Custer of the West

Custer of the West
Directed by	Robert Siodmak
Produced by	Irving Lerner Philip Yordan Louis Dolivet
Written by	Bernard Gordon Julian Zimet
Starring	Robert Shaw Jeffrey Hunter Ty Hardin Mary Ure
Music by	Bernardo Segall
Cinematography	Cecilio Paniagua
Editing by	Peter Parasheles Maurice Rootes
Studio	Security Pictures
Distributed by	Cinerama Releasing Corporation
Release date(s)	December 22, 1967
Running time	140 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Custer of the West is a 1967 American Western film directed by Robert Siodmak. It tells a highly fictionalised version of the life and death of George Armstrong Custer. It was directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Robert Shaw as Custer, Robert Ryan and Mary Ure. The film was shot entirely in Spain.^[1]

The plot of the film was very close to that of the 1941 film They Died With Their Boots On, in which Errol Flynn played Custer.

Plot

With no better offers to be had, famous American Civil War upstart officer George Armstrong Custer takes over the Western Cavalry maintaining the peace in the Dakotas. He soon learns that the U.S. treaties are a sham, that Indian lands are being stolen and every excuse for driving them off their hunting grounds is being encouraged. With his wife Elizabeth (Mary Ure) Custer goes in and out of favor in Washington, while failing to keep wildcatting miners like his own deserting Sergeant Mulligan (Robert Ryan) from running off to prospect for gold in Indian country. After trying to humble the prideful Indian warrior Dull Knife (Kieron Moore), Custer leads the 7th Cavalry into one of the biggest defeats in American history.

Reception

The film met with a largely negative reaction from critics.^[2] Many were unimpressed by the attempt to shoehorn two different viewpoints into the same film – the mistreatment of the Native Americans by American troops, and the portrayal of Custer as an American hero who was not to blame for the disaster. The general inaccuracies of the film were also questioned, particularly the portrayal of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

References

1. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062844
2. ^ http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/custer_of_the_west/

External links

• Custer of the West at the Internet Movie Database