FountainPen Sorry, but Robert Shaw makes a silly caricature out of this flamboyant cavalry officer. The movie is not entertaining and full of historical boo-boos. Hardly worth watching at all, really. 3/10

ma-cortes 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.

tarmcgator 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.

Neil Doyle Handsome but dull western (courtesy of Spanish landscapes) to depict Custer on a mission to steal land from the Indians. A blond ROBERT SHAW looks convincing enough on horseback but something about his accent seems wrong and charisma is lacking. The Indians look more European than like American Indians and too many of the action scenes are slow paced and repetitive as Custer and his men go on various missions.MARY URE as his wife, Libby, has little to do but register impatience with being kept in the background between battles with long waits before she shares the screen with real-life hubby, ROBERT SHAW. A more mature looking JEFFREY HUNTER (sporting gray hairs) is Will Benteen, one of Custer's more loyal officers.The mountainous plains in Spain are no substitute for our standard glimpses of John Ford territory with not a single shot looking as though photographed in the American West. But it's the dull storyline that defeats the movie from ever becoming anything more than a series of handsomely photographed outdoor sequences. A surprise Indian attack by the Cheyennes on an Indepdence Day Celebration is one of the more colorful moments and triggers Custer's determination to fight the redskins, no matter that they greatly outnumber his men.Nothing in Shaw's performance suggests the color and vigor of Custer's bigger than life personality nor does the screenplay do any real justice to the man or the myth. As storytelling goes, the first half of the film manages to be just plain dull and the film only picks up speed as it nears the climactic fight at Little Big Horn.Battle skirmishes with Indians are, on the whole, well staged and full of furious gunsmoke and flying arrows--but the big set piece is saved, of course, for the finale which comes too late to save the first half of the film from the doldrums. One is left with the impression that some inventive fictionalizing would have helped (as it did with THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON).Summing up: A very miscast Shaw plays Custer as a snarling villain who barks orders and the story has a plodding script. Could have been much more impressive if filmed in the U.S. on more realistic locales with more accurate casting. A cameo by ROBERT RYAN is no help at all.