the length of peckinpah's original cut has been disputed. according to some sources, including the 2005 dvd commentary, the original cut was 4 hours 38 minutes long, which was initially edited down to 156 minutes. included in the unseen longer cuts were several slow-motion battle scenes inspired by akira kurosawa's "seven samurai". the movie was also fairly gory for the standards of 1965, and more bloody and violent scenes were cut out. a bombastic musical score by daniele amfitheatrof was added to the film despite peckinpah's protests, as was the title song, "the major dundee march", sung by mitch miller and his sing-along gang. one of the most bizarre parts of the score was the use of an electronically altered sound – three anvils of different lengths played-back at half-speed every time charriba or the apaches would be seen or even mentioned. "until the apache is taken or destroyed" was one of the film's catch phrases.