MAJOR DUNDEE.

US, 1964, 120 minutes, Colour.
Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, James Coburn, Michael Anderson Jnr, Senta Berger, Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, Michael Pate.
Directed by Sam Peckinpah.

Major Dundee is the third film made by Sam Peckinpah, after Deadly Companions and Ride the High Country. At that time he was making many television episodes. His fame as a filmmaker really began with the Wild Bunch 1969. He then went on to make such notable films as Straw Dogs, The Getaway, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Cross of Iron. Peckinpah is noted for his portrayal of film violence. This was especially the case in The Wild Bunch and was very influential in many other films afterwards. In Major Dundee this is not so pronounced. However Peckinpah has made very many westerns, set in the 19th century and also some in the 20th century.

It is interesting to look at Major Dundee for the elements of things that were explored in so many later films; authority, clashes of loyalties, friendships and these clashes, the cowboy in the West, the oppression of the Indian. Various details of Peckinpah's style for e.g. the use of children is evident in Major Dundee. It should be noted that the producers tampered with the film and reduced its footage considerably. This was to happen later with Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.

1. How interesting and enjoyable a western? The area of its main impact: a western adventure, character study, the American West, the violent West? An integration of all these elements?

2. The film as seen in the light of Sam Peckinpah's reputation and subsequent films? The origins of the cinematic exploration of violence, especially in America, and the myths of the West?

3. The film was severely mutilated in production and editing. How evident is this in the finished product? Any effect for the audience?

4. The use of colour, Panavision, western locations, military songs, musical background?

5. How well did the film use the ordinary conventions of the western: the Indian war atmosphere, the soldiers and cavalry, life in a fort, the chase structure, the presentation of the Indians, the hostile French, the contrast of the Mexican way of life and the American, the dangers of the West, village life, romance, western types? Did the film transcend these conventions?

6. The quality of adventure in the film? The pursuit, the encounters with the Indians, the finale with the French? How excitingly visualised were these adventure ingredients?

7. The title and the emphasis on Major Dundee? How adequate the film as a character study? An American Western man? What motivated Dundee? How strong a character, his weaknesses? Examples of his pigheadedness, the letter of the law, his fulfilling of traditions? As a man of the north, the clash with the south and with Tyreen? The dominance of his own will, forcing others to live to his expectations? The encounter with Theresa? The shooting of Hadley, his strategy with the French? The weakening of his stubbornness by insight into himself? How much audience insight into a complex person of the West?

8. The character of Tyreen and the film's exploration? The contrast with Dundee and the commentary on him? The similarities and differences of background, similarities of stubbornness? Tyreen's hatred? The initial encounter of prisoners and guard? Tyreen's choices motivated by hate? The humane and weaker elements in Tyreen? His humiliation by Dundee? The revenge? His taunting of Dundee into self-insight? How characteristic was the heroism of Tyreen's death? How credible?

9. Theresa's role in the film? Feminine interest only? The softening of Tyreen? The softening of Dundee? A sign of contradiction? Dundee's standards and behaviour and his weakness with Theresa?

10. The dramatic function of Ryan? The diary technique, seeing the events through his eyes, a young man's vision of older men and older traditions of the West? How did this enable the audience to assess the characters and the situation?

11. The dramatic importance of Grahame? As a younger Dundee? As a man still growing, a pleasant man, still learning? The future of the American West?

12. The eccentricity of Potts? His role in the West? Way of life? His wisdom in guiding the men? As a western figure?

13. The complications of themes in introducing the negro? Aesop and his stands for the black nun in the West?

14. The Hadleys and the second-rate white men, their clashes?

15. The gallery of other men in the group? The southern prisoners? The northern men? Doing their jobs, their deaths, their role in pioneering the West?

16. The importance of the sequences in the Mexican village? The change of pace? The attention to detail?

17. The role of the Indians? How realistically presented? Audience sympathy and antipathy? The kidnapping of the children, the massacres, the stalking of the troops. the final clashes? The chief as a personality of the West?

18. The staging of the conflict with the French? A climax for the film? The death of Tyreen?

19. What did the film have to say about western traditions and mythology, legends and the status of legends? Their influence on modern Americans and the world?

20. What values of the West did the film stand for? What values did it offer criticism for?