Major Dundee

Major Dundee is a 1965 American Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton, and James Coburn. Written by Harry Julian Fink, the film is about a Union cavalry officer who leads a contentious troop of Army regulars, Confederate prisoners, and Indian scouts on an expedition into Mexico during the American Civil War to destroy a band of Apaches who have been raiding United States bases and settlements in the New Mexico territory. Major Dundee was filmed in various locations in Mexico. The movie was filmed in Eastman Color by Pathécolor, print by Technicolor. Plot During the American Civil War, Union cavalry officer Major Amos Dundee has been relieved of his command for an unspecified tactical error at the Battle of Gettysburg (it is implied that he showed too much initiative) and sent to head a prisoner-of-war camp in the New Mexico Territory. After a family of ranchers and a relief column of cavalry are massacred by an Apache war chief named Sierra Charriba, Dundee sends out his scout Samuel Potts to locate Charriba and begins raising his own unauthorized force. He attempts to recruit Confederate prisoners led by his former friend turned rival from West Point, Captain Ben Tyreen. Tyreen bears a grudge against Dundee and refuses his request. Before the war, Dundee had cast the deciding vote in Tyreen's court-martial from the United States Army for participating in a duel, leading to Tyreen's dismissal from the service and his later becoming an officer in the Confederate Army. Dundee is "southern born" (born and raised in Davidson County, Tennessee) but fought for the Union. Dundee's recruits include bugler Tim Ryan, who is the only survivor of the massacre, as well as a horse thief, a drunken mule-packer, a vengeful minister, and a small group of black soldiers who are tired of being assigned menial tasks. Dundee reluctantly appoints the inexperienced Lieutenant Graham as his second in command. Eventually, facing a hanging which may or may not be a bluff on Dundee's part, Tyreen accepts Dundee's offer to join him. He binds himself and twenty of his men to loyally serve Dundee, but only until Charriba is "taken or destroyed."