IMDb RATING
5.8/10
1.6K
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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.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.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.
Charles Stalmaker
- Lt. Howells
- (as Charles Stalnaker)
- Director
- Writers
- Bernard Gordon
- Julian Zimet(originally as Julian Halevy)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaOriginally to be directed by Akira Kurosawa, but he pulled out.
- GoofsThe 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. Philip Sheridan: You know, you could become a living legend... or get yourself killed. Dead men make better legends.
- Alternate versions35mm prints released in both complete and shortened versions. Some shortened versions were titled "A Good Day for Fighting".
- ConnectionsFeatured in I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
Featured review
Brings on the tears
This is actually a sad movie. I will not mention the end for fear of including a "spoiler", but also I cannot imagine that most American viewers would not already know how it ends.
Though I live overseas now I grew up in the United States in the 1960s (in fact, I still retain my U.S. citizenship). Some of the lines in this 1967 movie are, in fact, anachronisms (they were not in the language in the 1860s or 1870s when this movie was set). The phrase that one U.S. soldier was worth (in combat) 10 Indians was a takeoff on the phrase used at that time in the Vietnam War concerning the kill ratio. Also, the term that General Sheridan used, "Bleeding hearts" comes from the 1960s; not the 1860s. The director of this movie was obviously comparing the moral problems we felt with Vietnam with the same problems the U.S. felt during the Indian Wars a century before. I did not know, of course, any Indian War veterans, but I did know two good men who went to Vietnam and did not come back alive.
Also tearful is the real life love you detect between George and Libby Custer that is portrayed by the real life married couple of Robert Shaw and Mary Ure. Six children between them. She died about ten years later from an accidental overdose of alcohol mixed with sleeping pills. He was so heartbroken that he died a few years later literally of a broken heart.
It is still a magnificent film. The western scenes are indigenous to that part of the United States that it is actually a shock to find out they were filmed not in South Dakota, California, Nevada, Kansas,etc. but rather in Spain!!
Though I live overseas now I grew up in the United States in the 1960s (in fact, I still retain my U.S. citizenship). Some of the lines in this 1967 movie are, in fact, anachronisms (they were not in the language in the 1860s or 1870s when this movie was set). The phrase that one U.S. soldier was worth (in combat) 10 Indians was a takeoff on the phrase used at that time in the Vietnam War concerning the kill ratio. Also, the term that General Sheridan used, "Bleeding hearts" comes from the 1960s; not the 1860s. The director of this movie was obviously comparing the moral problems we felt with Vietnam with the same problems the U.S. felt during the Indian Wars a century before. I did not know, of course, any Indian War veterans, but I did know two good men who went to Vietnam and did not come back alive.
Also tearful is the real life love you detect between George and Libby Custer that is portrayed by the real life married couple of Robert Shaw and Mary Ure. Six children between them. She died about ten years later from an accidental overdose of alcohol mixed with sleeping pills. He was so heartbroken that he died a few years later literally of a broken heart.
It is still a magnificent film. The western scenes are indigenous to that part of the United States that it is actually a shock to find out they were filmed not in South Dakota, California, Nevada, Kansas,etc. but rather in Spain!!
helpful•1812
- enthusiast
- Mar 11, 2005
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Box office
- Budget
- $4,000,000 (estimated)
- Runtime2 hours 23 minutes
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![Jeffrey Hunter, Robert Shaw, Ty Hardin, Lawrence Tierney, and Mary Ure in Custer of the West (1967)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYmMyN2M0MmUtMWU1Ni00ZjdlLTgzNTEtOWM2NTZlOWVkZWIxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMjI4MjA5MzA@._V1_QL75_UX90_CR0,4,90,133_.jpg)