1965 Classic, Originally a Box Office Flop, Ranked Among 'Best Western Movies of All Time'

The Western is one of those genres you can spend a lifetime exploring and still somehow find something new. Its history stretches across more than a century of filmmaking, from silent-era classics to modern movies about the Old West. Some movies helped define American cinema, while others built devoted followings over the years. Either way, there's no shortage of stories waiting beyond the next dusty horizon. It's just an exciting genre of film.

Well, more than a century after the genre first rode onto movie screens, Westerns are still finding ways to capture audiences. The hats may be different and the filmmaking certainly is, but the appeal of a good frontier story hasn't gone anywhere. That's part of what makes it so remarkable that one of the most celebrated Westerns ever made arrived in 1965 and was a flop for years.

Now, decades later, that film isn't just remembered fondly. It's earned a place among the greatest Westerns ever put on screen.

That movie is Major Dundee. Rotten Tomatoes calls it one of the best Western films of all time, and to think it was a box office flop.

"Major Dundee is a Western-type with big war scenes, shot with bombast typical of Sam Peckinpah," Rotten Tomatoes states of the film. It stars Charlton Heston, Richard Harris, Jim Hutton and James Coburn and was directed by Sam Peckinpah.

The synopsis for the film revolves around the end of the Civil War, when "Major Dundee guards Confederate prisoners, Union deserters and ordinary hard-bitten criminals in a remote fort."

It was a cool storyline, but Major Dundee was considered a big box-office flop, according to research from Classic Movie Ramblings. It also got bashed by the critics.

As the story goes, director Sam Peckinpah wanted this film to be a wild, three-hour roadshow with a large, $4.5 million budget. But, Columbia Pictures didn't agree. Columbia didn't offer that full budget, and Peckinpah and the studio had plenty of disagreements. By the time the film came out, it was down to a 122-minute film and didn't even get his approval.

But, in 2005, a new version of the film with 12 minutes of lost footage appeared and helped make this movie a hit. It gave it a new life. Now, it's considered one of the best in the Western genre. It has a 97% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which says something about its popularity.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 18, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 7:31 PM.