Wed 16 Dec 2015
A Western Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE UNDEFEATED (1969).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[6] Comments
THE UNDEFEATED. 20th Century Fox, 1969. John Wayne, Rock Hudson, Antonio “Tony” Aguilar, Roman Gabriel, Marian McCargo, Lee Meriwether, Merlin Olsen, Melissa Newman, Bruce Cabot, Jan-Michael Vincent, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jr., Paul Fix, Royal Dano. Director: Andrew V. McLaglen.
Directed by Andrew V. McLaglen, The Undefeated features two of Hollywood’s leading men, some breathtaking outdoor vistas, and a John Ford sensibility. All that, however, cannot compensate for a lackluster script. The movie takes far too long in getting to the heart of the post-Civil War story, one about national reconciliation as experienced through the intersecting journeys of two men and those recently under their commands.
John Wayne, looking both sturdy and timeworn, portrays Colonel John Henry Thomas, a recently decommissioned Union officer who decides to try his luck in horse-trading in Emperor Maximilian’s Mexico. Rock Hudson portrays Thomas’s would-be nemesis, former Confederate Colonel James Langdon who, upon learning that the South has lost the war, heads to Mexico with his men and their families rather than live under humiliating Yankee rule.
When the two men finally end up meeting in Mexico, it doesn’t take long for the movie veer into national reconciliation sentimentalism, as the two former enemies on the battlefield end up joining forces to defeat Mexican bandits. All well and good, except for the fact that the movie’s most glaring flaw is in the absolute mismatch of the two leads. For his part, Wayne actually looks like he belongs in the movie and is a good fit for his character. Hudson, on the other hand, looks like he’s phoning it in and is altogether unconvincing as a Yankee-hating Confederate colonel.
Although beautifully filmed without any glaring technical flaws, this rather forgettable Western could have been a lot memorable than it ends up being. The film’s romantic subplots and its occasional attempts at lighthearted humor really don’t work very well, either. For a John Wayne film, The Undefeated is surprisingly uninspiring.
December 16th, 2015 at 4:12 pm
Over the years I have warmed to this one more, but my first viewing was much the same reaction as yours. Overall it all seems a bit tired and uninspired though the former Confederates moving to Mexico (and Brazil and Argentina) was true enough.
Ironically Wayne and his top man Ben Johnson are supposed to be Texas cattlemen who fought for the North, a plot element I had more trouble with than anything else. Like many of McLaglen’s films it has everything going for it in terms of cast and credits and well done action scenes but the material holding it all together feels more like a television episode than a movie.
I had the same problem with several McLaglen directed films of this era so I do attribute the problem to him. He never seemed to know what he was doing when he wasn’t slavishly copying Ford as he did in McCLINTOCK.
December 16th, 2015 at 4:24 pm
I saw this recently and was not impressed. My opinion was ok but nothing special. Brian Garfield in his book on western films calls it a very disappointing movie.
December 16th, 2015 at 4:30 pm
After some very promising early work on HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, McLaglin decided just to slavishly ape John Ford, and prospered as his talent staled.
December 17th, 2015 at 6:53 pm
On the other hand, it does have a couple of good lines.
“Some day I am going to write the social history of bourbon!” and “Is your holster flap buttoned, my Confederate friend?”
December 17th, 2015 at 9:44 pm
There are some good moments and snappy bits of dialogue here and there, but as a totality, it just falls flat. And that’s a shame, because there is a lot of potential here
December 18th, 2015 at 3:17 pm
MaLaglen did well enough in action scenes, but the scenes that tie them together are flat and often diffuse. He tries to give all the old hands, like Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr., their moment on screen, but unlike Ford he seems not to understand how to do that within the structure of the story so you end up with a grouping of loosely connected scenes and vignettes that don’t advance the plot.
This isn’t a bad film, but it is a tired and diffuse film that never ties together all the characters and plot lines and in trying to treat everyone, including the Mexican’s holding the Confederates hostage, with political correctness it ends up with no bad guys really. It just sort of ends with no real resolution of the central story about these people uprooting themselves and leaving home only to find in a foreign land they have more in common with their former enemy than anyone else.
It doesn’t help that in a film dealing with reconciliation between North and South the only nod to race is a half hearted Romeo and Juliet romance between Wayne’s long haired half Indian adopted son and Hudson’s blonde southern daughter. Watching this film you could be excused it you emerged with no idea why a Civil War was fought in the first place.
Ironically, watching this, I thought that despite age, this would have worked better if Wayne and Hudson had exchanged roles. At least that would have been interesting to watch, perhaps with some shadow of Wayne’s Ethan in THE SEARCHERS.
I have more patience with this on the small screen than I did on the big one, and as I said I have warmed to it a bit, but like CAHILL U.S. MARSHALL and CHISUM the film never really congeals into anything. All the parts are here, but it doesn’t add up. THE WAR WAGON is another that has some of these problems, but it is saved by Kirk Douglas and Howard Keel and a good villain in Bruce Cabot, and the plot and resolution hold together much better thanks to a director who knows how to connect the dots.