Major Dundee: The Extended Version

'Major Dundee': The film has good bones
by Eleanor Ringel

It's not the director's cut — the director, Sam Peckinpah, having died in 1984 — but "Major Dundee: The Extended Version" is an interesting look back at his failed 1965 Western epic about an obsessed cavalry officer (Charlton Heston) who leads a punitive mission into Mexico against a shrewd Apache leader who's kidnapped two children. Set during the ragged end of the Civil War, the film offers a rare chance to see Heston in an antiheroic role. Not only is he excellent, but it was also a courageous choice at that point in the star's career. Read the full review

TO SUM UP
Sam Peckinpah's saga — with 12 added minutes of original footage that emphasize Dundee's darker side — about an officer who leads a scraped-together band of misfits on a mission against the Apaches. Charlton Heston was said to have threatened Peckinpah with a sabre for his conduct on the set and the director later famously disowned the picture.

FILM FACTS ...

Columbia TriStar

'Major Dundee: The Extended Version'

Director: Sam Peckinpah
Starring: Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson Jr.
Run time: 136 minutes
Release date: April 8, 2005
Rating: PG-13 for violence and some sensuality.
Theater: Landmark's Midtown Art

READ THE REVIEW

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: B
"Peckinpah also famously disowned the picture, but he's wrong. The rambling structure may have flummoxed traditional-minded mid-'60s moviegoers, but it works much better for an audience 40 years later more accustomed to elliptical storytelling and conflicted protagonists."