MovieChat Forums > Major Dundee (1965) Discussion > Major Dundee

Major Dundee

posted 9 years ago by t-dalley
2 replies | jump to latest

Charlton Heston I think was miss cast he is not only over acting as he usually does but slows the film down with his wooden acting .
The rest of the cast are A1 the story is a very good one and the costume dept did a great job .
Peckenpah is at his best as usual for him even with the consricktions he had .
A good film that could have been great with a different lead ,but they probably used Heston so that he could hid his wooden acting
in the vast cast as he is used to ,this time the great cast showed him up completely .

[–] Eric-62-2 9 years ago

Whatever flaws this film has are not IMO Heston's fault. The real miscasting award goes to Richard Harris, a most unlikely southerner since Irish immigrants tended to settle more in the northern cities, and by making Harris an immigrant his hatred of Dundee for "betraying his kin" rings absolutely false. Of course all of this happened because Peckinpah was so darned lazy when it came to the script (the reason why the film doesn't have an ending) that when Harris couldn't master a southern accent he decided to forget it and make the character something totally implausible but which at least would let Harris relax.

[–] bhilburn 9 years ago

The South was settled by largely by Irish, English and Scotsmen. All the Irish didn't settle in northern cities, but a majority of them did. A large number settled in New Orleans for example, and filled out several regiments of infantry when the war started. Tyreen (Richard Harris' character) was an Irish immigrant who settled in Virginia. Many Irishmen settled there as well.

"check the imdb cast list before asking who portrayed who in movies please"