Le Massacre des Sioux

I write this having read two damning criticism of a film which was strong enough for me to watch the whole way through. Living in the age of televised war games where tens of thousands of warriors can be immediately created remember that just 271 members of the Seventh Cavalry died at the Battle of the Big Horn. Presumably equally divided into three bands of ninety for reasons which I have yet to fathom although the politicking glory hunting which drove Custer to get there first was perhaps the driving theme of this film which must have cost its producers a fortune as it was clearly shot mainly in uninhabitable shrub land and certainly not in the gold bearing rocks of Dakota. And was it closer to the truth than so many other attempts ? it suspect so as luck - sorry Gluck - the screenwriter - would have it ? So apart from Sitting Bull speaking perfect English and the redemption of Joseph Cotton from drunken hater of almost everything to a credit to the US Army I have little complaint with what was a slight thought provoking 90 Minutes.

They say a leopard doesn't change it's spots, and people don't change overnight, however in this trite little '60s western they do just that. The story is flawed, the acting is bad, and history is played with fast and loose, and what remains is not worthy of viewing.

Hollywood got it wrong once again in retelling the tale of George Armstrong Custer and the battle he lost to the Sioux at the Little Big Horn. Pity that such a good cast was wasted on a mediocre western.

The film centers around the three commanders that led troops at the battle. Custer is played by Philip Carey and Major Marcus Reno is played by Joseph Cotten and Captain Frederick Benton (Benteen) was played by Darren McGavin.

It's come down in legend that Major Reno was an alcoholic and for most of this film he's just that. A southerner who enlisted in the army after the Civil War ended, Reno feels he's not getting his just due. He despises Benton for paying court to his daughter. Reno was never a southerner and he never had a daughter. His abrupt change of character including sobering up never happened in real life and was not believable here.

Nor was Carey changing from a decent soul with a decent regard for the rights of the Sioux to a bloodthirsty ambitious figure who wants to score a big military victory over the Sioux for political ambitions. It has come down to us in legend that Custer was angling for the Democratic nomination in 1876. As Custer was a hero from the Civil War, the Democrats who stigmatized as the party of secession could not be painted that with a Union general heading their ticket for once. They actually did do that with Winfield Scott Hancock in the next election in 1880 and almost won.

Bad script and mediocre direction characterize The Great Sioux Massacre. On the plus side the battle scenes are nicely staged. Historians might want to view the film to count the errors.

This routine Western deals with an officer called Benton and his relationships with Custer who is ousted from his command in the Far West and forced into retirement . But Custer's political motivation changed him and fueled by ambition when a senator convinces him to run for US president . Along the way Captain Benton (Darren McGavin) clashes Colonel Custer and he's degraded , being court-martialed , while he escapes and attempts to prevent the bloodshed . After that , Custer decides to upstage the recommendations of Major Reno (Joseph Cotten) and Captain Benton (Darren McGavin) at Little Big Horn . Crazy Horse (Iron Heyes Cody) and Chief Sitting Bull (Michael Pate) of the Sioux tribe are forced by the Indian-hating General Custer to react with violence , resulting in the known Last Stand at Little Bighorn . Blood-Vengeance Clashed With Custer's Cavalry! "Little Big Horn"...The Blood-Red River...When Indian Arrows Met Cavalry Rifles in Custer's Famous Last Stand!Custer's Last Stand...The One Battle No Indian Warrior or Cavalry Hero Could Ever Forget!

This exciting but mediocre movie contains western action , romance , shoot-outs and spectacular battles . Resulting to be an average look at what occurred to George Amstrong Custer during the 1870s ; at the beginning he was an outspoken believer in fair treatment for the Indians , and , subsequently , he'll cruelly command his troops at the Battle of Little Big Horn . The picture gives a brief portrayal of General Custer from a defender of Native-American rights and a real fighter against Administration corruption , even denouncing to President's brother , to an ambitious figure , politically-driven and headlines-seeker . Furthermore , describing an Indian reservation where the starving natives are mistreated and suffering extreme famine ; they , then , violently rebel against government resulting in fateful consequences . This film contains stock-shots taken from Sitting Bull (1954) sharing a similar plot and director himself . The yarn was shot outside of Mexico City and in the Churubusco Azteca studios . Washed-out print , the film needs urgently a perfect remastering . It appears as a technical adviser and designer Indian costumes , a secondary actor named Iron Eyes Cody , usual player as Indian roles (Sitting Bull , Great Sioux Massacre , A man called Horse) , though with Sicilian origin . The motion picture was regularly directed by Sidney Salkow. He was a craftsman who had already filmed other Westerns . He realized all kind of genres such as routine westerns (Sitting Bull , The great Sioux massacre , Pathfinder) , Adventures (Prince of Pirates , Sword of the avenger) , war films , Sci-Fi (The last man on Earth) , Terror (Twice-told tales) and melodramas (City without men) . Salkow first worked for Republic, after joining Universal . At Columbia , he handled , among other assignments, four installments of the popular Lone Wolf series . After 1953, Salkow was primarily active as director of episodic television . Rating : 4.5/10 middling and regular Western.

The film is a fiction , but partially based on real events . The reality happened in December 1873 when the Commissioner of Indian Affairs directed all Sioux bands to enter reservations by the end of January 1876 or be declared hostile . There then shows up Sitting Bull , celebrated chief and mystic of the Hunkpapa Sioux . Many bands of Sioux did not meet this deadline and were attacked by US troops . Crazy Horse and his Oglala people moved north to join forces with Sitting Bull , by the spring of 1876 some 3000 Teton Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors had assembled at Sitting Bull's camp in the valley of the Little Big Horn in Montana. On 25 June 1876 Crazy Horse and other war chiefs led the allied warriors against General Custer and his seventh Cavalry , Custer and all the man under his direct command were killed . This victory , however , brought relentless retaliation from the army and Sioux were scattered . Sitting Bull and his followers fled to Canada and stayed there until July 1881 , when he returned to the US and surrendered at Fort Buford , Montana . After he was placed on a South Dakota reservation . For a year Sitting Bull went a tour with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show . He continued to regard himself as chief of his people and he earned the enmity of an Indian agent . On 25 December 1890 , Indian policemen went to take the chief , his followers tried to prevent this and in the struggle he was shot dead .

A travesty of a film, and one in which the usually competent Philip Carey and Joseph Cotton disappoint, though at least the latter can have claimed he was playing an often-drunken Major Reno. Darren McGavin stomps and jerks around as "Captain Bill Benton", so-called presumably because there is little relation with the real-life Captain Benteen. "Benton" is hazed by Reno, is keen on his daughter, strikes Custer, is captured/rescued by the Indians on his way to court-martial, is rescued again (this time by the cavalry), rides to warn Custer of the Indians' strength and is reinstated to lead his men at the fateful battle.

Individuals change their characters as the film progresses: Custer switches from idealism and anger at governmental corruption to political ambition; Reno evolves from drunk to semi-hero, in between resenting command of the 7th being offered to Benton (both then becoming self-deprecatory about their ability to lead); and the scout Dakota suddenly switches from hating and killing Indians to saving them (and when he deserts he is shot making a mad dash from the cavalry bivouac rather than slip away when scouting ahead of the column). Some of the minor actors appear to be waiting for cues or direction, and riders shot off their horses fall to the ground as safely as possible. Often the dialogue is artificial: "I shall see you trouble my existence no longer," rasps Custer to Reno at one point.

The film starts and finishes with the sort of completely unrealistic military court hearing that mars several Westerns; in this case the evidence comes entirely from Benton, with no other witnesses being called.

The Battle of the Little Big Horn isn't too bad but apparently the footage was borrowed from "Sitting Bull" made ten years earlier. Certainly when the main characters are on screen they appear to be accompanied by only a handful of men.

By 1965 Hollywood should have been able to do better than this.