The first time I saw this -- more naive than I am now -- I enjoyed it. The second time is not so much of a charm.
A bit of a brush with the Indians aside, the first two thirds of the movie amount almost to a domestic drama. Carey is Custer -- upright, stern, fair, handsome, buckskin clad, long haired. Major Reno, Cotten, is a drunken ex Southerner with a pretty daughter, Sommars. Captain Benton, McGavin, is in love with Sommars but resented and insulted by her father. The Sioux are played by "Indian" stalwarts like Iron Eyes Cody and Michael Pate.
Custer wants Washington to treat the Indians fairly but the system is corrupt and he can't get through. In the face of Major Reno's intransigence, Benton decides to resign from the Army. The conflicts gradually intensify.
Then there are a couple of curious attitudinal switches. When the bait of a presidential bid dangles before him, Custer snaps at it and becomes bloodthirsty for glory. Like Citizen Kane, he begins as a spokesman for the underdog but is undone by his ambition. Reno sobers up and embraces Benton. Then there's this massacre. "We'll have to live with the guilt of it -- both the White Knives and the Indians," Benton intones afterward.
I'm not a historian so I don't know how closely the story hews to historical facts, or how many historical facts there are left to hew to.
I've always enjoyed the performances of the principal actors -- Carey, Cotten, and McGavin -- and with good reason. Philip Carey is from Hackensack, New Jersey. There's a properly admirable attribute for you. And Darren McGavin was my supporting player in the superb art-house smash -- well, now I've forgotten the title. It will come to me in a moment. He was a casual and friendly guy, serious mainly about acting. He's always been good at his trade, whether evil ("The Man With the Golden Arm") or comic ("Nightstalker"). FROM THE HIP! That's the one. None of them has ever given a bravura performance but the three of them have been consistently reliable. Julie Sommars, alas, cannot act.
Movies like this usually mention the Cheyenne Indians as having taken part in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, but almost all of the Indians were from various bands of Sioux. Only seven Cheyenne were involved, the most prominent being Two Moons, whose descendant I had occasion to interview on the Lame Deer reservation in Montana. There is still a good deal of bitterness among some of the Cheyenne, although it's never operatically expressed so most of us never hear about it.
A bit of a brush with the Indians aside, the first two thirds of the movie amount almost to a domestic drama. Carey is Custer -- upright, stern, fair, handsome, buckskin clad, long haired. Major Reno, Cotten, is a drunken ex Southerner with a pretty daughter, Sommars. Captain Benton, McGavin, is in love with Sommars but resented and insulted by her father. The Sioux are played by "Indian" stalwarts like Iron Eyes Cody and Michael Pate.
Custer wants Washington to treat the Indians fairly but the system is corrupt and he can't get through. In the face of Major Reno's intransigence, Benton decides to resign from the Army. The conflicts gradually intensify.
Then there are a couple of curious attitudinal switches. When the bait of a presidential bid dangles before him, Custer snaps at it and becomes bloodthirsty for glory. Like Citizen Kane, he begins as a spokesman for the underdog but is undone by his ambition. Reno sobers up and embraces Benton. Then there's this massacre. "We'll have to live with the guilt of it -- both the White Knives and the Indians," Benton intones afterward.
I'm not a historian so I don't know how closely the story hews to historical facts, or how many historical facts there are left to hew to.
I've always enjoyed the performances of the principal actors -- Carey, Cotten, and McGavin -- and with good reason. Philip Carey is from Hackensack, New Jersey. There's a properly admirable attribute for you. And Darren McGavin was my supporting player in the superb art-house smash -- well, now I've forgotten the title. It will come to me in a moment. He was a casual and friendly guy, serious mainly about acting. He's always been good at his trade, whether evil ("The Man With the Golden Arm") or comic ("Nightstalker"). FROM THE HIP! That's the one. None of them has ever given a bravura performance but the three of them have been consistently reliable. Julie Sommars, alas, cannot act.
Movies like this usually mention the Cheyenne Indians as having taken part in the Battle of the Little Big Horn, but almost all of the Indians were from various bands of Sioux. Only seven Cheyenne were involved, the most prominent being Two Moons, whose descendant I had occasion to interview on the Lame Deer reservation in Montana. There is still a good deal of bitterness among some of the Cheyenne, although it's never operatically expressed so most of us never hear about it.