Exciting and enjoyable Western with a very fine cast , luxurious cinematography and gorgeous outdoors from Mexico . This cultured actioner Western contains impressive feats , dashingly violent scenes , rider pursuits , breathtaking Indians attacks and loads of crossfire .Interesting and mythical film follows a misfit group across Mexican territory to chase a renegade Apache called Sierra Charriba who is loosely based on the real-life Apache warrior chief Vittorio . It is set during the last winter of the Civil War, cavalry officer Major Amos Charles Dundee (Charlton Heston) leads a contentious troop of Army regulars along with a band of Confederate prisoners led by Captain Benjamin Tyreen (Richard Harris) who volunteer to go into Mexico and track down a band of rampaging Apache Indians .

This is a flawed but watchable Peckinpah including thrills , emotion , shootouts , go riding and a love story between Heston and Senta Berger. An overlong run film , approx. 124 minutes , and being severely cut from its premiere , being directed with typical verve by the great Sam Peckinpah . Rich in texture and including intelligent screenplay full of incredibly lyrics scenes . Taut excitement throughout , beautifully photographed and spectacular bloodletting . Vibrant as well as brilliant all-star-cast displays exceptional performances . Very good acting by main actors , as Heston as tough officer leading assorted misfits against Apaches and Richard Harris as two-fisted rebel Confederate . Although Charlton Heston famously did not get along with Richard Harris, who frequently stayed up drinking into the early hours and was often late on set. During filming, Sam Peckinpah was so obnoxious and abusive towards his actors that Charlton Heston actually threatened the director with a saber ; Heston later remarked that this was the only time he had ever threatened anybody on a movie set . Lavish production by Columbia Pictures that wanted to fire Sam Peckinpah but Charlton Heston convinced it not to, when he threatened to return his $400,000 fee and pull out of the project. Support cast is frankly well , plenty of familiar faces . Many of the actors who came to be known as the "Sam Peckinpah Stock Company" appeared in this film and four years later in Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch (1969): Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L.Q. Jones, Dub Taylor, Aurora Clavel, Enrique Lucero. Atmospheric and evocative musical score by Daniel Amfitheatroph . Glimmer and evocative cinematography in Panavision by excellent director of photography Sam Leavitt , though Peckinpah originally wanted Lucien Ballard, with whom he had had a good working relationship on Ride the high sierra (1962) .

The motion picture was spectacularly directed by Peckinpah , though he downed it , being strongly cut by others . After the success of Sam Peckinpah's later Wild Bunch (1969),Columbia Pictures told him they would allow him to re-shoot parts of this film that had been cut from the released version , Peckinpah, naturally, declined the offer .

The problems director Sam Peckinpah had with the studio to get this film finished, edited and into theaters is legendary--with Peckinpah disowning the final product. The public, too, were less than enthusiastic about this rather lackluster final product. However, now out on DVD is a version of the film that is purported to be a "director's cut"--or at least as close as they can get to Peckinpah's vision for the film. In his defense, Peckinpah's been dead for a long time, so this is what they THINK he'd envisioned.

The film is about a crazed leader of a Union cavalry unit stationed near the Mexican border during the Civil War. A huge group of cavalry is wiped out in an Apache raid and those responsible took three kidnapped kids and skedaddled across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Major Dundee decides he must follow and destroy them even though he simply doesn't have enough men to do this AND guard the Confederate prisoners in the compound he's commanding. So, he enlists volunteers as well as Confederate soldiers willing to join his expeditionary force. The rag-tag unit idea is hard to believe (after all, the Confederates helping seemed silly),but the first 2/3 of the film worked pretty well and I was impressed.

However, towards the end of the film, the whole production seems to unravel a bit. Heston's character went from a driven but reasonable man to a whiny drunk with the least provocation--and this made no sense at all. It was as if there were some plot elements missing (which there might have been). Also, the repartee between Heston and Richard Harris seemed overly macho and tough to believe throughout the film, but here and at the very end it only got worse. In fact, the ending was pretty exciting (in two rather savage battles),but then the movie just stopped.....no epilogue, no real conclusion...and the words "the end" appeared as if from nowhere.

If this was Peckinpah's vision, then he needed glasses. If it wasn't, then I could understand all the dangling plot elements and silly characterizations. Overall, it is still an interesting film but you shouldn't expect greatness.

I have never understood how in spite of films like MAJOR DUNDEE and BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA that Sam Peckinpah still has this aura about him as a director--often appearing on "Best Director" lists. He made some exceptional films, some very mediocre films and a few stinkers--but his overall body of work in films is very small--thanks mostly to his drug and alcohol dependence. This guy was NOT another Kurosawa, John Ford or Bergman--just a guy with a lot of potential that seldom reached it and in the end threw it all away.

FYI--If you watch this movie then Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH, you'll see many plot similarities. Although both films were set about fifty years apart, the civil wars in Mexico were both backdrops for the films (first with the forces of Benito Juárez against the imperialist forces of Maximillian and later during chaos following the rise of Zapata and Villa following the iron-fisted reign of Díaz).

In his autobiography, Charlton Heston spent more time talking about this film than any other. Some other commentator said that it looked like someone took over the direction. The commentator was very observant. Heston had to take over the direction because Sam Peckinpah just lost interest and began indulging in all kinds of vices down on location in Mexico which I won't get into. Read Heston's book. Suffice it to say that he was unable to go to the set, for any number of reasons.

Heston says that Peckinpah was making it up as he went along and the film sure looks it. The plot just meanders into various situations that this motley crew of Indian fighters encounter. Heston also said that he violated a rule of his own to never start a film without a complete script, something he never did again. The film is an incredible waste of fine talented cast.

Charlton Heston and I both think the film had real possibilities and that Sam Peckinpah was a flawed talent.

If you want to see the film, read Charlton Heston's account of its making.