I've seen at several different website that Sony Pictures is releasing a DVD of Peckinpah's movie with 15 minutes of restored, and supposedly missing, footage. The only release date I could find was May 31st at moviesunlimited.com, but otherwise I haven't seen anything official.
Is this legitimate? Can we expect a dvd in widescreen of Major Dundee? Here's hoping. I'd love to see the version Bloody Sam originally intended.
A newly scored 136min restored cut will run at Film Forum II in NYC from April 8-19th. I assume a home video release will soon follow. Below is FF's press release.
Major Dundee: The Unseen Extended Version
New 35mm Restoration of Peckinpah’s Western Epic
At Film Forum April 8-19
MAJOR DUNDEE: THE EXTENDED VERSION, a new restoration of Sam Peckinpah’s Civil War/Western epic, starring Charlton Heston and Richard Harris, will run at Film Forum from Friday, April 8 through Tuesday, April 19 (twelve days). Originally released in 1965 in a severely butchered version, MAJOR DUNDEE can finally be seen in a cut that closely restores Peckinpah’s original vision. Grover Crisp, Sony Pictures Vice-President in Charge of Film Restoration, who oversaw the project, will introduce the 8:00 show on opening night, Friday, April 8, along with composer Christopher Caliendo, who wrote a brand new score for the extended version.
“Until the Apache is taken or destroyed...” Continue rotting in a Civil War prison camp or join with hated Union jailers in pursuit of three children kidnapped by massacring raiders: that’s the deal Charlton Heston’s eponymous martinet Dundee — himself with something to prove after a miscue at Gettysburg — offers his prisoner and ex-friend, Richard Harris’s cavalier Captain Tyreen, successively Irish potato farmer, cashiered Union officer and Confederate renegade. Volatile enough, but as Dundee further fleshes out his command with a friendly Indian, Negro volunteers, and one-armed James Coburn, it’s clear that for the obsessive Major, this will be a kind of land-locked Moby Dick, a quest after the Apache across the Rio Grande into occupied Mexico — and a confrontation with Emperor Maximilian’s French lancers.
Sam Peckinpah’s first large-scale Western was complete with epic sweep, his own stock company (a stunning array of Western icons, including Warren Oates, Ben Johnson, L.Q. Jones, and Slim Pickens), and blood-soaked violence anticipating the director’s laterThe Wild Bunch. But it also became one of the screen’s most notorious films maudits (Horizons West author Jim Kitses called it “one of Hollywood’s great broken monuments”). When the studio — which had cut the budget by a third just before the start of shooting — threatened to shut the picture down early, Heston offered his own salary back to allow missing scenes to be shot. The studio took the money but still didn’t film the scenes. Then an additional 20 to 50 minutes — estimates differ — were hacked away, a complete butcher job that ran roughshod with the continuity, confusing both audiences and critics. To compound matters, the studio imposed a music score on the film that the director objected to vociferously.
Forty years later, Grover Crisp of Sony Pictures, matching color separation masters with a still-extant soundtrack for a longer version, has located and restored all but six minutes of Peckinpah's original cut. To help bring the film more into line with Peckinpah's vision, a new music score was commissioned from composer Christopher Caliendo, with the entire track now recorded and re-mixed in 5.1 Dolby Digital. The result is that rare event in film history and restoration: the rescue of a once-mutilated masterwork.
A SONY PICTURES REPERTORY RELEASE. Running time: 136 minutes.
I read a review of this restoration and am eagerly anticipating it's DVD release. Mitch Miller soundtrack???? Please!!!!
Thank you very much for the information.
I suppose the DVD will be the identical version to what I saw this afternoon at the theater nearest the local university. If so, it doesn't appear to be much changed other than the addition of a couple of scenes and a little extension here and there, plus the new score (minus the "Fall in behind the Major"). A few minutes are added at the beginning just prior to Dundee's mustering of the prisoners on the parade ground at night. What had been missing was Tyreen and a few of his men being brought back after escaping following their murder of a couple of guards (not shown). Later, when Dundee is discovered after having spent the night with a Mexican woman in Durango, that scene had immediately followed his having the arrow removed from his leg. Several minutes were added between those two events. All of it is with the Mexican woman, which probably didn't seem necessary to the (racist?) producers, but went further to understanding Dundee. Altogether, one has a better sense of what a flawed character he is after seeing the restoration. Not quite the heroic vision that the producers no doubt would have preferred Peckinpah to have provided.
sharei must confess i did like the score Fall In Behind the Major... it added to the character of major dundee as he might have liked to see himself
i came across these remarks by Charleton Heston:
"One of the most crucial, though none of us realized it at the time, was that Columbia, Sam and I all really had different pictures in mind. Columbia, reasonably enough, wanted a cavalry/Indians film as much like Jack Ford's best as possible. I wanted to be the first to make a film that really explored the Civil War. Sam, though he never said anything like this, really wanted to make The Wild Bunch. That's the movie that was steaming in his psyche."
More details -- Film restorer Robert A. Harris interviews Grover Crisp of Columbia Pictures about the new Extended Version of MAJOR DUNDEE in his digitalbits.com column here:
http://www.thedigit albits.com/articles/ robertharris/harris0 32405b.html
It will feature an entirely new score. (Delete the blank spaces in the link)
hondo, thanks for the heads up. I'm really looking forward to buying the extended version dvd.
share[deleted]
so is this new version with 15 extra minutes added different from the version i watched on the western channel a while back.
shareit doesn't come out till this august though
shareThe new dvd will feature added material from the versions that have been shown on AMC and the Western Channel Recently. Look through this message board to see what has been added or check out www.dvdsavant.com for a great review of the extended version.
shareso i probably have seen the new stuff if i saw it on the western channel in the last 6 months right?
share I don't have the western channel so I can't be sure, but I don't think they're showing the extended cut. The DVD comes out Aug. 31 so I doubt the added footage would alreay be on television.
If it helps, here are a couple scenes in the extended cut.
-Upon returning from the Rostis ranch after the massacre, Major Dundee and his troop come upon Captain Tyreen and his men who have escaped from the stockade.
-What happens to Riago is shown late in the movie. Is he a traitor or is he loyal to Dundee and Potts?
-IMO, the best scene added has Dundee, Tyreen, Potts, Graham, and Gomez deciding what they should do; continue chasing Sierra Chariba into Mexico or head back to Texas?
Hopes this helps, teejay.
The have put a different score on Major Dundee as well. Which is AWFUL.
The original is still on there on the mono soundtrack, but would of been better in the remastered 5.1, but the new score is horrid.
The original was one of the best to ever go in a film. Then they change it for no reason.
New scenes weren't anything special apart from finding out what happened to Riago.
Still, the quality is great for it's age.
IN FUNK WE TRUST
I actually liked the new score by Christopher Caliendo. It sounded a lot like a Jerry Fielding score, or at least more moody/appropriate for a darker Sam Peckinpah western.
Besides the Mitch Miller "Fall in Behind the Major" song and that annoying twing that sounded when anyone said "Until the Apache is taken or destroyed," I liked the original score by Danielle Amphitreaof, but I thought Caliendo's was better overall. My one complaint about the new score was in the final battle. It was too quiet where the original had an excellent chaotic feel to it.
It was great to see the added footage. The scene of Dundee, Tyreen, Potts, Gomez, and Graham discussing what to do with the Apaches and the truth about Riago was the best scene added. It was good to see the lost weekend in Durango, Tyreen's escape in the beginning, and a few other shorter scenes.
Great DVD and well worth the wait.
"I don't mean to be a sore loser, but if when it's over, I'm dead, kill him." Butch Cassidy
I jut felt the original score brought more punch to the film. It brought more tension and excitement. Especially towards the end. Yes, I agree the twang when anyone said "until the Apache is taken or destroy" was annoying, mainly because it was over used.
I haven't really got any complaints about the new scenes, I only wonder what's missing in the other 17 minutes that we never seen.
Still, do you not think that adding a new score without the directors consent is butchering the film? I suppose it can be seen as an added feature as the original is on the DVD in mono. But still.
IN FUNK WE TRUST
What's still missing is the massacure that takes place in the first 10 minutes of the film.
share On the commentary on the DVD with the Peckinpah historians, they say that the massacre scenes were probably never filmed. They do concede that Peckinpah worked on the Rostes massacre scenes at some point, but they were either not up to snuff or never finished for a final product.
Indiana, I agree about being disappointed about never knowing the full version, however long that may be, that Sam intended. On the original 1965 trailer, several brief shots are shown that are not in any version I've ever seen. Check out dvdsavant for a deeper look at the movie, including some things that didn't make it into the final cut.
"I don't mean to be a sore loser, but if when it's over, I'm dead, kill him." Butch Cassidy
Peckinpah reportedly did not like the original score (the composer was chosen by the studio), so that's the reason behind the new score, to bring it closer to Peckinpah's own taste in movie music. Personally I think they should just have adapted the original score to keep some of it in but take out the "twang" and the stupid march and some of the bad orchestration -- but since the original score is there on the DVD, I don't think it matters much.
shareWell, I bought the DVD on the cheap from my local Wal-Mart yesterday. Don't plan to watch the whole movie for awhile, but I did view the special features, and I watched a few scenes mostly to see how the new score came off. I haven't seen much yet, but I like what I've seen so far. If you like the film, it's worth getting regardless.
"It is recognized that you have a funny sense of fun." - Claude Rains, "Lawrence of Arabia"
I think that the new, extended version is much more in line with what Peckinpah intended, but it's still incomplete. I would like to see the initial massacre at the Rostes ranch reinstated. It was filmed. I don't think that the set would have been burned down on camera if they weren't done with it. I'd also like to see the Potts/Gomez knife fight somehow reinserted. That was a shining moment for Coburn.
As for the new soundtrack, it took a couple of sessions to set in, but that annoying tinkerbell squeal is out of my head and I don't miss a chorus of all male singers cheerfully exhorting me to fall in and mind the major while watching bloody corpses fester in the sun. The real howler is that the major will bring all of us back! He hardly brought anyone back.
We deal in lead, friend.
Well, I like the "tinkerbell squeal" and the "Major Dundee March". They're campy but fun. I watched about half the movie (all of the "good parts") today and I enjoyed the score, I think it's better than the original one to be sure. The knife fight - between my two favorite characters - should've been longer and definitely should've been put in the movie.
"It is recognized that you have a funny sense of fun." - Claude Rains, "Lawrence of Arabia"
Well, I guess we can agree to disagree about that atonal kneejerk electronic doorbell, and I admit that the tune for the Dundee march might be adequate if it had been used more sparingly, but we're agreed about that (pardon the word) cut knife fight. Think how it would have reinforced that later moment when Potts and Gomez got lost while rescuing Dundee in Durango. That strange image of them drunkenly riding back to the command would have cemented the friendship that began that night. Also missed is Gomez's confession to Dundee that he had lived with the Apache just before Tyreen is recaptured. He and Potts share a similar familiarity with the Indians. And I really appreciate that scene when the two translate for that old toothless Apache on Christmas Eve.
All those nuances cut for spite and/or greed. What a waste.
We deal in lead, friend.
Agreed, I thought a lot of the supporting characters got short shrift (particularly Aesop and Ryan).
I didn't like the original score, it was kind of cheesy, but for me at least it didn't distract from the film. I did think that the final battle scene was one part where the original score was appropriate, though that's just me. There's hardly any music at all in the restored version's scene, and for me, it's kind of distracting.
"It is recognized that you have a funny sense of fun." - Claude Rains, "Lawrence of Arabia"
I agree completely about the original score in the final battle. It makes that sense of chaos of battle seem very real. The new version is too quiet with lots of swords clanging and groans.
However, I do like after the battle when Dundee and the survivors cross the river. The music with the violin playing as the survivors come into view is perfectly somber which is more appropriate considering what has just happened.
At some points in the movie, I thought Christopher Caliendo's score sounded like Carter Burwell's The Alamo score.
"Well, Major, it looks like you have found yourself a real war after all." Captain Ben Tyreen
Valid points from both Hancock and Bullit. I read someplace that Bressler over-used the original score in the battle scene rather than spend additional money on a sound effects track. That deficiency would have been revealed once the music track was deleted, which may account for the sound vacuum.
You have to really pay attention to realize that Aesop is carrying the flag in the final counterattack and is struck down by Tremaine. Likewise, if you don't recall Wiley's stetson, you can't tell that he's shot off his horse and smashes his riflebutt into a lancer's face. You never see the actors' faces. I think both Arthur Hadley and Dahlstrom are the only two characters who merit inserts detailing their demise. I'm sure that the footage was shot for all of them but not included in the studio's cut. Perhaps the omission is a blessing since the gore in the master shot of Hadley is missing in the insert.
I have to confess that I consider Caliendo's score an improvement, but not an ideal replacement. Goldsmith or Bernstein, with a full orchestra and adequate budget would be my preference, but it's a valid attempt. I'm not a fan of Burwell's Alamo score because I believe it slows the action down. I like to recall Bernstein's tale of being criticized by DeMille for composing a reverential, somber piece for the exodus scene in Ten Commandments. DeMille told him to speed up the tempo, which he did, which galvanizes a montage of people basically just getting up and walking. I maintain that Burwell's Alamo scoring, which is very good otherwise, detracts from the battle scenes by it's dirgelike pace.
Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. I really enjoy an opportunity to contact people with similar interests.
We deal in lead, friend.
Another scene which I like (though I may be alone) with the original score is Dundee's briefing of Potts at Fort Benlin. After Potts says "That's Riago", this ominous string music begins playing in the background. Given that the scene is about the supposed (un)trustworthiness of Riago and the other Apache scout, I think that the music does add a nice air to this particular scene (even with the "Apache doorbell" noise chiming in).
Best scene with the new soundtrack is the river ambush; it enhances the creepy, suspenseful feel to the scene that is largely lacking in the original version.
"We don't give a good FART about the socialist workers or their movements!"
Agreed,
The initial massacre scene at the Rostis Ranch would have been a great addition. I was told there were 5 scripted battles that were filmed in "Major Dundee", along with a sequence that was in the script, entitled, “Rostis Ranch"(the person isn't sure if that was a battle sequence though)
I can remember only 4 battles if you count the capture of the French garrison in the village as a battle:
1. The river crossing
2. The capture of the French garrison in the village
3. The battle where Chariba is killed
4. The final battle with the French at the Rio grande.
5. ??????
Perhaps the fifth is the missing Rostis Ranch massacre?
having just seen the restored version...my main impression is...the ending is too abrupt...It definately leaves you pondering
shareWould you include the rescue of Dundee, the ambush of Dundee and Teresa by the lakeside, or the raid on the French horses as "battles" by your criteria?
"That scarf belonged to Lieutenant Brannin." "It's for you, Major!"
The new score is dreadful. I just bought a Spanish BluRay, beautiful picture, but it has the new flat emotionless score that fails so many times to support the drama. There isn't even a tune for the French Lancers, so when they first appear in the movie in long shot, you haven't a clue that they are not Dundee's men, intercut rather badly. Harris' heroic charge at the end, with his men watching with glistening eyes no longer has any feeling because the traditional Irish tune that weaves in is no longer there.
Fortunately, the BluRay has the original score for the French, German and Italian audio, plus English subtitles, so I guess I'll rewatch it in Italian, because watching with the new score left me completely cold.
I HATE the new score and I think its appalling how this tampering with a movie by obsessed fanboys of Sam Peckinpah trying to make Daniele Amfitheatrof a scapegoat for the film's shortcomings hasn't received more blowback from the people who correctly see colorization and updated CGI effects in an old film as tampering the essence of what the film originally was. It's one thing to add scenes that were shot at the time, and its also one thing to include a rejected score that was composed at the time (like for instance if we could hear Herrmann's score for "Torn Curtain" on an alternate track) but to commission a new score just because the director, who was not the man with the authority to decide the subject in this case, hated it (these people should go back and replace the score for "Ride The High Country" if they want to be consistent) is to me as wrong as colorization is.
share