Page "Sam Peckinpah" Paragraph 16

Peckinpah's next film, Major Dundee ( 1965 ), was the first of Peckinpah's many unfortunate experiences with the major studios that financed his productions.

Based on a screenplay by Harry Julian Fink, the film was to star Charlton Heston.

Peckinpah was hired as director after Heston viewed producer Jerry Bresler's private screening of Ride the High Country.

Heston liked the film and called Peckinpah, saying, " I'd like to work with you.

" The sprawling screenplay told the story of Union cavalry officer Major Dundee who commands a New Mexico outpost of Confederate prisoners.

When an Apache war chief wipes out a company and kidnaps several children, Dundee throws together a makeshift army, including unwilling Confederate veterans, black Federal soldiers, and traditional Western types, and takes off after the Indians.

Dundee becomes obsessed with his quest and heads deep into the wilderness of Mexico with his exhausted men in tow.

Peckinpah's first big-budget film had a large cast, including Heston, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Senta Berger, Jim Hutton, Ben Johnson, Warren Oates, R. G. Armstrong and L. Q. Jones.

Filming began without a completed screenplay, and Peckinpah chose several remote locations in Mexico, causing the film to go heavily over budget.

Intimidated by the size and scope of the project, Peckinpah reportedly drank heavily each night after shooting.

He also fired at least 15 crew members.

At one point, Peckinpah's mean streak and abusiveness towards the actors so enraged Heston that the normally even-tempered star threatened to run the director through with his cavalry saber if he did not show more courtesy to the cast.

Shooting ended 15 days over schedule and $ 1. 5 million more than budgeted with Peckinpah and producer Bresler no longer on speaking terms.

The movie, detailing themes and sequences Peckinpah mastered later in his career, was taken away from him and substantially reedited.

An incomplete mess which today exists in a variety of versions, Major Dundee performed poorly at the box office and was thrashed by critics ( though its standing has improved over the years ).

Peckinpah held for the rest of his life that his original version of Major Dundee was among his best films, but his reputation was severely damaged.