Major Dundee Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		5.0
Overall		4.0

Major Dundee Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 2, 2021

When Major Dundee arrived on Blu-ray in a two disc limited edition several years ago, the closing comments of my review for that edition stated the film "is like an errant child who willfully misbehaves—you can't completely condone it, and yet its very unruly qualities are part of its undeniable allure". For anyone who doesn't mind revisiting a bit of cinematic naughtiness (so to speak), Arrow has now released their own two disc limited edition which offers the same generally excellent technical merits of the first release, along with some of the supplements of that release and a host of new bonus features and non-disc swag. It's a collection that should appeal mightily to Sam Peckinpah fans in particular.

My Major Dundee Blu-ray review of the earlier two disc release on Blu-ray provides a plot summary, and will also hopefully be helpful for those wanting to compare both how screenshots look and how the supplements stack up between the two editions.

Major Dundee Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: I "reversed" the versions with regard to screenshots on this review, with the Theatrical Version represented by screenshots 1 through 11, and the Extended Version featured in screenshots 12 through 18.

Major Dundee is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 2.35:1. The back cover of this release states the extended version is a "4K scan by Sony Pictures", while the theatrical version is "from a 2K scan". The perfect bound booklet included with this release has a bit of further pretty generic information:

Major Dundee is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

The Extended Version is presented with a 5.1 audio mix that includes a new score composed in 2005 by Christopher Caliendo, as well as an option to view with the original mono audio and original score by Daniele Amfitheatrof. The Theatrical Version is presented with original mono sound.

The High Definition masters were produced and supplied by Sony Pictures.

Since there's no information imparted about the provenance of the masters utilized aside from the above verbiage, I can't state with any certainty whether these transfers were culled from the same source as the earlier Blu-ray release, but I will say that to my eyes the two presentations are extremely similar, if not absolutely identical. There are both the pluses and minuses that I detailed in our Major Dundee Blu-ray review of the earlier release, with an often gorgeously suffused palette and some very appealing detail levels topping the plus category, and some raggedness in both opticals (there are a lot of dissolves in both versions) as well as some of the material exclusive to the Extended Version probably topping the minus category. There are arguably some minor encoding differences between the two, but I have to say that in my personal estimation they're virtually subliminal and may not be noticed by many. As can be seen by comparing screenshots between the two versions, color timing is (again) virtually identical and I found compression and grain resolution to be similar as well.

Major Dundee Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are a couple of differences in the audio department when comparing this release to the previous release. Neither of the isolated scores that were offered on that first release are included here, and the Extended Version features LPCM Mono for its original audio track, while the Theatrical Version features DTS-HD Master Audio Mono. Otherwise, I frankly once again didn't notice any huge differences between the two versions in terms of the actual audio presentation. The surround track on the Extended Version nicely opens up the soundstage without feeling forced, and thankfully with little to none of the "phased" quality that can sometimes intrude into these rejiggered versions. As I mentioned in the review of the earlier version, I found dynamic range in the Theatrical Version to be slightly tamped down, but never really problematic. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout both versions. Optional English subtitles are available.

Major Dundee Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One - Extended Version

• Audio Commentaries

  Commentary by Historians Glenn Erickson & Alan K. Rode

  
  

  Commentary by Historian Glenn Erickson

  
  

  Commentary by Paul Seydor, Garner Simmons, David Weddle and Nick Redman

• Moby Dick on Horseback (HD; 29:06) is an enjoyable new visual essay about the film by historian and critic David Cairns. You have to give this piece props for its opening which segues from Gidget to Major Dundee.


• Passion & Poetry: Sam Peckinpah Anecdotes (HD; 25:43) is a great aggregation of interviews with people who worked with Peckinpah, including Kris Kristofferson, Ernest Borgnine, James Coburn, David Warner, Ali MacGraw, L.Q. Jones, Bo Hopkins, R.G. Armstrong and Isela Vega.


• Mike Siegel: About the Passion & Poetry Project (HD; 43:35) features director Siegel, who discusses both the above featurette as well as his long obsession with Peckinpah.


• 2005 Re-Release Trailer (HD; 2:26)


• Animated Galleries

  Major Dundee on the Set (HD; 8:27)

  
  

  Major Dundee Colour Stills (HD; 4:25)

  
  

  Major Dundee Portrait Stills (HD; 2:56)

  
  

  Promoting Major Dundee (HD; 11:21)

Disc Two - Theatrical Version

• Riding for a Fall (HD; 7:23) is an archival featurette documenting some of the stunt work. This is sourced from a pretty ragged looking element.


• Deleted and Extended Scenes

  Compiled Scenes with Commentary by Glenn Erickson (HD; 6:40)

  
  

  Major Dundee and Teresa's Swimming Scene (HD; 00:40)

  
  

  Knife Fight (HD; 3:38)

  
  

  Silent Extended Outtakes (HD; 4:20)



• Trailers

  UK Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:17)

  
  

  UK Theatrical Trailer Uncropped (HD; 3:18)

  
  

  US Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:26)

  
  

  German Theatrical Trailer (HD; 3:27)

This is another extremely handsomely packaged release from Arrow. A slipbox contains two DigiPacks that contain the discs, with the covers featuring newly commissioned artwork by Tony Stella. A fold out poster contains both the original art and newly commissioned art by Tony Stella. A 60 page perfect bound booklet rounds out the non-disc swag and features a bounteous supply of writing, cast and crew listings, and a brief informational page about the transfer.

Major Dundee Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

That earlier limited edition is ostensibly "sold out" now and is commanding some relatively hefty prices at the usual online emporia, and so this Arrow version may be hard to resist for fans who passed up the earlier release. This version offers the same generally excellent technical merits as the first release, and arguably a better supply of bonus features, even if it doesn't include the isolated score tracks that the earlier Blu-ray release did. Highly recommended.