A Brief Spark

Major Dundee (1965)
Directed by: Sam Peckinpah
Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn

There is only one instance in his entire body of work that I can think of a true hero that Peckinpah presented as the protagonist of his movie. In his movie, Straw Dogs (1974), Peckinpah establishes Dustin Hoffman’s character as a mild-mannered mathematics professor who has fled the United States. He may have spoken out against the Vietnam War, he may have said something improper within the confines of his university, we will never know. But what we do know is that he is focused on his work, a complicated man with a relatively short temper, but not a character who is dead-set on doing any kind of wrong. He is only forced to do violence when he is pushed to a breaking point. This is not the case in his other films, movies like The Wild Bunch (1969), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and The Getaway (1972) all feature protagonists who are not necessarily likeable, and in some cases are downright despicable. Peckinpah seems to play the older cinematic norms, pushing stories into other places where nothing is black and white and those that would normally be abhorred can also be loved. As opposed to a filmmaker like Sergio Leone, who did nothing but elevate the various motifs of the American western in his movies like Once Upon a Time in the West and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Peckinaph seeks to destroy all old motifs. This is the case with his first major film, Major Dundee.
There are no nice characters in this movie. Major Dundee (Heston) is not someone that you can identify with. Richard Harris’ character is not likeable either. In fact, the only person that seems to provide some kind of (incredibly important) moral compass is the sometime narrator, the Bugler. This character that provides commentary also provides relief and a sense of what little good is occurring in the movie.
As Major Dundee goes on his search for the Apache chief who massacred scores of Union Soldiers, he descends further and further into hell. The movie begins to recall Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian as the characters become increasingly driven by the desire to kill the Apache chief.
From here, however, the movie begins to meander. The focus of the movie is lost once the characters arrive in Mexico and begin to cause trouble with French soldiers. Heston and Harris spend half of the movie battling each other and the other half getting along as good as old friends. Heston has a half-baked romance with one woman and then runs around with more Mexican women. There is a great deal of tension between the Union and Confederate soldiers who are both serving in this search party. The movie becomes a half-baked deconstructive western that never really finds its bearing. Whether this was from studio interference or just being overzealous on Peckinpah’s part, I am unsure.
Major Dundee is a movie of great potential and some bright moments that in the end falls flat. It is a large, sprawling, ambitious western that does not quite accomplish what it sets out to do. While it is by no means a masterpiece, it is a clear hint as to what Peckinpah would become and the awe-inspiring work he would do four years later in The Wild Bunch.