THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON

US, 1941, 140 minutes, Black and white.
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Arthur Kennedy, Charlie Grapewin, Gene Lockhart, Anthony Quinn, Stanley Ridges, Walter Hamden, Sidney Greenstreet, Hattie Mc Daniel.
Directed by Raoul Walsh.

The first thing to say about They Died With Their Boots On is that Chief Crazy Horse must be turning in his grave. This is a rather glamorous and flamboyant picture of General George Armstrong Custer, not the accurate portrait of Custer in reality.

The film is the life of Custer from the time that he entered West Point, his being a poor student there but getting away with everything because of charm, a happening that he led a successful charge against the Confederates in the civil war and was entrusted with the armies in The Dakotas. The screenplay invents a deal he made with Chief Crazy Horse to prevent miners and prospectors in the Dakota hills – and gave his life at Little Big Horn to save extermination of the Indians. This is not accurate!

However, as a piece of fictitious entertainment and a portrait of the west, it is in the epic style of Warner Brothers of the 30s and 40s, especially in the films of Raoul Walsh who had been directing westerns since 1914. Errol Flynn has great charm, as always, as Custer. Olivia de Havilland plays his childhood sweetheart whom he marries. Olivia de Havilland and Errol Flynn had made ten films together including Captain Blood and The Charge of the Light Brigade. Anthony Quinn appears as Chief Crazy Horse and Sidney Greenstreet as General Winfield Scott.

The film recreates the period of the times, the atmosphere of the army, the work of the cavalry, the experience of the civil war, the conflicts with the Indians. The film also has a Max Steiner score.

1. A good Western epic? Why? Does it seem dated now? Does it seem a good epic of the 30s and 40s? What kind of response does it elicit? Custer - how has he been treated in films since? How would this film be made now?

2. Why are these Warner Bros. films so enjoyable still? Their popular appeal? Their zest, their characterisations, the use of the stars? How conventional are they and how unconventional? What conventions of Westerns do they use? (what conventions did they standardise and set?)

3 What presuppositions about heroism and villainy do they have?

4. Impressions of Custer from this film? His flamboyant entry to West Point? His place in the course and his unconventional behaviour, the nature of his graduation in the Civil War? Impression of his push and trying to get a position? His forwardness in working with generals? His heroism in leading during the Civil War and his interpretation of orders? His marriage and his life at home? His languishing for some activity? The sincerity and concern of his work of for the Indians? His adhering to a cause and antipathy towards the exploiters? His facing of his death and the giving of his life for others? How good a picture of the man did the film give? Did it create a myth? Was it too much a picture of Custar, too much of a simplification?

5. How did this picture of Custer make sense in the picture of the times: West Point training, the contrast with Sharp, the Civil War and the peace that followed, the situation of the Indians, the opening up of the West, the moneyed people and their hold on government, the development of the United States in the 19th century? Did the film treat Custer importantly from this point of view? How?

6. Did the film present a vivid picture of the Civil War? Its effect on splitting the soldiers at West Point? The concern in Washington and the strategy of the war? the battles and the implications for ordinary men? ordinary Americans fighting?

7 Comment on the film's picture of post-war America: How flat it was for some of the people, Custer wasting his time and drinking, the Sharps and the others turning towards exploitation?

8 Was Libby an attractive heroine? A vivacious heroine? Why did she want to marry Custer? The importance of the sequence with her father: especially his clash with Custer? The sacrificing of her way of life to go with Custer to Fort Lincoln? (How humorous was the picture of the Mammy? Was this an appropriate picture of black Mammies?

9. The picture of life at Fort Lincoln? The meaning of this opening up of the frontier? The importance of the black hills for the Indians? Custer's sense of responsibility and his handling of the position? His encounters with Chief Crazy Horse? The exploiters and their disregard of the Indians and of Custer?

10. Were the villains painted too blackly or were they painted justly? response to the frauds? Their hold on government enquiries?

11. What did the film have to say about the treaties of government with the Indians? The role of President Grant? What comment was being made by the film on the history of America and its regard for the Indians?

12. Why did Custer have to die? Did the film simplify the issues? What heroism was there in Custer's choice?

13 How vividly presented was the battle of Little Big Horn? The heroism of Custer and the men dying? The irony of Ned Sharp's being there? The conditions for peace afterwards? The irony of their being so easily acceded to?

14. An accurate picture of the 1860s and 70s? or did it give a picture of the 1930s by way of their picture of the 19th century?

15. The film is considered a classic western. What qualities make it a classic?