Watch Custer of the West For Free

the audience applauded

Nice effects though.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Director Robert Siodmak keeps this excellent Cinerama attraction moving so well that the running time of 148 minutes passes as rapidly as the waters of the timber chute.On the other hand, the film bears signs of having been made with a watchful eye on the budget. None of the sets are very extensive (at least indoors), Custer's address to Congress is shown entirely through a shot of Custer superimposed on a model of the Capitol buildings with voices of dissent off, some of the model work (particularly of the train) is very obvious, and the editor repeats shots, particularly during the action sequences.Admittedly, Robert Shaw gives us an arresting impersonation of Custer and demonstrates his versatility with a singing take-off as well. Unfortunately, the rest of the players are no more than mediocre. Robert Ryan's scenes are allowed to run too long, while Jeffrey Hunter and Kieron Moore are stuck with the stock roles of idealistic young officer and and noble savage, respectively.

The figure of George Armstrong Custer still inspires controversy even today. Just what drove him, ambition, hubris, whatever is still being debated today. I don't think anyone has really gotten a handle on his character in any film.This one however gives it a good try. Robert Shaw and Mary Ure play the General and his wife and she's important in the story. She outlived him by about 50 years, dying in the early Thirties. She was the custodian of the Custer legacy.Also important in the story are General Phil Sheridan of whom Custer was a protégé of sorts. Sheridan is played here by Lawrence Tierney and he's also an interesting figure. As are Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen, his second and third in command played by Ty Hardin and Jeffrey Hunter. Even amateur military historians still debate about how Custer split his force in three with these other two taking significant portions of the 7th Cavalry. It was only the men who are under Custer's direct command who were annihilated at the Little Big Horn.No one is saying that this is the ultimate Custer interpretation, but it beats Errol Flynn and Olivia DeHavilland in They Died With Their Boots On.

Nothing brings together Indians, anti-imperialist lefties, and white southerners together (albeit for different reasons) quite like their disdain for General George Armstrong Custer.Custer Of The West tries hard to walk a fine line between portraying the man as the cold, amoral, arrogant man his detractors claim him to be and the all American hero that others think he was. My opinion is that ultimately he was portrayed as the former.Robert Shaw is okay in the title role even though he barely manages to hold back his English accent, with frequent slips that he probably couldn't have gotten away with if the dialog wasn't so crisp.(Thank you Bernard Gordon.) The supporting cast does well too, especially Robert Ryan in his pointless cameo as the gold hungry deserter. Mary Ure is wasted as Mrs. Custer.What makes Custer Of The West worth viewing are the mesmerizing action sequences (well directed by Robert Siodmak) as the US Army and the Cheyenne each try to massacre their way to victory. I especially enjoyed the first person shots of the logging canal, the runaway train, and the out of control rolling wagon.The action hits a roadblock when Custer is called back to Washington. However, it does provide an interesting contrast between the officers in DC with the ones doing the real hard work out west.The climax at The Little Big Horn is an incredible and exciting spectacle.

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.