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Friday, June 06, 2025

Originally, Dutch wrote the screenplay for Mr. Majestyk with Clint Eastwood in mind. Eastwood told Dutch that he needed a story that was “something like Dirty Harry [1971] only different.” It could be anything, as long as his character had a big gun. Clint didn’t have a big enough piece of the wildly successful Dirty Harry and wanted something he could fully own—something to produce through his company, Malpaso. So Dutch presented the idea for Mr. Majestyk, and Eastwood told him to “work it up.” Dutch was certain Eastwood would buy it, but he passed and did High Plains Drifter instead.

Dutch pitched Eastwood, using Picket Line as his framework—its setting, tone, and characters supplied the foundation for what became Mr. Majestyk. Once producer Walter Mirisch entered the picture, he signed Charles Bronson to star, and Dutch carried the Picket Line DNA into the Bronson version.

Dutch had drawn on earlier work before, and Picket Line wasn’t the first time he repurposed material from a shelved project. In 1961, he wrote “Only Good Ones” for an anthology called Western Roundup. Years later, that story became the first chapter of Valdez Is Coming.

Even though Mr. Majestyk is a completely different kind of story from Picket Line, the melon harvest by migratory fruit pickers provided the spine. Here’s a breakdown of a few key elements from Picket Line that ended up in Mr. Majestyk.

The opening in both works is a scene at a gas station where migrants are denied access to a bathroom—they’re told the facilities are broken. In Picket Line, a character named Chino gets tough with the attendant, who ultimately relents and lets the migrants use the toilet. In Mr. Majestyk, it’s Vincent who steps in. It’s a small but telling act of defiance—a classic Elmore Leonard reaction to injustice.

The woman at the center of that scene is Nancy Chavez. In Picket Line, she’s a strong character immersed in the farm worker struggle, whose role would have been broadened had Dutch progressed beyond Act One. In Mr. Majestyk, she has the same backstory, more or less, but her role is reduced to supporting the film’s vastly different plot. She talks to Vincent about past strikes and organizing farm workers, and that informs her character—but goes no further.

The labor conflict carries over in Mr. Majestyk, though not in the form of a strike or picket line. Vincent Majestyk is a small grower with 130 acres of melons and treats his workers with dignity. In Picket Line, Stanzik Farms is a large, uncaring company that treats migrants with contempt. In Mr. Majestyk, as Vincent brings in a picking crew, one is already in the fields—a scab crew, brought in by the grower. Vincent assaults the gun-wielding henchman, Bobby Kopas, and lands in jail—a sharp turn that kicks the story into motion.

What gets lost in the shift from source to screenplay is tone and intent. Picket Line focused on how the strikers moved together, how they clashed with local law enforcement, how they were blocked, searched, and humiliated as they tried to reach the melon fields. Mr. Majestyk lifts these elements and recasts them as set pieces—amped up, simplified, and shaped to serve Bronson’s brand of stoic violence.

Dutch didn’t like the result. He found Bronson predictable and didn’t like his delivery. Director Richard Fleischer turned the bad guys into cartoons—especially Al Lettieri as Frank Renda. “He was so over-the-top evil,” Dutch said.

For everything Mr. Majestyk was—and wasn’t—it couldn’t have existed without Picket Line. If only Dutch had finished it as a novel in 1971. It would’ve landed closer to the protest fiction and political films of the era. The issues were timely: migrant labor, racial tension, economic exploitation. The backdrop of melon picking was integral to both stories, but Mr. Majestyk went nowhere near the social themes Picket Line was built around. Maybe someday someone will pick up Picket Line and, using the completed Act One and Dutch’s extensive notes, complete his vision.