Rough Riders (1997) (TV)

Director:

John Milius

Writers (WGA):

John Milius (written by) and
Hugh Wilson (written by)

Release Date:

20 July 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Drama | History | War

Plot:

In 1898 the US government decided to intervene on the side of the Cuban rebels in their struggle against Spanish rule...

Plot Keywords:

Theodore Roosevelt | Military | Silver | Gatling Gun | Americana

Awards:

Won Primetime Emmy. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tom Berenger	...	Theodore Roosevelt
Sam Elliott	...	Capt. Bucky O'Neil
Gary Busey	...	Gen. Joseph 'Fighting Joe' Wheeler
Brad Johnson	...	Henry Nash
Illeana Douglas	...	Edith Roosevelt
Chris Noth	...	Craig Wadsworth
Brian Keith	...	President William McKinley
George Hamilton	...	William Randolph Hearst
R. Lee Ermey	...	Secretary of State John Hay
Nick Chinlund	...	Frederick Remington
Dale Dye	...	Col. Leonard Wood
Holt McCallany	...	Hamilton Fish
Geoffrey Lewis	...	Eli
James Parks	...	William Tiffany
Dakin Matthews	...	Wadsworth, Sr.

Also Known As:

Teddy Roosevelt & the Rough Riders (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

240 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Portugal:M/12 (video premiere)

Filming Locations:

Bandera, Texas, USA

Company:

Affinity Entertainment

Trivia:

Roosevelt's encounter with Senator Mark Hanna and the French woman Mademoiselle Adler (who loses her flower to Roosevelt's gesticulations) at the dinner party is inspired by a real-life incident, although Roosevelt's wife and Colonel Wood were not present. Much of Hanna's dialogue in the scene - "We'd be at war with half the world if you were President!" - was not actually said to Roosevelt, but to Adler after they left the party (as recorded in her diary).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: There were no German Advisors present at the battle of San Juan Hill. Also the German Maxim guns shown were not used by the Spaniards in Cuba.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Henry Nash: I miss you, boys. Been more that twenty years. My God, we were young. Well, it was a young country then, full of promise and hope. Anything was possible then if you were an American.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Bridge on the River Kwai: An Appreciation by Filmmaker John Milius (2000) (V)

Bully!

Damn fine film. Some historical points have been stretched a bit, here and there...Bucky O'Neil was a madman who refused to keep his head down and got shot right through his cigarette ... Fighting Joe Wheeler was a bantam rooster of a man (5'3") but with the heart of a lion who did indeed keep referring to the enemy as "the Yankees"...TR's Rough Rider's attack was up the nearby Kettle Hill (Cero de Olla) where they racked the Spanish position across the narrow gully with deadly fire; when the Spanish [and there were about 1,500 men-- not 500, as some reviewer suggested] broke to fall back to Santiago, TR boldly took off alone toward the San Juan Heights (Los Altos de San Juan)having forgotten to give the order to charge...

OK. Enough of History. Yes, Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage, was a "looper," as one reviewer puts it, and yes, WR Hearst was a war-baiter-- anything to sell papers and fan the fires of xenophobia... But, hey! This is a damn fine film that captures much of the spirit of that "Bully little war," that launched TR's career into the White House. Tom Berenger is wonderful as the one and only TR who adored by his men (reportedly, on the march into the interior from the coast, TR walked with his men, refusing to ride, through the humid, hot forest and always saw to it that "his boys" were taken care of first. I too noted sadly, the weariness of Brian Keith prior to his suicide, as President McKinley. This film is definitely worth watching again ... and again.