CUSTER OF THE WEST
US, 1968, 146 minutes, Colour.
Robert Shaw, Mary Ure, Robert Ryan, Jeffrey Hunter, Ty Hardin, Lawrence Tierney, Kieron Moore.
Directed by Robert Siodmak.
Custer of the West was a big western of the late 1960s. It was originally made in the Cinerama process. Cinerama had been used quite effectively in presenting the west in How The West Was Won. However, Cinerama was a process too difficult to maintain and films were not made in it after 1970.
It is said that the film was to be directed by Japanese master Akira Kurosawa but he pulled out. It was entrusted to veteran German director Robert Siodmak who was best known for a number of thrillers, especially in the 1940s, including The Spiral Staircase.
Custer has often been a sign of contradiction in the interpretation of the American west. He was portrayed by Errol Flynn in They Died With Their Boots On, a more favourable traditional picture of Custer. The Battle of Little Big Horn was the basis for John Ford’s 1948 Fort Apache with Henry Fonda as the Custer-type character. There was critique of Custer from the Indian point of view in Arthur Penn’s Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman as a contemporary survivor of Little Big Horn giving his views. Here Robert Shaw gives a complex interpretation. Shaw was often an abrasive screen presence and this is particularly helpful for the arrogance of Custer and his self-confidence. He is something of a glory hunter with a tradition of having been successful in the American Civil War. He was a strong fighter but also a man from West Point who clung to honour.
The film offers some critique through the supporting characters. Several of them are English including Mary Ure as Custer’s wife and Kieron Moore as the Indian, Chief Dull Knife. This was one of the last films for Jeffrey Hunter.
The film has quite an amount of spectacle – trains and carriages falling from mountains as well as the Battle of Little Big Horn, all designed for the widest of screens.
1. An interesting and entertaining western? Custer? A western of the '60s? Portrait of General Custer and his career?
2. The use of Cinerama processes, location photography, the action of the West, the set pieces, especially the cart, the train, the man going down the water-logging canal? The musical score?
3. The structure of the film: the opening of the Civil War, Custer and his work, the opening up of the West, the clashes with the Indians, action, politics, corruption and Washington? The Little Big Horn?
4. Custer becoming a living legend: his West Point background, his action in the war, leading the charges, his relationship with General Sheridan, the end of the war, his choices, his decision to go fight the Indian wars, the morality behind them, setting of the Indian wars, his decisions, treatment of his men, the broken treaties? (A US perspective and American involvement in Vietnam?) His success? The visit of the Russian dignitary? The massacre in the town, the massacre of the Indian village, women and children? Washington and Congress, his languishing, his return, the Little Big Horn and the stance at his death?
5. The portrait of Custer as a person, his background as a soldier, a strong man of action. flexible principles, his options, choices? His relationship with his wife and her continued support? His arrival at the fort, Reno and his drinking, Dentine and his stances? Ordering the men in training? In action, making them go through the desert and the reasons? The confrontation with the Chief on the cliff? Shooting the bird to destroy the myth? Battles?, General Sheridan and the discussions about the reservations? The gold miners and their reaction to him? Mulligan and his being brought back up, the discussion before his death? The execution? The coming of the railroad? The possibility of his being Governor? Washington and the animosity, his denunciations? Sheridan avoiding seeing him? The party and his drinking? The composition of the letter to President Grant? Relationship, Reno, Bentine? His return? His believing that being first was everything? The confrontation with the Indian Chief? The past and its catching up? The mistakes at Little Big Horn? His death? The final stand and his cry in death?
6. The background of American history, the Civil War? the attitude towards the Indians, the trestles, breaking them, the cruelty towards the Indians? The opening up of the West? the rail road?
7. Reno and his drinking, his background, second in command? defying him, taking over? decisions? pro-Indian stances, accused of being a bleeding heart?
9. The men, malingerers, their being challenged by Custer, his outrunning them? The officers and their advice?
10. The action sequences: the wagon, going through the desert, the mountains, the shooting on the cliff? The logging and the Indian attack, going down the river? The 4th of July massacre? The massacre of the Indian village? The train and his career on the rails, the crash on the bridge? Little Big Horn?
11. The Indians and their chief, victims, religious background, and beliefs, the chief turning into a bird, the treaties, Bentine's help? The final, confrontation between the chief and Custer?
12. The opening up of the West, the miners, the train, the revellers, politics and corruption?
13. The background of the Civil War, Mexicans involved the need for action after the war? The Indians as scapegoats? The 19th century?
