Okay, what was with the 2 and a half star rating for MAJOR DUNDEE I just saw on my satelite channel guide???

[Dargo]

3 hours ago, CinemaInternational said:

Honestly, I don't find any ranking system to really work for me online. Rotten Tomatoes is only really applicable for films from 1998 on, and on sites like IMDb, the majority of the films place between 5.0 and 7.5.

That's true CI, but I have noticed the truly "great" and/or generally recognized as a "classic" film will often have an IMDb rating of "8" or higher.

[NipkowDisc]

one of the things that hurts the film for me is that stupid musical twing we hear at certain moments during the film.

Peckinpah shoulda kept those twings to himself.

 

[Arrowsmith]

This thread reminds me of how Leonard Maltin gave Night And The City (1950) a 2.5 star rating. I consider it a masterpiece, and I know it is a beloved noir, so his score surprised me.

[spence]

Peckinpah hated that movie though, studio butting in & such  I never saw entire film, but it truly helped his dislike of Hollywood

[spence]

3 hours ago, Spritz Nipper said:

This thread reminds me of how Leonard Maltin gave Night And The City (1950) a 2.5 star rating. I consider it a masterpiece, and I know it is a beloved noir, so his score surprised me.

superb avatar by the way  thought he liked it better, or do you mean the De Niro 1992 version?

[cigarjoe]

4 hours ago, Spritz Nipper said:

This thread reminds me of how Leonard Maltin gave Night And The City (1950) a 2.5 star rating. I consider it a masterpiece, and I know it is a beloved noir, so his score surprised me.

Never took Maltin serious after looking through some of his ratings, I picked up one of his books at a yard sale once then tossed it.

[cigarjoe]

1 hour ago, spence said:

superb avatar by the way  thought he liked it better, or do you mean the De Niro 1992 version?

The De Niro remake was horrible in comparison. 

[TomJH]

Sorry, Dargo, but I have to say that I think two and a half stars is about right for Major Dundee. At least the "extended" version of two and a quarter hours.

Heston is pretty good and the film is well photographed with some nice scenery. But it tends to ramble on. Can anyone take a beauty like Senta Berger living in a tiny Mexican village seriously, let alone her inexplicable desire to suddenly make whoopie with Chuck? I couldn't help but notice the nice clean shirts that Heston and Harris were wearing in that village after miles of dirty riding and Indian fighting. Must have been one hell of a good laundress in that little village for them. Dundee turns into a self destructive souse for a while (where did that come from?) and Harris, at the film's end, well, why his own stupid act of self destructiveness?

Major Dundee is okay but Peckipah's more genteel Ride The High Country is more satisfactory for me and, of course, in a less genteel fashion, The Wild Bunch would be the director's western masterpiece.

[Det Jim McLeod]

44 minutes ago, TomJH said:

Major Dundee is okay but Peckipah's more genteel Ride The High Country is more satisfactory for me

Totally agree with this. "Dundee" has 3 of the actors who played the slimy villains in "High Country". Warren Oates (he plays a nice guy this time), John Davis Chandler (he's a racist creep) and LQ Jones (I can't recall what he played here).