Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Major Dundee - The 'Extended Cut' coming August 30th
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Major Dundee - The 'Extended Cut' coming August 30th - Page 2

post #31 of 56
4/7/05 at 8:41am
Quote:
Major Dundee is Savant's favorite movie
That's a helluva statement, isn't it? Excellent article.
Reply
post #32 of 56
4/7/05 at 2:53pm
I haven't seen a lot of Peckinpaws work, but based on what I'm reading here, it looks like a blind buy to me!

Too bad it was delayed, I was about to pre-order it.
Reply
post #33 of 56
4/7/05 at 8:46pm
Too bad it was delayed, I did pre-order it.
Reply
post #34 of 56
4/7/05 at 10:29pm
Shoot. It has been delayed. I hope the DVD is well worth the extra wait.
Reply
post #35 of 56
4/15/05 at 2:25pm
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4601413

Another theatrical review here.
Reply
post #36 of 56
4/15/05 at 2:38pm
I noticed this trivia in imdb that Heston mentioned in his biography that "During the filming of this movie, Sam Peckinpah was so obnoxious and abusive towards his actors that Charlton Heston physically threatened the director with a sabre. Heston later remarked that this was the only time he had ever threatened anybody on a movie set."

also a reviewer of this film netioned in imdb that "In his autobiography, Charlton Heston spent more time talking about this film than any other. Some other commentator said that it looked like someone took over the direction. The commentator was very observant. Heston had to take over the direction because Sam Peckinpah just lost interest and began indulging in all kinds of vices down on location in Mexico which I won't get into. Read Heston's book. Suffice it to say that he was unable to go to the set, for any number of reasons.Heston says that Peckinpah was making it up as he went along..."

too bad, I guess thats why Heston never worked with Preckinpah again!
Reply
post #37 of 56
4/15/05 at 8:55pm
My views on this film is that it was an okay western that could've been special, but wasn't because it got tangled in the process. So I'll be interested in this version of it to see if my opinion changes or not.





Crawdaddy
Reply
post #38 of 56
5/18/05 at 11:57am
Looks like August 30 has been confirmed with the new date being carried by a number of etailers. The other good news is that a number of extras are being passed at the BBFC, so Major Dundee; The Extended Cut is being prepped for R2. Among the extras, which should be replicated on the R1:

00:01:46:13 | KNIFE FIGHT
00:01:46:20 | KNIFE FIGHT X3
00:00:37:12 | MAJOR DUNDEE AND TERESA
00:04:17:11 | SILENT EXTENDED OUTTAKES
00:02:05:07 | TRAILER ARTWORK OUTTAKES
00:01:17:14 | EXHIBITOR PROMO EXCERPT

Also look for a promotional trailer for the Extended Cut running to 2m 18s, the Riding for A Fall featurette mentioned by Grover Crisp on the previous page, both in colour (6m 50s) and black and white (6m 10s).

Another exciting extra is an extended excerpt from Mike Siegel's brand new Peckinpah documentary Passion & Poetry (21m 59s). This new documentary is, I believe, only being premiered in Germany next month, and is produced by the the same German Peckinpah fanatic who has published a marvellous book on Sam, also titled Passion & Poetry.

Talk about whetting the appetite...
Reply
post #39 of 56
5/18/05 at 12:39pm
Quote:
Another exciting extra is an extended excerpt from Mike Siegel's brand new Peckinpah documentary Passion & Poetry (21m 59s). This new documentary is, I believe, only being premiered in Germany next month, and is produced by the the same German Peckinpah fanatic who has published a marvellous book on Sam, also titled Passion & Poetry.

World Premiere: End of June at the Munich Film Festival
Running Time: 115 Minutes

This is Mike Siegel's "Sam Peckinpah DVD-Thread" (German Language):
http://forum.cinefacts.de/showthread...referrerid=710
Reply
post #40 of 56
5/18/05 at 12:52pm
Thanks for the updates guys

Reply
post #41 of 56
5/18/05 at 1:00pm
This is Mike Siegel's "Sam Peckinpah DVD-Thread" (German Language):


Alternatively...

http://on.starblvd.net/meet/Entertai...ies/peckinpah/
Reply
post #42 of 56
6/20/05 at 2:45am
DVD Times has the skinny on the 'Extended Cut' features here:

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Major Dundee (Extended Cut) for 30th August 2005 priced at $14.94 SRP. Sam Peckinpah's first big-budget film was also the first to be taken away and released in a shortened version. But now, 40 years later, most of the missing footage has been located and reinserted with the entire soundtrack remixed in 5.1 Dolby Digital, and a completely new score composed. The new scenes complete the electrifying depiction of an oppressive Union officer who leads a squad of Rebel prisoners, ex-slaves, and criminals into Mexico to hunt down a band of murdering Apaches which raises the question: who represents a greater threat?

Features include:
Anamorphic Widescreen Presentation
English Mono / English DD5.1 Surround
French and Japanese audio
English, Japanese and Korean subtitles
All New Extended Version With Fourteen Minutes of Never-Before-Seen Footage
Audio Commentary With Four Peckinpah Historians
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Photo Gallery with production stills and posters
Original Theatrical Trailer
Reply
post #43 of 56
6/20/05 at 8:19am
Great news! Thanks, once again, John! You'be really been on a great-announcements-roll of late!

This looks like a great package at a great price. Bring it on.
Reply
post #44 of 56
6/20/05 at 9:05am
The extended version is brilliant, I saw a screening a few weeks ago. Looking forward to the DVD, looks like there'll be some worthy features, and damn cheap to boot.
Reply
post #45 of 56
6/20/05 at 9:22am
great news indeed
Reply
post #46 of 56
6/20/05 at 1:06pm
I thought Mr Crisp mentioned that both versions of the film would be on the DVD. Has that been nixed? That would be very disappointing not to be able to compare the 2 versions of the film.
Reply
post #47 of 56
6/20/05 at 1:24pm
I thought Mr Crisp mentioned that both versions of the film would be on the DVD. Has that been nixed? That would be very disappointing not to be able to compare the 2 versions of the film.


Yes; I thought that was coming too, although I wondered at the time whether he was simply referring to the original film having been restored and preserved, so that both movies would be available - on film - for future generations.
Reply
post #48 of 56
9/23/05 at 3:04am
I've just seen this on dvdtalk:

Quote:
On our latest episode of DVD Talk Radio, DVD Talk Editor Geoffrey Kleinman sits down at talks with Grover Crisp (Vice President of Asset Management and Film Restoration at Sony Pictures) - the person in charge of restoring Sam Peckinpah's classic film Major Dundee on to DVD. Major Dundee was one of Peckinpah's first major big budget studio films, and it was taken out of his hands and cut considerably by the studio. The film has now been restored to a longer extended version including many scenes which were considered 'lost'. We speak with Grover Crisp about the restoration of Major Dundee including the bold and impressive move to do a completely new and improved score for the film.

Player

Audio file
Reply
post #49 of 56
9/23/05 at 2:50pm
Was anyone else real disappointed by the new music? I thought the new score... how to put this... sucked. I ended up watching it with the old score and it was worth trading 5.1 for Mono in order to get it. Too bad, I was really looking forward to it.
Reply
post #50 of 56
9/23/05 at 3:44pm
No, I like the new score a lot. It's a little downbeat, but worlds better than hearing the TOTALLY inappropriate Mitch Miller Singers warbling over the front and end credits.

This is a really great DVD. I hope the full Peckinpah documentary is part of WB's box set. Man, does R.G. Armstrong look rough. I think they filmed his interviews in a shotgun shack-- which appears to double as his bedroom!
Reply
post #51 of 56
9/23/05 at 4:17pm
Do you mean it was poor musicically or that it didn't 'match' the action (which the original track most certainly doesn't; it is the main weakness of the 123-minute version) or that the cues are badly timed? Please elaborate, Elijah; "sucked" never cuts any mustard with me, I'm afraid.

Christopher Caliendo (composer of the 2005 score) is someone I know nothing about, but the score feels like those typically unadventurous scores to similar films of that period, although it is a much more sombre score and fits the film well. Daniele Amfitheatrof (composer of the 1965 score) was a prolific composer and conductor who composed a substantial body of music outside of his movie work and I have always felt that he didn't understand film scoring very well, although he was a fine composer, but his cues in many films are very uninspiring and quaint. His original score for Major Dundee has a decent main theme, but it is drastically overused and as Glenn "DVD Savant" Erickson points out here, he inserts little musical 'stings' that are very irritating and tacky.

Caliendo's mariachi music for the fiesta is infinitely more effective than Amfitheatrof's clumsy scoring. One of the strengths of the new 'score' is the lack of it, now - silence replaces much of Amfitheatrof bombastic cues. Emotionally, the film is purer now; scenes can breathe in this quiet now.

Major Dundee is one of the great 'flawed' films in my eyes. Leaving the score aside and the cuts made to the film, I feel that main weakness, narratively speaking, is the lack of focus on Sierra Charriba and the Apaches, and the French Lancers. Which means that we have two hours of inner tension among Heston, Harris, Oates, etc and Senta Berger's role is just the obligatory lonesome senorita that by 1965 we have seen too many times. Harry Julian Fink was a so-so writer and the focus of the story wavers throughout and the cutting exacerbated this fault. But it is a powerful, intelligent and fascinating story of men in war. Peckinpah would revisit the themes of this film four years later and would succeed with panache, aplomb and greater air of sadness and regret, in the masterful, The Wild Bunch; in many ways, Major Dundee feels like a dry-run for that film, but it remains a fascinating film for many reasons.
Reply
post #52 of 56
9/23/05 at 4:19pm
R.G. Armstrong rules. He's an awesome dude.
Reply
post #53 of 56
9/23/05 at 5:09pm
I had the pleasure of meeting "R.G" years ago at the National theater in Westwood when I saw "The Deer Hunter". He sat in the row directly in back of me. We chatted before the movie and he was a very funny and delightfull guy...so different than most of his characters.
Reply
post #54 of 56
9/28/05 at 2:46am
Go here and listen to DVD Talk Radio's Grover Crisp interview; fascinating stuff about 'Dundee', particularly at the end when he gives a few hints as to what's up next - apparently they've found better elements for a new edition of Mr Smith Goes To Washington and they're working on a whole slew of Capra titles, including American Madness, Antonioni's The Passenger with Jack Nicholson, and a Henri Clouzot film, The Truth with Ms Bardot. Yum.

My 'Dundee' came yesterday; my first impressions of the 5.1 score weren't good, but I think it was the shock of the new, and I actually warmed to it when I came across the 'fiesta' scene; I'll probably watch it through tonight. I did catch the whole of the excerpt from the Mike Siegel doco and it has only whet my appetite (R.G. Armstrong does indeed rule, and hasn't time been kind to Senta Berger?) - I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing on DVD hopefully soon!
Reply
post #55 of 56
9/28/05 at 5:33pm
My copy just arrived. Really looking forward to seeing this again with the extended cut...

Joel
Reply
post #56 of 56
2/3/12 at 2:14pm
I already have the script. Check this out - www.majordundee.blogspot.com
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: DVD
Home Theater Forum › Home Theater Forum › Blu-ray, DVD, Streaming Video and Digital Downloads › DVD › Major Dundee - The 'Extended Cut' coming August 30th