Watch They Died with Their Boots On For Free

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Blistering performances.

The theme of this movie is that glory is of greater value than money. And George Custer is all about glory. Right at the beginning of the movie, when he arrives at West Point, he announces that he wants to be a cavalryman in the army for the sake of glory, to leave behind a name the nation will honor, noting that there are more statues of soldiers than there are of civilians. We shrink from positing glory as a motive today (we prefer to say that soldiers fight for our rights and freedoms), but for any story set prior to the twentieth century, glory seems to be acceptable.Custer makes this statement about glory to Ned Sharp, who will prove to be his nemesis. But at this stage of the movie, he appears to be just a prankster, playing a trick on Custer on account of the fancy uniform and entourage of dogs and a servant he brought with him, a trick Custer seems at this point to deserve. Eventually, Sharp will come to represent the evils of capitalism, which values money above all else. But this side of him must wait until after the Civil War.Speaking of which, the Civil War breaks out while Custer is still a cadet. He is given his commission early and sent to Washington. And then he is made a general through a clerical error. Most Hollywood movies take liberties with history, and this one is no exception, there being so many it would be tedious to list them all. But this one deserves special comment. The reality is that he was made a general because there was a shortage of generals needed to command the ever increasing number of brigades, and Custer seemed to be suitable. By making his promotion to general be just a lucky break instead, the movie is telling us that luck is the only difference between us and a man like Custer. That way we will like him better.Because the Confederacy lost and was eventually reunited with the North, we like to think of southerners as basically good Americans. To this end, the movie never lets us see a single Confederate soldier being killed, and only one wounded Yankee is seen after a battle. We see Custer leading a charge, and we expect to see what we usually do in such cases: men slashing and shooting the enemy soldiers as they break through the ranks of the opposing infantry. But the camera stops filming just as they approach the Confederate soldiers. Then another charge is led, and we think that this time we will get to see some bloodshed; but once again we are denied such a scene. And then a third charge is led, and we think, "All right, the first two charges were just a tease, but now we are going to see a complete battle." Nope. But that's all right. Later in the movie, when war breaks out with the Indians, we get to see lots of slaughter to make up for the bloodless presentation of the Civil War.Just as Sharp kept turning up wherever Custer was during war, as a thorn in Custer's side, so too does Sharp seem to show up everywhere Custer is after the war, except after the war it is always about money. Sharp and his father approach Custer about having him lend his name to a corporation, so that they can all cash in on his renown, but Custer is insulted by the suggestion. Later, when Custer is assigned to the Territory of Dakota, he arrives to find Sharp selling guns to the Indians and liquor to the troops, who spend all day in the bar.Custer closes down the bar and runs off the Indians. Then he decides to get the regiment in shape, to make them a fighting unit. To this end, he has them learn the song "Gary Owen." I guess songs go more with glory than with money, which is why Sharp doesn't have a song to go with his money-making schemes. In addition to the song, Custer tells his men that their regiment will be immortal, even should they die in battle. And later, he tells Sharp that unlike money, which you cannot take with you when you die, glory stays with you forever.The Sioux Indians sign a peace treaty, giving them the Black Hills. But when Sharp and his associates want to get their hands on the land for development purposes, they start a rumor that there is gold in them thar hills, hoping to cause a gold rush that will overwhelm the Indians with settlers, who will then be supported by the government. Actually, it was Custer who started the gold rush by announcing that he had found gold in the Black Hills, but that would not be in keeping with the movie's narrative arc, which is that Custer wants glory and Sharp wants money, and so the story about gold is attributed in the movie to Sharp instead.Custer kidnaps Sharp and brings him along to the Little Bighorn. Custer figures they will all be killed in the coming fight, and by bringing Sharp along, he will bring about the demise of the one person in the movie in whom all the evil seems to be concentrated. Instead of running away, however, Sharp redeems himself in the battle, and dies telling Custer he was right about glory after all. And apparently he was too, because in the last scene of the movie, we see the images of Custer and his regiment riding to the tune of "Gary Owen," thereby reassuring us that the regiment and its glory are immortal, whereas we do not get to see any final images of Ned Sharp engaged in his various profiteering schemes, stuffing money into his pockets as he puffs on a big cigar.

Old Hollywood may have had its share of duds, but for sheer drama, spectacle, and romance, this 1941 cavalry epic is hard to beat. And that remains the case even in today's highly fictionalized digital age. Flynn never considered himself much of an actor. But here he proves otherwise. Dashingly handsome, tenderly romantic, and a compelling leader of men, he covers the bases in grand style. Heck, at West Point, he's not even very likable, but maybe the young Custer was just that arrogant. Sure, Hollywood's version of Custer takes more than a few liberties, shall we say, but at least it's not at the expense of the Indians. Fortunately, they're not demonized as was so often the custom. Instead, they fight for what is historically theirs, and on a moral footing equal to the white man. Also, it looks like Warner's hired about every extra in Hollywood for the climactic battle scene. Plus, that elegiac final scene between Custer and wife (DeHavilland) is unexpectedly sensitive and even moving. The petite actress remains a perfect counterpart to the virile Flynn, with her sweet-natured good looks and winning smile. And who better to put all these elements together in impressive style than old master Raoul Walsh. I don't know what Warner's paid him over the years, but I know it wasn't enough. Anyhow, this is Hollywood's so-called golden age hitting on all eight, even if it does memorialize grandiose fiction over mundane fact. Besides, who goes to movies for their factual content. I always thought that's what books are for.

I don't know that much about the historical Custer and I know there are quite a few different versions of what may have happened at Little Big Horn. However, I take virtually any movie bio or story retelling a historical event with a large grain of salt. Take "Boots" for what it is, an action packed story of George Custer leading the cavalry in the Civil War and in the Indian Wars in the Black Hills. WB did a good job with these types of flicks, this was their heyday. Loaded with plenty of great chase scenes shot on location. Errol Flynn is as good in this as he is in any of his WB action movies of the 30's & 40's. This is also the final of 8 pairings with him and Olivia de Havilland. She was now a huge star after "GWTW" and no doubt tired of playing Flynn's love interest in these films. She was virtually the same character in every one, who would play slightly hard to get all the while being head of heels in love with Flynn, who juggled romance while fighting whomever his foe may be. Still, they have a very poignant final scene, when Custer says farewell to his wife Libby (De Havilland) before heading out to lead the 7th Cavalry to Little Big Horn. They both know without saying that he's not returning. If you can get through some of the silly early scenes when Custer behaves as a boob at West Point, it's a top notch movie and surprisingly sympathetic in its portrayal of the Indians, with Anthony Quinn as Crazy Horse.

Well, well, such grand black and white 2-hour long movies could only appear in the 30-50'. Now, it will be virtually impossible to imagine such a crazy medley of motley genres and often unimaginably incoherent episodes. This head-cutting array of pure comedy, farce, tragedy, love story, drama, war film, and who-knows-what-not is sometimes puzzling and dazzling. Errol Flynne is excellent here, he was made right for this movie, with his arrogant air, big grin, flashy style, wild morale, unhinged behavior and tear-jerking sentimentality. Generally, the film is Not the accurate history document, as sometimes it borders on the brink of purely slapstick comedy of The Marx Bothers. The Civil War here is at least sketchy and jotted, the whole post-war period is at best blurred and slurred. The heroic demise? Custer's Last Stand? Well, typical sped-up cavalry run, chaotic battle, unrealistic deaths and falling. The Indians are pure barbarians here, only great mighty Anthony Quinn is a great Must See. generally, strange and not tragic death scene. It goes, and yes, it goes. That is all. The conclusion? Nice. Not perfect