10. Major Dundee (1965)
After making his name as a director of westerns, Sam Peckinpah was given his first shot at making a major studio film – an epic about a tyrannical cavalry officer (Charlton Heston) leading an expedition into Mexico. The production set a template for later Peckinpah films – heavy drinking, personality clashes, battles with the suits, and a final cut not matching the director’s vision. Major Dundee was a victim of its chaotic ambition and it’s easy to see why it flopped on release: even in the 2005 restored version, it is hopelessly unfocused, taking in Dundee’s Moby-Dick-like mission to track down an Apache chief, the dynamics of the US civil war, encounters with the French army and an unconvincing romantic interlude. But it’s interestingly flawed, a sort of dry run for The Wild Bunch, and Richard Harris is entertaining as Benjamin Tyreen, the Irishman who leads the Confederate prisoners in Dundee’s ragtag army.
