Hallelujah Trail - Major Dundee

[Skylark]

I scored me Sam Peckinpah's 'Major Dundee' - at the supermarket - with Charlton Heston - it was nicely preserved because the rack is just in front of the frozen pizza section - Ironically, this movie is very similar to the previous one I got, 'Hallelujah Trail' (at the pharmacy). Both feature the US cavalry, similar plot involving retaliating against Indians, both from 1965, and both feature Jim Hutton in a similar supporting role, and both actually use that historical context to subtext the burgeoning counter-culture social unrest of the period. It's very weird watching these two back-to-back.

This movie, I find much more interesting - the social issues are handled with more depth and sympathy -it's a challengeing movie that's superbly filmed and really kind of harkens to a new era of moral ambiguity, complexity, and unsentimental realism albeit with an underlying conscience and humanity. One can see the influence of 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'The Searchers' -

It would be interesting to compare both 1965 movies - it's amazing how the same basic themes can be handled in so diametrically opposite ways i.e. one is very commercial and conventional whereas the other is radical and challengeing.