Wow! Major Dundee is DVD Savant's favorite

Well, after decades of reading and hearing critics dismissing Major Dundee there is finally a reviewer whose views I respect who honors the film with high praise. Glen Erickson is a critic who's always informative and interesting in his reviews:

http://www.dvdsavant.com/s1565dund.html

I first saw Dundee when it came out and it immediately ranked up there with THE GUNS OF NAVARONE and THE GREAT ESCAPE as far as great epic adventures I managed to see on the big screen. Sure, there were problems with the way some questions remained unanswered, such as the Apache scout's loyalty and Dundee's too abreviatedly shown descent into alcoholism and personal crisis. But the story's merits always far outweighed these in my opinion. The premise of the story, the action scenes, the setting and cinematography, and even Peckinpah's attention to detail such as the deterioration of uniforms and use of local garb was impressive. Plus the film had that impressive supporting cast of great character actors (Ben Johnson, L.Q. Jones, Slim Pickens, etc.). Altogether it made the story believable and authentic looking.

The upcoming DVD release will have some significant changes to the film. About 12 minutes or so of footage that was cut before the final version is added and the original soundtrack has been removed for a different score altogether.

It's unfortunate that the entire 40 minutes or so of missing footage from Peckinpah's vision of the story may never be found to give a true director's cut. But this is at least a start. The new soundtrack will probably improve the mood of the story as the original score seemed unworthy of the movie in some places.