"The Undefeated" (1969) teams up John Wayne and Rock Hudson as ex-Union and Confederate officers after the Civil War in Mexico. Langdon (Hudson) wants to relocate his family & friends whereas Thomas (Wayne) wants to make money selling horses to Emperor Maximilian. The problem is that Benito Juarez and his followers are at war with Maximilian and this causes unforeseen problems for the Americans, who have no choice but to team-up.The set-up of story is great and loosely based on Joseph Orville "Jo" Shelby and his Missouri raiders and their families who really did seek to relocate to Maximilian's Mexico, but had to return after the victory of Juarez' forces. The movie starts with a Civil War battle and the announcement that Lee has surrendered and the war is over, which segues into Langdon and Thomas and their people going to Mexico for completely different reasons; and then they meet. This is great, but the filmmakers add some goofiness, like an over-the-top, fun-spirited brawl between the Confederates and Federals at a 4th of July party in the wilderness. These types of scenes were fairly common in Wayne Westerns at the time and I always thought they detracted from these movies. There's a way to mix realistic comedy into a movie and a way not to and this isn't the way. Besides, how can a serious brouhaha be fun? When you punch people in the face in real life they get bloody noses and missing teeth; here they just laugh it off.Another problem is NFL quarterback Roman Gabriel as a full-blooded Native American and adopted son of Thomas. No matter how you slice it, he looks like a white dude with a mop of black hair. To add insult to injury, Langdon's cute daughter (Melissa Newman) falls head-over-heals in love with him and the way it happens simply isn't realistic. Would a genuine Southern belle really swoon over a full-blooded Indian who visits their encampment? Would no one notice that the two have wandered off to make-out, in plain view of the others? Would Col. Langdon really not mind that his daughter is sucking face with a full-blooded Native? In our day and age it's no big deal and most people could care less, but it's still an issue in some circles; how much more so back then, particularly with a proud Southern Colonel and his people? If you can overlook these flaws, however, this is a very worthwhile Western with quality drama, action, characters and locations (shot in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Durango, Mexico). The cast is also notable. Besides the two stars, you also get Lee Meriwether, Marian McCargo, Jan-Michael Vincent (in a too-small role), Merlin Olsen, Ben Johnson and various Wayne Western staples.This is a likable Western because the people are so likable. For instance, the way one group is unselfishly willing to let go of something of great worth on behalf of another group blows the mind, but it reveals their nobility and the fact that they value human beings more than they do monetary gain, but only because they've found them worthy. It also reveals respect and the willingness to forgive & heal after the nation's most bloody war.The film runs 119 minutes.GRADE: B-

(6/10) John Wayne's other movie from 1969. Often incorrectly labeled as one of Duke's weakest Westerns, I found this to be a clever and fun albeit unspectacular western. I liked how the film bordered on the friendly hostility edge between Wayne's Union troops and Hudson's Confederates. The conflict was always in flux, never turning too animistic or friendly which all comes together in the entertaining fourth of July brawl scene which was undoubtedly the film's best moment. First Rock Hudson film I ever saw, I was extremely impressed by his acting ability. Seeing one of the most famous openly homosexual actors work alongside the conservative Duke is entertaining for nostalgia's sake. The ending was too anti-climatic for me and the film was uneven at times, but it was a good watch with some good historical background.

The title of "The Undefeated" refers to those Confederates who refused to accept defeat in the American Civil War and migrated to Mexico rather than live under the Union. The film is loosely based on a true story, although the details are very much fictionalised. A group of Confederate soldiers, led by Colonel James Langdon, make their way with their families across Texas, hoping to cross the Rio Grande and to join Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, who has offered them land where they can make a new life. Langdon was once a wealthy plantation owner, but has been ruined financially by the war, and before leaving sets fire to his mansion rather than see it fall into the hands of Northerners.On the journey, Langdon meets an old Civil War antagonist, Colonel John Henry Thomas, who is leading a group of his former soldiers on an expedition to capture a herd of wild horses, which he is hoping to sell to the US government. Upon learning, however, that the Mexican government are willing to pay a better price, Thomas and his men also turn south with their captive herd. The film tells the story of what happens when the two groups of Americans, former enemies, are forced to work together to fight off attacks from bandits and from the Juaristas, republican opponents of Maximilian's government.A number of Westerns from this period had a Mexican-related theme and generally involve Americans becoming embroiled in either the Mexican civil war of the 1860s or the Mexican Revolution of the 1910s; others include "The Wild Bunch", "Two Mules for Sister Sara" and "The Professionals", with "Veracruz" being an earlier example from the fifties. The makers of "The Undefeated", however, were less concerned with the intricacies of Mexican politics than they were with putting across a message of American patriotism. Although the Confederates and Unionists have recently been fighting one another, they learn to respect one another and to unite against a common foe. Thomas and his men not only help the Confederates fight the bandits, they also give up their horses to ransom them when they are being held hostage by a Juarista general.The old divisions- North versus South, blue versus grey, abolitionists versus advocates of slavery- no longer matter; the reconciliation between the two groups takes place, very symbolically, at a Fourth of July party. What matters is that former Confederates and former Unionists are all now Americans, united against the world. Even non-whites are included; a romance develops between Thomas's adopted Indian son Blue Boy and Langdon's daughter. The implied message for the Americans of 1969 is that they must learn to overcome their own divisions- conservative versus liberal, young versus old, black versus white, pro-Vietnam war versus pacifists- in a similar way.This message of inclusive patriotism would have been dear to the heart of one of the film's two big stars, John Wayne, who plays Thomas. The following year Wayne was to make another Western, "Rio Lobo", about Northerners and Southerners learning to live together after the Civil War. It is a potentially interesting theme, but not one which this film makes the most of. Rock Hudson's performance as a Southern gentleman has been criticised, but for me he was not the problem with the film. I will leave comment on his accent to those who are more familiar with the dialects of the Deep South than I am, but I found his portrayal of a proud and honourable aristocrat a convincing one. John Wayne, however, had already shown in "The Green Berets" the year before that he was really too old to go on playing a front-line soldier, and he is no more credible here. The film also contains a few other implausible elements. There may have been men in the 1860s who would have had no objection to their daughter entering into a racially mixed marriage, but I doubt if a die-hard Confederate aristocrat like Langdon would have been one of them. The film ends with both Langdon and Thomas on surprisingly good terms with the Juarista General Rojas, even though he has shown himself to be both ruthless and treacherous and has threatened to shoot the Confederates in cold blood if his ransom demands are not met. The film is also overlong and its pace, particularly during the second half, tends to flag.The late sixties and early seventies saw the last great hurrah of the Western before its decline in the late seventies and eighties, but "The Undefeated" cannot compare in quality with some of the other offerings from the period, such as "The Wild Bunch", or Wayne's other film from 1969, "True Grit", or even with "Chisum", another collaboration between Wayne and director Andrew V. McLaglen from the following year. It is marginally better than the non-Western "The Green Berets", but to say that about a film is no very great praise. 5/10

All i can say is that they do not make them like this any more. This was what going to the cinema was all about. Good story,very well made, exciting action and good performances all around. People always play down John Wayne as always wearing the same clothes and gun and even riding the same horse. In my opinion Wayne was a fine entertainer and a good actor. Don't try to compare him with the Oliviers and Burtons in the business. Also the same with Rock Hudson.I never saw a bad performance from him either. As usual in a Wayne picture you had some of his usual crew working with him such as Ben Johnson, Richard Donner and Bruce Cabot. Also notice a very young Jan Michael Vincent. Top marks for The Undefeated. Kevin Thomas.