|
Post by battledetective on Jun 10, 2018 13:18:13 GMT -6
I have been looking around for movies of various kind about the LBH and have come up only with two more or less decent ones: Son of the Morning Star and The Wild West - Custer's Last Stand ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDxXvwJosaU ). The last one is actually a documentary but with actors who play individual roles. I guess all of you guys here know both of them. What do you think? I'd say Son of the Morning Star is overall the best one even if the the description of Custer's fight is a bit confusing (as it doesn't seem to follow any of the most popular theories about this phase of the battle). I particularly like the actors who played Lt. Cooke and Captain Benteen. Cooke is depicted exactly as I imagine him. I think Custer's Last Stand is rather sloppily made, even if it follows the interesting theory that GAC was closer to victory than usually thought. It seems to lay the blame heavily on Reno and Benteen, with the commentator Donahue even speculating that Benteen may have left down Custer on purpose. I quite like the actor who plays Custer however, even if he doesn't much resemble him physically, and the fact that Mitch Bouyer and Mark Kellogg are given distinct roles.
|
|
|
Post by noggy on Jun 10, 2018 13:40:12 GMT -6
SOTMS has MANY factual errors, but it has good production for a TV movie. I`d recommend the "Making of" too, as it made me appreciate it a little more. The detail in how the NAs costumes were made especially impressed me. And I actually really, really like the soundtrack.
The Wild West thing was, as I recall it (I`ve seen it only once) pretty much just a bunch of actors doing scenes in a so-so documentary. May be I`m too harsh?
|
|
|
Post by battledetective on Jun 12, 2018 13:32:48 GMT -6
No, I agree that it was rather sloppily made. It also contains errors, like Reno command consisting of only 90 men while, including the scouts, it must have had at least 150. And when Custer retreats from the attempt on ford D it was said to have had only 30 men. What happened to the others? The Keogh battalion engagement is barely mentioned, even if (in the narrative of the battle chosen by the documentary makers) it was one of the key moments of the battle. And they could have at least tried to choose an actor with at least some resemblance to the actual Benteen. On the other side, I think it's impossible to expect even a big budget movie to follow exactly the historical truth (even when it's well known). Some artistic license is always taken, and film makers tend to assume that the public is dumb and some changes are always made to make the events easier to follow or even to appease the viewers likely expectations. Even Oliver Stone's Alexander contained several mistakes. Overall, I'm impressed by the accuracy of the uniforms and costumes in SOTMS, and the choice to offer a double narrative (American and Native) recognizing the fact that the objective 'truth' is practically impossible to achieve. Thus IMO it stands head and shoulders above all the other cinema/TV attempts to depict the event.
|
|
|
Post by noggy on Jun 12, 2018 14:12:13 GMT -6
Good point about the double narrative, that`s a very good part of SOTMS in deed.
|
|