Simply Perfect

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Best movie of this year hands down!

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Sorry, but Robert Shaw makes a silly caricature out of this flamboyant cavalry officer. The movie is not entertaining and full of historical boo-boos. Hardly worth watching at all, really. 3/10

I originally saw this rather boring movie years ago on TV - watching as I read a book - only to come up out of my seat - surprised to find Robert Ryan playing the extremely minor part of Sgt Mulligan...I have to give performance credit to Robert Ryan, Jeffrey Hunter and Ty Hardin (in that order) for their attempts to raise the movie out of mediocrity... However, the movie remains forgettable except for Robert Ryan's part as Sergeant Mulligan.I purchased the DVD only so that I could have a copy of Robert Ryan's performance.I am puzzled by all the attention given to the very minor character of Sergeant Buckley, played by Robert Hall. A few parts of the movie were filmed around his character, but without a strong connection to other parts of the movie...If the story had stayed closer to history, and someone more likely had played Colonel Custer (he was reduced to the Permanemt Rank of Lt Col at the end of the Civil War). For example - using the same players;Ty Hardin as Colonel Custer , with Robert Ryan as Sgt Buckley, and perhaps Jeffrey Hunter as Major Reno and Robert Shaw as Captain Benteen, then this movie might have been worthwhile...

Okay gang, this is a deeply flawed Custer movie. There is no getting away from that. Yet, if you have any interest at all in the Custer legend (notice I said legend - any relationship to real history and this movie is purely coincidental), and want to see a riveting performance by Robert Shaw, complete with an absurd English accent for Custer, this is a must see movie. Besides the imaginary history, the geographical locations presented for the story exist only in the minds of the screen writer and director. Despite this, I could not get over how much I liked watching Shaw present his interpretation of Custer. For all the weaknesses in the script, Shaw was given some great speeches to make, demonstrating the tragedy of plains Indians. No matter how ugly the near genocide of them as a people and the total genocide of their culture, and there is no excuse for any of it, they were the victims of events that were pre-determined once Europeans set foot on North America. A point perfectly captured in the movie in the confrontation between Custer and an American actor posing as a representative Indian chief.For myself, the worst part of the movie, which I was enjoying up to this point, was the Last Stand. Who cares whether it was accurate or not. When was the last time Hollywood ever made any movie about any historical event or person that was not clearly fiction in many aspects? What bothered me, was the fact it was done on the cheap. Custer had around 260 men with him, in the movie, he might have about 50. There is just no drama in watching a big action sequence that falls flat because you were not willing to hire more extras.Still, I guess this movie is one of my guilty pleasures. If you like action movies or Robert Shaw, give it a look.

While other commentators in this forum have found fault with the historicity of the film, including this quote from Gen. Sheridan, and the failure of the producers to faithfully envision the Montana setting with its Spanish locations, those would have been issues overlooked had the picture been better made and the hero better cast. Robert Shaw was a fine actor and he rose above this to make some really good movies (JAWS, THE STING) but he never seemed to catch the essential charm that Ronald Reagan and Errol Flynn brought to his characterization thirty years before. I'm not especially disappointed when Hollywood twists history to tell a great story as long as it's filled with action, well acted and artfully staged. But there was so much about this film that fell flat. Some action sequences were pretty good, like the log flume flight by the soldier, the railroad car's attack by Indians and subsequent fate after being uncoupled, the town being razed, the miners in the runaway wagon. These were well done and suspenseful and some I've never seen before in quite the way they were done. Unfortunately, the rest of the film doesn't make up for these best parts. The romantic scenes are a poor imitation of those done by Errol and Olivia in THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON and the climactic battle is almost boring compared to the one with Flynn. Akira Kurosawa was approached about making this picture and he could have done better certainly. But with the actors he would have had and with the production budget with which he'd been hamstrung, it might have been one of the worst pictures of his career. He was wise to turn away from it. Unless you're a western aficionado like yours truly, you'd be wise to follow suit. Dale Roloff