signs of trouble appear after the kids are rescued: their mandate is revised due to Dundee\u2019s stubborn determination to bring back Chief Sierra Charriba (Michae Pate).<\/p>\n

Had Peckinpah stuck with the story\u2019s thread of delusion and self-destruction, the film would\u2019ve been a minor epic tale about nihilism and madness, but the story is put on pause when Dundee takes his troupe to a French-controlled Mexican town for food and rest, and where love interest Teresa (Senta Berger) is brought into the mix, supposedly to destroy whatever entente exists between Dundee and Tyreen.<\/p>\n

The troupe\u2019s eventual departure after a night of partying and their journey to bring back Charriba should\u2019ve been the focus of the film\u2019s last two-thirds, but there\u2019s a skinny-dipping scene between Teresa and Dundee during which the latter is seriously injured and sent into hiding deep in French-controlled Mexico. As he becomes drunk and steeped in a state of self-loathing away from his men, the film literally stops dead for what feels like hours. When he\u2019s ultimately forced to return by Tyreen, there\u2019s another loose thread involving a deserter, and an execution designed to reset Dundee and Tyreen as mortal enemies.<\/p>\n

Their hatred feels is protracted \u2013 it\u2019s designed to distract audiences until Dundee finally has his encounter with Charriba\u2019s men at the U.S.\u2013Mexico border \u2013 and the deserter\u2019s return also brings Teresa back into the scenario just long enough to infer that Dundee\u2019s deliberate ploy of releasing French prisoners from the Mexican town during their brief furlough resulted in the town being massacred; the mass executions are inferred but never directly addressed, which feels peculiar since most of the seeded conflicts in Dundee<\/strong> ultimately lead to\u00a0face-to-face confrontations.<\/p>\n

When Teresa leaves for the U.S. with the surviving townsfolk, Dundee and his troupe head for Charriba’a position, with vengeful French soldiers on their trail, and as the Americans hurry through canyons and open plains, that\u2019s where the film finally kicks into gear. It\u2019s also very strangely the perfect edit point in story and film where Peckinpah could\u2019ve cut his losses and completely excised the skinny-dipping \/ wounding \/ drunken recuperation \/ Dundee rescue \/ deserter killing \/ lover\u2019s separation material, and had a tighter movie, but with that swathe of retained contrivances and distractions, the film grinds to a slow pace, meanders, and becomes interminable.<\/p>\n

The dialogue at times feels unrefined, the actors seem to go through motions, and Dundee<\/strong> becomes another lesser movie, especially when its focus is stuck on a central character hating himself for a long stretch while the more interesting characters that give the film momentum are completely out of the picture.<\/p>\n

ENDING SPOILER<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Whatever material was never shot \u2013 straight action, expository dialogue, or bridge material \u2013 may have helped the abrupt finale a little bit, but the midsection is where the film falters and never fully recovers. Tyreen\u2019s self-sacrifice at the end also feels like a compromise between showing a proud Southerner dying in battle, and allowing Dundee to return to the U.S. where he can potentially rebuild his relationship with Teresa, giving audiences a happy ending.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

END OF SPOILER<\/p>\n

In addition to budget cuts and editorial meddling, Columbia\u2019s other big error is the choice of score and theme song (a terrible title vocal track), if not recognizing they\u2019d mishandled a difficult film and essentially pissed off a temperamental director. Their offer of allowing new reshoots to Peckinpah after the film\u2019s general release seems surreal today, especially since the mere concept of a Director\u2019s Cut is a modern concept borne out of the efforts of historians and preservationists charged with reconstructing maligned films, and studio home video departments realizing the marketing benefits in touting a ‘new and improved’ lost masterpiece (regardless of whether it merits that regal term).<\/p>\n

For a studio in 1965 to attempt reconciliation is frankly surreal, and there\u2019s a sense it was a hollow mea culpa, since (to my mind) there\u2019s no precedent of a film being re-issued with newer material in a new-and-improved version that doesn\u2019t make the studio look like a villain. Moreover, there\u2019s no logic in revisiting a film that just had its domestic release, because unless the goal was to save the longer version for the European release, the extra revenue wouldn\u2019t come years later in TV sales or second-run revenues.<\/p>\n

In any event, Twilight Time\u2019s BR certainly showcases what could\u2019ve been – \u00a0a gloriously photographed, initially taut, grim tale of obsession and self-destruction \u2013 but it isn\u2019t fully there because the film\u2019s incipient flaws were still present in the shooting script.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Julie Kirgo points out in her excellent liner essay, Peckingpah had to make Dundee<\/strong> and fail in order to make The Wild Bunch<\/strong> (1969), because there are striking similarities in themes, scenes (the town furlough being a biggie), and nihilism, but both films strangely maintain a midsection where things slow down, hover, meander a little, and lose a little steam before manhunts and brutal battles bring back momentum.<\/p>\n

The difference is that in WB, Peckinpah went for broke, stripping away clich\u00e9s and putting as much raw action, blood-letting, and human waste onscreen as possible. Dundee<\/strong> foreshadows the brilliance of WB,\u00a0and a work that feels like the nail in the coffin for Hollywood’s once grandiose yet cliched studio westerns.<\/p>\n

One can argue that by the end of the sixties, the only way the western could survive was in being reconfigured into another genre \u2013 witness John Carpenter’s fort siege in\u00a0Assault on Precinct 13<\/strong>\u00a0(1976) and spaghetti westerns before they too were imitated, and tried and true conventions were worn out.<\/p>\n

Disc 1 features the expanded cut, and Disc 2 the original theatrical cut not included on Sony’s 2006 DVD. Disc 2 also includes deleted scenes (essentially surviving odds & ends) which couldn\u2019t be reintegrated into the expanded edition. (Even if a restoration of a director\u2019s cut were possible, the script’s unwanted turns would’ve yielded the same pacing and structural blunders.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Also ported over from the DVD are outtakes of trailer artwork sketches, trailers, and an excerpt from an exhibitor promo reel featuring material from\u00a0Dundee. <\/strong>With the exception of the trailers, the aforementioned extras on Twilight Time’s BR are in SD.<\/p>\n

Exclusive to the BR are respective isolated scores \u2013 Daniele Amfitheatrof\u2019s original 1965 score on Disc 2, and Christopher Caliendo\u2019s 2005 rescore on Disc 1 \u2013 but unlike the DVD, the \u201965 score isn\u2019t preserved on the expanded cut, disallowing film music fans to switch and compare the two very different scoring approaches.<\/p>\n

Amfitheatrof probably did what was requested as imposed by Columbia, whereas Caliendo had the impossible task of writing a new score that evoked the style of 1965 westerns, yet contained modernistic subtext and matched any onscreen source music (like guitar playing, or a small band in during the village festivities). Caliendo\u2019s background is in scoring mostly silent films, and there are some stylistic elements which perhaps date a few scenes rather than support them, but it\u2019s a commendable effort, if not a rare instance where a much-loathed score by the director (and many fans) is replaced with something more organic.<\/p>\n

The 2006 commentary track is packed with info, insight, historical facts, and attitude from a quartet of Peckinpah experts who also struggle with Dundee<\/strong>\u2019s flaws, and a film that\u2019s perhaps chiefly of interest to fans of the director than sprawling studio westerns.<\/p>\n

The scope of the film is further addressed in a set of extras that remain unique to Sony’s DVD. A featurette on stuntmen – “Riding for a Fall,” offered in transfers from a 16mm B&W and faded 8mm colour versions – is filled with behind-the-scenes footage of the sets, actors, and striking locations.<\/p>\n

Excerpts from the colour footage was included in an extended edit of an extract from Mike Siegel’s Sam Peckinpah 2005 doc Passion and Poetry<\/strong>, where surviving stars R.G. Armstrong, Senta Berger, L.Q. Jones, and others recall the making of Dundee<\/b> in vivid anecdotes. James Coburn characterizes Peckinpah as a great director for 3 hours a day and a drunk the rest of the time, but Coburn remains a staunch supporter of the director in spite of his bellicose temperament. (Siegel’s feature length doc was eventually released on DVD in Germany in 2009.)<\/p>\n

For Peckinpah fans, this is an important chapter in the director’s career, but the average western fan may find\u00a0Dundee<\/strong> to be a more of a visually stunning oddity.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 2014 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

External References:<\/strong>
\nEditor’s Blog<\/a> — IMDB \u00a0<\/a>— \u00a0Soundtrack Album<\/a>\u00a0 —\u00a0Composer Filmographies: Daniele Amfitheatrof<\/a> \/ Christopher Caliendo<\/a>
\n\u00a0<\/span>
\nVendor Search Links:<\/strong>
\nAmazon.ca<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" \"\" —\u00a0<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the more infamous cases of a studio taking over the post-production of a film and releasing the end product without the director\u2019s approval, Major Dundee still bears the legendary brand of the Epic That Never Was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[406,580,2898,2899],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-2pa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9248"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9325,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9248\/revisions\/9325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}