Rough Riders

This is an excellent film, with superb sound editing, great cast, acting, cinematography, and script. Non-Americans should realize that the battle of San Juan Hill is a significant part of American history that instills patriotic pride as well as admiration for one of America's most colourful and popular presidents. However, Americans should find it interesting to know the Spanish perspective. Approximately 500 Spanish soldiers fought valiantly against nearly 7000 American troops: this is the 'Alamo' for the Spanish people. Similar to USA Vietnam veterans, the Spanish returned home with the knowledge that they had done their best to uphold their country's honor in an impossible situation. Knowing some of the history behind such battles brings more depth to such war films.

This film chronicles the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry ("Rough Riders") from their inception in the mind of Teddy Roosevelt through the capture of the San Juan Heights, the moment at which Roosevelt said "We will always live in its shadow." Although it takes some liberties with the facts, they're simply to strengthen the story as constrained by the medium: better than two months and a thousand men are pushed into three+ hours and some fifteen characters, enough to catch the flavor of the time. And what a time: when rich young men from Park Avenue sincerely believed it was their duty to take part in their country's wars, and a politician who started one went to fight in it, when artists calmly painted oils of battle, and correspondents walked toward the sound of the guns... Fiercely accurate in the feel of the battle, especially the waiting under fire, and in the making of men into killers, "Rough Riders" is beautifully filmed and scored. But mostly, it's well acted. Berengar *is* Theodore Roosevelt, and Sam Elliott gives another good performance, as does William Katt as Edward Marshall (with a lot of Richard Harding Davis's actions). Gary Busey's Fighting Joe Wheeler is a scene-stealer, much like "the old gamecock" undoubtedly was, and the little roles are well handled as well, especially Nick Chinlund's Frederic Remington. But the real focus of the movie is on Brad Johnson's Henry Nash, the Arizona outlaw, and Chris Noth's Craig Wadsworth, the Park Avenue polo player... Noth in particular gives a understatedly lovely, nuanced performance as the rich young man coming face to face with Life -- the very thing his family had tried so hard to keep him from ever having to experience. His transformation mirrors the transformation this particular war created in our country; as Roosevelt says in the film, "It will never be the same again." I heartily recommend this movie.

Tom Berenger is a superb actor, and I think his talent is often overlooked. He was funny, affecting, and ennobling in "Major League," a comedy about a misbegotten baseball team. He was chilling, on a knife's-edge (a one-man Hitchcock plot - no way to tell where he was, or what he might do, or what he knew... but no mistaking the motivation and emotion, either... indescribably human, he was) in "Betrayed." His performance there was such that one hated and feared him from the very start, but ended up praying that he would not be slain. I heard little about his effectiveness in either case. And yet, there was, of course, his screen-shattering performance as Sgt. Barnes in the brilliant, alligorical, and hard-hitting Oliver Stone production, "Platoon." He won plaudits for that one, and well-deserved ones.

In this one,"Rough Riders," he is given a juicy, meat-filled slice of adolescent Americana, to play - an incorrigible and inimitable American hero, the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt. Rather than restraining himself, or attempting to portray TR as - well, as an adult - Berenger seems to let his performance carry itself, unconsciously. He is as over-the-top as TR himself. This is, at all times, under a thin, barely-controlled layer of respectability, very similiar itself to the state in which TR himself seemed to be born. TR's life, much of the time, was a bouncy, swashbuckling melodrama - and Berenger plays all of this to the hilt, and with the necessary controlled-abandon. He might be critisized for over-acting if it wasn't for the plain fact that this is, in fact, the way TR behaved. And anyone who cares to witness Mr. Berenger's other performances (including his most recent roll, as a delightfully dour and cynical sheriff, on USA's "Peacemakers") can see, his sensitivity to the depth of the characters he plays is extraordinary - one can almost pity him, in this case, for choosing to play a man who himself embodied unbelievable melodrama.

Suffice to say, the entire picture is worth watching, just to see bully old Teddy back again, alive and in the flesh, trying to start a war, and then trying to fight and win that war... Berenger brings it all to life, brilliantly. He shouts "bully!" with enthusiasm, he studiously prepares several pairs of spectacles for his expedition to Cuba, we see him trying to improve his piping, asthma-riddled voice, the better to command his soldiers - and, later, we see him fall quite out of his chair at the jest of a comrade, declaiming, "I was overcome with mirth!" Such scenes will overcome the viewer with mirth, as well - but a knowing mirth.

Having said that, this film's best moment is near the beginning, and it involves Illeana Douglas, who plays Teddy's wife, Edith, with a healthy dash of long-suffering tolerance, as if she would leave the set if she could just quit loving the man she'd married. Her defense of the macho (but defenseless) TR in the face of the French is played off terrifically. She comes across as precisely what Edith herself, in fact, was - a woman who had long since resigned herself to the hell-for-leather forays of her headstrong husband... and she defends him with the ruthlessness of a woman who knows that no foreigner will ever understand the boundless Americanism (or worldy childishness) of her husband.

This is not a brilliant film, but it is an entertaining one. The battle scenes are well done, but, aside from what I mentioned above, the real fun in the picture is in the "boot-camp" scenes. A well-cast and icily forbidding Sam Elliott, along with the silent, brooding threat-in-being of David Midthunder, makes these scenes more interesting than the typical military drill-sergeant fare. By the end of the training process, even those watching the movie are longing for the approval of the aloof and mysterious Midthunder - who, in a nicely balanced final scene, explains himself in a way that banishes mystery, conjures comradeship, and evokes sympathy.

One other character commends attention here. Gary Busey plays the ancient Confederate General Joseph Wheeler - a hero of the Civil War (for the South, anyway). Like Berenger, his acting is sure to be termed overdone, excepting the reality that his character was, in fact, a hell-for-leather, horse-riding, Yankee-skewering madman... And there is great pleasure in the watching of Busey bringing this nutty semi-senile General to life. He demands assurances from the President, and we see him repeatedly mistake the Spanish, who we Americans were fighting in this war, for "Yankees." (In the end, the addled, overweight, and over-enthusiastic General settles upon the phrase "them Yankee Spaniards," when referring to the enemy...) It is a fun portrayal of a man whose time has past, but who refuses to acknowledge the fact. Busey's Wheeler is so wound up in the sound of the guns, that he loses all reason, becomes delirious, and yet, beneath it all, hangs inadvertantly to the vestiges of heroism. I think there is little choice but to root for the ill-guided but irresistable General. Having such a melodramatic icon on screen with a viviedly-created TR is almost too much fun to bear.

There is humour and adventure enough for all, in this.

In the end, I recommend this picture for the terrific performances of Tom Berenger and Illeana Douglas, as well as the historical accuracy of much of it. I have left out, in these comments, sympathetic and effective performances by Chris Noth and Holt McCallany, who help make the movie go, and serve to tie the audience into the volunteer soldier idiom. Francesco Quinn brings patriotism, duty, and honour to life - unexpectedly (at least, to Anglo-Americans who know nothing of Latin qualities) in the guise of a love-struck Latin-American. His character, I think, speaks the most towards what modern soldiers might say, that we "all fight for each other." Quinn elevates these platitudes into reality, as the film portrays him carrying out his values, making decisions according to a code he had initially resisted in the interests of staying with his sweetheart. I have also left out Brad Johnson, who's trite "bad-man who learns honour" roll is, nevertheless, well-played. I could write much more... alas, just watch it, and see. A lot of fun. And very, very well done.

Damn fine film. Some historical points have been stretched a bit, here and there...Bucky O'Neil was a madman who refused to keep his head down and got shot right through his cigarette ... Fighting Joe Wheeler was a bantam rooster of a man (5'3") but with the heart of a lion who did indeed keep referring to the enemy as "the Yankees"...TR's Rough Rider's attack was up the nearby Kettle Hill (Cero de Olla) where they racked the Spanish position across the narrow gully with deadly fire; when the Spanish [and there were about 1,500 men-- not 500, as some reviewer suggested] broke to fall back to Santiago, TR boldly took off alone toward the San Juan Heights (Los Altos de San Juan)having forgotten to give the order to charge...

OK. Enough of History. Yes, Stephen Crane, author of The Red Badge of Courage, was a "looper," as one reviewer puts it, and yes, WR Hearst was a war-baiter-- anything to sell papers and fan the fires of xenophobia... But, hey! This is a damn fine film that captures much of the spirit of that "Bully little war," that launched TR's career into the White House. Tom Berenger is wonderful as the one and only TR who adored by his men (reportedly, on the march into the interior from the coast, TR walked with his men, refusing to ride, through the humid, hot forest and always saw to it that "his boys" were taken care of first. I too noted sadly, the weariness of Brian Keith prior to his suicide, as President McKinley. This film is definitely worth watching again ... and again.

Love him or hate him, you have to admit that John Milius has returned in force to make this wonderfully epic movie. He only made two other films (barely) worthy of note: the underrated Flight Of The Intruder and the equally under-rated Farewell To The King. Though directed for television, Rough Riders has all the qualities of a great war epic from the sixties.

What helps Milius is his love of the subject matter. With The Wind And The Lion, Rough Riders feels as though Milius has a deep and abiding love for Theodore Roosevelt. Every frame of this movie gives you the feeling that Milius is working from the heart. His passion and respect for his subject matter illicited the greatest performance of Tom Berenger's career.

If you liked this, do see The Wind And The Lion.