This film could have been an absolute classic. The plot has all kinds of potential, but the mutilation by the studio took an awful lot away albeit what remains is still an excellent film. I just feel that if the film Sam Peckinpah had intended had been the end result this could have been one of the all time great westerns. What a pity. What does anyone else think?
sharei agree, the film had potential, but looses most of it along the way.
hestons acting in some parts is terrible (for example when is forced to stay in the mexican village with a leg wound) and why was tyreen (harris) killed in the end? it makes no real dramatic sense. the end itself is very abrupt. ud expect something more to happen, i must say i was slightly dissapointed. the actors, the book, thery had more potential than the final product displays.
Heston's acting is terrible? You've got to be joking. This is easily one of Chuck's two or three best performances. If you don't like him (and that's always a distinct possibility), then you won't like him here, but the part plays very much to his strengths.
I will agree that Harris's death "makes no real dramatic sense", but it's such a great moment in the film that I could care less. The only thing that bothered me about that scene (and I'm since over it) is the gaffe where the French Captain is knocked off his horse into the river by Tyreen, and is then back in the saddle a second later just so he can mortally wound Tyreen. I guess it was for dramatic purposes, but was there any real reason why just a regular Froggy trooper couldn't have shot him?
"That scarf belonged to Lieutenant Brannin." "It's for you, Major!"
After watching the dvd release a couple times, I've come to love Tyreen's death scene, both dramatically and symbollically. Harris' Tyreen is one of my all-time favorite characters and his death always impressed me as "very cool" for lack of a better description.
It took awhile but I came to terms with the death scene dramatically. Tyreen is killed recovering the American flag; the flag he has damned several times in the movie and several times before. There is that brief moment where he and Dundee are holding the flag together, and you wonder if, had Tyreen survived, would the two have had a duel?
As for Tyreen riding into the advance troops of the French cavalry, that's up to your own opinion. Did he do it to slow them up so Dundee and the rest could escape? Or since he was so badly wounded he knew he would die and wanted to go out in a blaze of glory like a true soldier? Lots of questions, and that's just one of the reasons I love this movie.
"Congratulations, Major. It appears that at last you have found yourself a real war." Ben Tyreen
Good post. Tyreen's death scene was magnificent and very appropriate. Even though it was longer in the original cut I think it's great and very well-done.
I think he did it for a combination of both reasons. His charge broke the momentum of the French relief column and prevented them from continuing their pursuit (they would at least need to have reorganized themselves), but also he wanted to die a heroic death appropriate to his character rather than at the hands of Dundee - especially because he had been wounded.
"That scarf belonged to Lieutenant Brannin." "It's for you, Major!"
Groggy, have you seen The Wild Geese? I'm a fan of Richard Harris, mostly because of Ben Tyreen in Major Dundee, and he doesn't disappoint in TWG. Its got a great cast and tons of action. 50 mercenaries, headed by Richard Burton, Roger Moore, Hardy Krueger, and Harris, are dropped into an unnamed country in Africa and must rescue a kidnapped African president. Just released on DVD if you haven't seen it.
"Congratulations, Major. It appears that at last you have found yourself a real war." Ben Tyreen
And don't forget Tyreen's own self-image as a "would be cavalier". I know Dundee calls him that, but Tyreen does not dispute the allegation.
Notice how Tyreen adjusts his feather plume when it snags on a branch when the company is en route to Mexico. He then later discards it after O.W. is executed by him, as if his heart and persona had left him. I think that he was so excited to save his "damned" flag and hand it off to Dundee, that he was regenerated. That might explain his look of utter glee as he gallops across the river in a suicidal but heroic charge against impossible odds. Jimmy Lee Benteen acknowledges that gesture by his knowing, self-satisfied smirk while Chillum reins-in to watch.
Most of Sam's films were about redemption, no matter the cost. Tyreen's stylish charge, whirling his sabre over his head, and taking on an entire column of lancers, demonstrates his rebirth.
We deal in lead, friend.
I think largely of Tyreen in terms of Deke Thornton from TWB (and James Coburn's Pat Garrett later on). Here is a character that, whatever his flaws, is bound to his word, to the point of losing his individuality, personality, and life (in the case of Tyreen anyway), for the purpose of saying "I can be depended on and trusted."
Men like Thornton and Tyreen essentially doom themselves by siding with someone they hate and dislike due to circumstances; they may stay physically alive, but they become dead inside. The execution of Hadley is, as you suggest, a turning point for Tyreen. It was a moment that showed him for what he was.
Tyreen's death scene is very much in-character and probably THE most appropriate way for his character to go out. I don't see why a lot of people have a problem with it.
Until The Apache Is Taken Or Destroyed
I don't think the problem is that scene per say, but that about 30 seconds later the movie is over, seemingly rather abruptly with something more needed. I think the scene was good, but it seems wasted because there was no post script or context later.
shareThanks for the recommendation. I've heard of the film, but I've also heard that it's not very good. I'll keep an eye out anyway.
Until The Apache Is Taken Or Destroyed
it occurred to me as i was watching the film at about the two hour mark that heston with a beard was beginning to look like a more hollywood handsome version of sam peckinpah. then it occurred to me that the character in some ways faced the same dilemmas that the director was reportedly going through in real life. in the film the major was trying to turn a group of union soldiers, former confederate soldiers, former slaves and/or negro union soldiers, mexicans, indians into an army. all of the divisions were taking their toll on the major. at one point he just lost it and got drunk. having to be the director over every aspect of the film drove peckinpah to drink and he reportedly lost it. dundee and peckinpah lost their control or command. it has moments of greatness, but is not a great film, but it almost is. it is worth seeing. i have never seen the deadly companions. i don't count this film against the director. thus, i like all of his films except for convoy (which at least looks like a peckinpah film the way it is shot), the osterman weekend and the killer elite. those last two do not have the director's usual visual look or style.
shareThere have been some very cool interpretations about the themes of Tyreen's death. I suspect that, in addition to the reasons already listed, it may have been intended as a punishment on Dundee in a "careful what you wish for" kind of way. Early in the film Dundee threatens to have Tyreen tied to the same tree as Chariba - later Tyreen vows to kill Dundee because of the O.W. Hadley tragedy. For a moment during the climax they smile at one another as Tyreen retrieves the flag & hands it off to Dundee before being wounded - and then Dundee can only watch in horror as his former friend rides off to face the incoming French lancers, sacrificing himself in a desperate bid to buy time for Dundee and the others to escape.
It's another failure that Dundee must live with. He set out with a rag tag group of misfits with only a vague idea of how he was going to bring down the Apache, convinced he would return in triumph and be recognized as military genius, proving his Gettysburg critics wrong and reveling in fame, fortune and glory. Instead he returns a battered, broken man with less than a quarter of the men he set out with, he has lost the love of Teresa and in addition to the other deaths on his hands he's responsible for the death of the man who was once his friend, another failure showing that deep down Dundee is not the man he thinks he is.