Movie review - "The Undefeated" (1969) **

A lot of John Wayne's films around this time have lingered in the memory of Western fans - True Grit, The Green Berets, Big Jake, Chisum. Not this one despite Rock Hudson supporting and a fantastic central idea.

Because it's not very good. The idea is amazing - based on the true life adventures of a Confederate troop who refuse to surrender and go down south to Mexico and try to enlist in Maximilian's army. But the film wastes it. Hudson is the Confederate, and he and Wayne have a little bit of history but not much - even though Wayne was on the Union side he just happens to be down in Mexico when they cross.

Why not make him pursue Hudson? Or be Hudson's enemy?

The issues raised in the central idea is ignored. Slavery is pretty much entirely ignored - the only black character is a caricatured black carpetbagger who is Bad (smoking a cigar). The sense of loss these people must have felt is ignored.

Even though it's 1969 the film still offers 1941 solutions from Virginia City - to wit, that North and South manage to put aside their differences by taking on Mexicans. Its even worse here because the Americans are in Mexico - and the Southerners were trying to assist Maximilian who was a foreign occupier.

Oh and there's hardly any French characters. When the Southerners rock up the French have lost to the Mexicans, who are the baddies. Oh I guess there's some French baddies ish at the end who the Americans need to beat but since we don't really know any of them it doesn't mean anything.

There's a vaguely progressive subplot about Hudson's daughter being flirted with by Wayne's adopted son, a Cherokee, who the Southerners don't like but event this isn't developed well. Nor is the romance between Wayne and Hudson's sister in law. It's a really undramatic, unexciting screenplay.

Director Andrew McLaglen doesn't cover himself in glory either. There's a few sequences where he seems to be trying to be John Ford, which Ford would've done well - like a 4th of July BBQ which ends in a brawl - but he can't pull it off. There is the occasional interesting visual flourish like watching Mexicans execute the French, and the support cast has some interesting names, like John Agar, Ben Johnson, Harry Carey Jnr.

This storyline deserved much better treatment.