The revered but divisive American director, who died in 1984, would have turned 100 this week. We rate his greatest movies, from Straw Dogs to The Wild Bunch

After making his name as a director of westerns, Sam Peckinpah was given his first shot at making a major studio film – an epic about a tyrannical cavalry officer (Charlton Heston) leading an expedition into Mexico. The production set a template for later Peckinpah films – heavy drinking, personality clashes, battles with the suits, and a final cut not matching the director’s vision. Major Dundee was a victim of its chaotic ambition and it’s easy to see why it flopped on release: even in the 2005 restored version, it is hopelessly unfocused, taking in Dundee’s Moby-Dick-like mission to track down an Apache chief, the dynamics of the US civil war, encounters with the French army and an unconvincing romantic interlude. But it’s interestingly flawed, a sort of dry run for The Wild Bunch, and Richard Harris is entertaining as Benjamin Tyreen, the Irishman who leads the Confederate prisoners in Dundee’s ragtag army.