Dundee as a post-modernist Western

This was originally posted on the Sergio Leone web board, albeit slightly re-written for your consumption.

Last week, I rewatched both Howard Hawks' Red River and Major Dundee on the same day. I noted a number of similarities between the two films after this back-to-back rewatch (some of which are enumerated below). However, it seems to me, upon further reflection, that Dundee could very well rival Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West for the number of outside influences and references it brings to the table. It most obviously parodies Ford's "Cavalry Trilogy", but it borows from any number of films outside of those three.

Here are some of the more obvious references, in no particular order:

Fort Apache - there are considerable similarities between Dundee and Fonda's Colonel Thursday, both in their martinet attitude, their disastrous ineptitude, and the tense relationship between Dundee/Thursday and Tyreen/York. A specific scene reference is the ride-out from the Fort. In Fort Apache, the troopers are united in singing a regimental ballad (Gary Owen if memory serves), their differences forgotten. In Major Dundee, of course, the different factions each sing their own distinct songs (Battle Hymn of the Republic/Dixie/My Darling Clementine), highlighting the latent fissures in the command.

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - the film focuses largely on a post-war reconciliation of North and South, which is simultaneously mocked and presented throughout Dundee. Should also note that Ben Johnson plays a major supporting role in both films as a Southern cavalryman.

Rio Grande - the reconciliation theme continues in this film, and the last half of the movie with the cavalry troop rescuing child captives from Apaches seems an obvious point-of-reference for the main storyline.

Red River - Dundee's characterization as a strict, ruthless martinet is clearly modelled on Wayne's Dunson character. Wayne gives a big speech asking for volunteers, and telling the assembled crowd that he won't abide deserters, as Heston as Dundee does early in the Peckinpah. The deserters scene, interrupted by Matt/Tyreen, is also very close between the two films. Also the perfunctory love interest (Senta Berger/Joanne Dru) thrown in late in the game is parallel between the films, whether or not it's a deliberate homage.

Escape From Fort Bravo - This seems, besides the Ford films, the most clear reference point. The setting in a Union prison camp is obvious, as is the final battle where the escaped Rebel prisoners team up with their Union pursuers against hostile Apaches. What really caught my eye, however, was the scene after John Forsyth and Co. escape, where the prisoners are assembled and whistle Dixie in defiance of Holden and their Union captors.

My Darling Clementine - the song is played twice during the movie: once sung by the prisoner contingent of Dundee's gang as they exit Fort Benlin, and it's played again on harmonica right before the John Davis Chandler/Brock Peters scuffle starts up. Given that Peckinpah named MDC as his favorite Ford film, it's hard to think this wasn't a deliberate nod.

The Searchers - Dundee's visit to the post-massacre Rostes Ranch, and of course the funeral scene complete with Shall We Gather at the River? and Edwards/Dundee's rude interruption.

Lawrence of Arabia - The execution of Hadley by Tyreen, who kills him to keep the command from killing each other, is obviously inspired by Lawrence's shooting of Gassim in Lawrence, and Dundee's exile in Durango mirrors Lawrence's time in Deraa, although more drawn-out. For the record, Peckinpah was a huge fan of Lean's epics, at least Kwai and Lawrence, and there are several allusions to the former in The Wild Bunch as well.

Touch of Evil - Potts telling Dundee that he'd be an "unlikely looking Mexican" is clearly poking fun at Heston's role in Welles' film.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre - the fiesta in the village is an obvious touchstone for Peckinpah, as in The Wild Bunch.

Vera Cruz - the setting during the Mexican Civil War and the use of the French Army as antagonists.

Perhaps we can write up Major Dundee, and not Once Upon a Time in the West as commonly claimed, as "The first post-modernist Western".

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