Custer of the West (1967)

Director:

Robert Siodmak

Writers (WGA):

Bernard Gordon (written by) and
Julian Zimet (written by) (originally as Julian Halevy)

Release Date:

24 January 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Western

Tagline:

A man too big for legend - A motion picture too big for any screen except CINERAMA [UK theatrical]

Plot:

George Armstrong Custer's love of the heroic traditions of the Calvary and his distaste with the coming of industrialization leads him to his destiny at the Little Big Horn.

Plot Keywords:

Little Big Horn | Log Flume | General Custer | Congress | Desert

Cast

Robert Shaw	...	Gen. George Armstrong Custer
Mary Ure	...	Elizabeth Custer
Ty Hardin	...	Maj. Marcus Reno
Jeffrey Hunter	...	Capt. Benteen
Lawrence Tierney	...	Gen. Philip Sheridan
Marc Lawrence	...	The gold miner
Kieron Moore	...	Chief Dull Knife
Charles Stalmaker	...	Lt. Howells (as Charles Stalnaker)
Robert Hall	...	Sgt. Buckley
Jack Gaskins
Jack Taylor
John Clark
Fred Kohler Jr.		(as Fred Kohler)
Bill Christmas
Luis Rivera

Also Known As:

A Good Day for Fighting (short version)
Custer (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

140 min | USA:143 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Singapore:PG | West Germany:12 | UK:U | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:11 | USA:G | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Ontario)

Filming Locations:

Almería, Andalucía, Spain

Company:

Cinerama Productions Corp.

Trivia:

According to Swedish press at the time of the films TV premiere, the flume ride sequence was filmed in Sweden rather than - as originally considered - Canada. A trip across the Atlantic was too expensive.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The troops of the 7th Cavalry are shown with 1873 Winchester rifles, which were in wide use by 1876, but not by the US Army. Custer's men were armed, as all troopers who did not purchase their own rifles were, with the 1873 Springfield Trapdoor carbine, a single-shot weapon. Had Custer's men been armed with the Winchester, it is possible, though unlikely, that they could have held out until relieved.

Quotes:

Gen. George Armstrong Custer: War isn't just killing, you know. It's a contest. It's a man against a man.
[indicates a Gatling gun]
Gen. George Armstrong Custer: That's a machine! Personal courage wouldn't count. Honor, duty, loyalty - everything a soldier lives by - would be wiped out. All you would have left is statistics. How many men would the machine murder today? One hundred? One thousand? Ten thousand? If this is the future, I don't want any part of it.

Soundtrack:

MARCHING SONG

"Dead men make better legends"

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