Originally Posted by
Serendipity09
Peckinpah's next film, Major Dundee (1965), would be the first of the director'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 movie and said to Bresler, "Let's use him." The sprawling screenplay told the story of Union cavalry officer Major Dundee who directs a New Mexico outpost of Confederate prisoners. 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's budget to skyrocket. Intimidated by the size and scope of the project, Peckinpah reportedly drank alcohol 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. By the time filming ended, 15 days over schedule and $1.5 million over budget, Peckinpah and producer Bresler were no longer on speaking terms. The movie, detailing themes and sequences Peckinpah would master later in his career, was taken away from him and substantially reedited. Major Dundee performed poorly at the box office and was thrashed by critics (though its standing has improved over the years). Peckinpah would hold for the rest of his life that his original version of Major Dundee was among his best films, but his reputation was severely damaged.