Richard Harris / Cowboy:
Major Dundee / Part 2
Bloody Sam?
Major Dundee (1965) doesn’t really show any of the bloody mayhem that Peckinpah shortly became notorious for in the Wild Bunch (1969) – no slow motion body’s flying throught the air or long gory bloody shoot outs. What is depicted may have been graphic by 1964 standards (?), but by today’s standards seems fairly tame.
Casting Harris ?
Harris‘ casting in Major Dundee has always puzzled me. He didn’t really seem to have a great body of notable film work behind him at the time – that would justify Star status in a Western. He was certainly up to it though – and did a great job. I guess somebody knew something.
A few Reviews:
The Extended Version:
Next:
Richard Harris / Cowboy – Major Dundee Part 3
Don’t know about the gore standard in today’s terms, but I was haunted for a long time by the image of the lieutenant strung up at the beginning of the movie!
Colin, definitely an Adult film – especially in those days. But interestingly enough that scene you refer to is shown in the Trailer! It’s the most graphic scene in the movie – so you wouldn’t expect that. Maybe they edited some content out? Would I be surprised?! When he got the chance though, it didn’t take Peck long to up the count.
Harris had star status in England before he was known here. He’s part of the same group as Richard Burton and the other bad boys of British stage and film … famous for carousing and mostly, for some really SERIOUS drinking. He was always a very good actor. It just took a while for Americans to recognize him.
I know he was a famous drinker. LoL ! His exploits with O’Toole are legendary. Yes … and what a fine group of actors they were.