I saw this movie way back when it was first released. I thought it was bad then! Since that time I have visited the Battle Field at the Little Big Horn on at least five occasions. I have also read many of the list of books that are highly recommended for those people with more than a passing interest in the Battle and the main characters involved. So, I thought I would watch this movie again just to see how bad it really is; and was it really as bad as I thought it was when I first saw it all those years ago? Well, I have to say that it was a lot worse than I remembered it to be. I don't think that the script writers could have done any research into Custer, the 7th Cavalry or the Battle itself. There is very very little of this long long film that actually has any resemblance to what happened, except of course Custer getting killed and his immediate command being wiped out. The script is awful and the majority of the acting (if you can call it that} leaves a great deal to be desired. Robert Ryan's small cameo appearance is by far the best bit of acting in the film! I still believe that the Little Big Horn Battle would make a very good movie. Of course far greater attention would have to be paid to the finer details of the fight that would include much more detail on the role played by both Reno and Benteen's columns in the final outcome. And, of course, would it be too much to ask for the script writers to do some research and maybe even visit the Battlfield first!

SPOILER: The film centers about general Custer (Robert Shaw) and wife (Mary Ure), though takes liberties with historical facts. George Armstrong Custer's career begins when is graduated in the known Military Academy of West Point and after that, he intervened in American Civil War where detaches in battle of Gettysburg. General Sheridan (Lawrence Tierney) assigns him the command a regiment at Fort Abraham Lincoln . In 1869 Custer and his 7th Cavalry carried out the massacre of River Washita where one hundred Indians and their chief Black Kettle were murdered. Two officers (Jeffrey Hunter and Ty Hardin)will help him to face off Indians with the warring chiefs Dull Knife (Kieron Moore),Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse and their tribes Sioux ,Cheyenne, the Awpahla and the Munikhanja until the final battle of Little Big Horn (1876) where was exterminated with his entire command.This movie well produced by Philip Jordan blends good action scenes, shootouts,adventures and it's quite amusing because happen many deeds and is fast moving and for that reason is neither boring, nor dreary, but entertaining . George Armstrong Custer's complex characterization with an unusual point of view is well performed by Robert Shaw who does a nice embodiment of this Western hero . The final exciting confrontation between Custer army and Indians is spellbound and breathtaking similar to ¨ They died with the boots on (1941) ¨ with Errol Flynn and directed by Raoul Walsh .The film obtained a limited success in spite of the important budget and spectacular sets. Robert Shaw interpretation as a hippie-type, long-haired, is top notch ,unfortunately he early died, this is his the last film . His wife in the real life, Mary Ure also being early dead . Direction by Robert Siodmak is average , in spite of a long career with many cinema classics (Criss Cross,The killers,The spiral staircase, The suspect) and the film is mediocre and is his last film too. Cecilio Paniagua's cinematography is glimmer and fascinating and photographed in Super Technirama 70, the outdoor scenarios are overwhelming , this is the best of the film . Bernardo Segall musical score is sensible and moving and played by Royal Philarmonic orchestra. Splendidly staged battles with obligatory cast of hundreds is realized by the art directors Eugene Lourie and Julio Molina. The motion picture will appeal to biopic enthusiasts and Indians western buffs.Other adaptations about this historic character culminating in thrilling battle of Little Big Horn are the following : ¨Santa Fe trail¨ by Michael Curtiz with Ronald Regan as Custer ; ¨Great massacre Sioux¨ by Sidney Salkow with Philip Carey as Custer and Iron Eyes Cody as Crazy Horse ; ¨Little Big Man¨ by Arthur Penn with Richard Mulligan as Custer ; ¨Son of the morning star¨ TV miniseries by Mike Robe with Gary Cole.

SPOILER: Sorry, that should read *MINUS SEVERAL STARS* but they don't give me that option.I detest Custer and all he did post-Civil War. I'll start with that. I've been to the Custer Battlefield near Garryowen at least twice and feel that it is Holy Ground ... but not owing to the 7th Cavalry. Here ended the career of the man who would have been President, had his ambitions come to fruition. He would have also been remembered as the American Hitler.I've read historical accounts and military histories of the battle, National Geographic articles on the fascinating forensic examination archaeologists were able to make of the battlefield after grass fires swept away much of the overgrowth. And I've always been fond of saying that I can't watch him die on film enough times.((When he finally sent for Benteen and Reno, he had already charged into the trap: his message was (in part) "Bring rounds! P.S. BRING ROUNDS!" They were similarly ensnared in well-planned traps and could do little to help, however, not sitting on their hands protesting their sobriety in the shade of pleasant riverbank trees, let alone to each other: they were not together.)) Well, I just checked this stinker out from the local library, and I take my fond saying back. I've just seen him die one too many times. Or more accurately, I've seen *somebody* flog himself around on screen and *claim* to be Custer. I have no idea where he's flogging around, it certainly doesn't look like the Custer Battlefield -- not even remotely.Benteen is played in one of the worst performances I've ever seen from late and talented Jeffrey Hunter as a simultaneously wooden and spineless gopher; Reno as an incompetent and insubordinate drunken lout. The families of these competent (but overwhelmed) heroic officers should have legal recourse to sue director Siodmak for their portrayals in this travesty.Historically, geographically, politically, this movie crosses the line from "creative interpretation" to blatant twisting and reversal of anything resembling facts. Even Custer's portrayal in the wonderful farce, "Little Big Man", came much closer to the truth, and the California terrain that stood in for the Little Big Horn region in an old B&W "Twilight Zone" time-travel episode was more accurate than this.The whole film seems to have been concocted to give the Cinerama audiences a few roller-coaster moments (a runaway wagon ride, a log flume ride, there were a few forgettable others) and even these went on *long* after they'd already proved their point.A truly awful film. I'm taking it back to the library tomorrow first thing: it's drawing too many flies. I also want my 2 hours and 21 minutes back.

I have not seen all of the Custer movies, but this one is certainly NOT the accurate historical portrait/epic that his story begs for. The chief culprits here are the scriptwriters, who seem to have based their scenario on earlier Custer movies instead of serious historical research. They also had to work in some made-for-Cinerama "thrill" sequences that add nothing to the story and seem to go on forever. Shaw, a pretty credible actor, seems to have realized how farcical this effort was and got into the spirit with a performance that is by turns lackadaisical and hammy. His supporting cast -- notably Lawrence Tierney as Phil Sheridan, Ty Hardin as Marcus Reno, and Jeffrey Hunter as Frederick W. Benteen -- also chew the scenery, and as Custer's wife, Mary Ure is apparently under heavy sedation most of the time. My favorite moment of this idiocy, however, comes at the very end, as the director presents the Battle of Little Big Horn as choreographed by Busby Berkeley (only without the overhead shots). Really, if you're a Custer buff, this is only for laughs.