the song...
does anyone know who sung or what the title of the song was at the begining an ending of movie
share[deleted]
MovieChat Forums > Major Dundee (1965) Discussion > the song...
The Mitch Miller Chorus.
shareSomeone here mentioned the Mitch Miller Chorus already; the song is "Fall in With the Major".
shareThe song is "Fall in Behind the Major" and is sung by the Mitch Miller "Sing-Along Gang." It also stinks.
share Did anyone else find it funny that on the Extended Version DVD, the new reissue trailer ends with the line "Fall in Behind the Major, Spring 2005!"? The new version uses a new score, much better by the way, and one of the main reasons people don't like the original version is the music, especially Mitch Miller and Co. singing Fall in behind the major.
Good stuff.
"I don't mean to be a sore loser, but if when it's over, I'm dead, kill him." Butch Cassidy
It's actually called the "Major Dundee March", but that's being nitpicky.
I like it. If I'm the only person on the face of the Earth, that's fine with me.
Until The Apache Is Taken Or Destroyed
I've always liked it, ever since I saw the movie in 1965. I just tried to watch the extended version with the new score and couldn’t stand it. The new score is flat and uninteresting.
shareAs I've said before, my main problem with the old score isn't the music itself, it's just poorly used. I have the soundtrack, and the music itself for the most part is actually pretty good outside of the movie (even though for some odd reason they decided to a) add sound effects [gunshots, war whoops, Richard Harris's death scream] to the music from the battle scenes and b) stick in a bunch of Godawful Mitch Miller songs that weren't even in the movie). But the way the movie was edited, with the "Apache doorbell" playing every five seconds and the constant use of loud, bombastic music behind dialogue scenes, kills the effect. As I've said before, the music for the final battle with the French is great - the version with the new score, with almost no music at all, is horrible.
The new score is good to a point, but it isn't the cure-all that certain people (like DVD Savant, who knows a lot of info but still manages to be an ignorant jackass) have claimed it is. The best parts are the introduction music, the expedition first leaving Fort Benlin, the music during the campfire fight between Dahlstrom and Benteen, and the silence during most of the critical dialogue scenes (though that's not really music). I do like the river ambush a lot better with the new score too (though the original's music during that scene is pretty surreal IMO). So, that's my critique.
But I love the "Major Dundee March", it's cheesy and stupid but in a good way. I think kitsch is a better word for it.
"I've got orders to obey, thank God. Not like that poor devil - he's riding the whirlwind!"
I can appreciate what you and others are saying about loud music behind dialogue scenes, but the way it was "corrected" here was distracting to me. A sentence of dialogue with subtle ambience between the words was surrounded by dead silence. It was as if a group picture had been made up of photos of individual people trimmed around the edges then pasted on a common background. The new score was particularly bad during the last battle with the French. The original score covered up some lame battle sound effects. The new score’s “silent spaces” exposed what sounded more like a couple of Foley artists rattling a silverware drawer than a cavalry battle. I also noticed that they replaced the original bugle call (which actually sounded French) with what sounded like a watery version of the United States charge.
I agree with you on most points. One dialogue scene I liked with the original music was Potts' briefing of Dundee at Fort Benlin, with the ominous brass/string music and the *beep beep BEEP!* popping up. (They also used the track during the build-up to the river ambush.) It fits very well with the topic of their conversation, which is the loyalty of Riago and Potts' other scout, and builds up a great sense of forboding. Quite frankly, this scene sucks without the music. However, I far prefer Dundee and Tyreen's dialogue after the campfire fight, as well as the planning of the final battle with Charriba (to name just two examples), without the loud tracks that are heard in the original version.
The sound dubbing for the film was done on an extremely cheap scale, I think others have commented on that. The first three minutes of the French battle was almost excrutiating without the music. As I said in my above post, that's one scene where the original score is absolutely right. Even when the music does kick in, it's lameass and "restrained" (i.e. boring) - not at all fitting for a battle scene.
"What have I done?" ~ Sir Alec Guinness, "Bridge On The River Kwai"
I too prefer the score released with the film: FALL IN BEHIND THE MAJOR. After seeing both versions I prefer the released 1965 version over the directors cut. Believe it or not the studio cut make Peckinpah's point about love loyalty and betrayal clearer than Peckinpah's edition. I frankly would not have rated MAJOR DUNDEE with 12 O'Clock High and Godfather I & II (combined version), the greatest American studies of leadership.
Did Mitch Miller's chorus sing Fall In Behind The Major? Geeze Mitch Miller was far better than I ever gave him credit!
HA Andrews
Just watched the film with the new score & can`t say I was particularly impressed.So unimpressed in fact that I started hankering for the doorbell every time Chariba appeared.I had the original on L.P. for many years & thought it did the job although such a shame it wasn`t mixed 5.1DD for the dvd.
shareAfter comparing the two versions, I prefer the 1965 release. I think it made all the points Peckinpah wanted. The cuts honed the essential point; the added material muted it & I do prefer FALL IN BEHIND THE MAJOR to that whiney tune Peckinpah wanted.
HA Andrews
It's actually called the "Major Dundee March", but that's being nitpicky.
I like it. If I'm the only person on the face of the Earth, that's fine with me.
I've been looking for the lyrics - do you have them Hancock the Superb?
Fall in Behind the Major
Fall in, and mind the Major
Fall in, and I will wager
That the major brings all of us back!
Fall in, and keep your guard up!
Who knows when things will start up?
Fall in, behind the Major,
Every Tom, Bob, Joe, Jimmy and Jack!
Though your heart be with the North,
Or your heart be with the South,
Uphold the Blue or Gray,
It's no nevermind
Won't be long till we'll be home
Raining kisses on the mouth
Of the girls we left behind!
Fall in, and get to movin'
No use in disapprovin'!
Fall in behind the Major
And we'll all get home again!
"I do NOT want your tawdry tales of office lust infecting my newsroom!"
Hancock the Supurb for supplying the lyrics!
shareI liked it, too, but it's kind of strange that while riding through the carnage of the massacre, this jaunty march with its incongrous words is playing. All I've heard is how lousy the original score is (was?), but the new one is practically non-existent.
sharein the extended version i have you can watch the extended cut with the old score. I always liked the Major Dundee March
shareI missed the song on the DVD version that I watched recently. I always thought they were singing "Boys, behind the Major".
I enjoy the cheesy theme songs of those old Westerns:
"Yee-har, giddyup there;
We're a kitchy white quartet,
Singing of the lone prairieee,
Yee-har!"