As Good As It Gets

A Masterpiece!

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Director Robert Siodmak keeps this excellent Cinerama attraction moving so well that the running time of 148 minutes passes as rapidly as the waters of the timber chute.On the other hand, the film bears signs of having been made with a watchful eye on the budget. None of the sets are very extensive (at least indoors), Custer's address to Congress is shown entirely through a shot of Custer superimposed on a model of the Capitol buildings with voices of dissent off, some of the model work (particularly of the train) is very obvious, and the editor repeats shots, particularly during the action sequences.Admittedly, Robert Shaw gives us an arresting impersonation of Custer and demonstrates his versatility with a singing take-off as well. Unfortunately, the rest of the players are no more than mediocre. Robert Ryan's scenes are allowed to run too long, while Jeffrey Hunter and Kieron Moore are stuck with the stock roles of idealistic young officer and and noble savage, respectively.

SPOILER: Custer of the west has more than its fair share of detractors, generally citing historical inaccuracy, but as entertainment, this film has really got it going on. The remarkable thing about COTW is the character assessment of Custer himself, between the Errol Flynn film of the 40's and this version from the late 60's, the goal posts had been moved to accommodate the hopeless position of the Native-American tribes (not before time!) and the film at least shows 'Yellow hair' questioning his government's policy towards the Indians. Also Custer is not portrayed as a legend so much as a glory hunter who gets the job done, but deplores the new technology brought in to quell (and ultimately destroy) the tribes. The Libby story-line doesn't get in the way of the action, and the relationship between Sherman and Custer is explored more deeply. Other people have commented on Robert Shaw's 'British' accent, but as an Englishman I don't think he sounds at all British, and besides, in 1865 the average US citizen would have sounded a lot more English. I love westerns and this movie is in my top 10, and for all the folks that moan about historical inaccuracy, perhaps you should watch Braveheart, if you want the truth bent out of all proportion

This is the first time, the VERY FIRST TIME, I've ever, EVER, given a movie I've reviewed here a 1. Hopefully, it won't be the last. But this movie, this abomination of politically correct claptrap, won't be remade any time soon. Custer of the West tells the highly fictionalized story of Lt. Col., Brvt. Maj, Gen. George Armstrong Custer, (Robert Shaw,) who comes to the conclusion that our treaties with the Indians are a sham. Nobody cared how we treated the Indians in the 19th century. By 1876, the era of Lewis and Clark was long over, and the attitude of the American people had changed. They wanted the Indians off their land. (Funny, because the Indians, the Sioux, and Northern Cheyenne, thought that the land was theirs, and that we were the intruders.) Maybe we were, Land, religion, and a clash of cultures, have always fueled, or caused, wars. The movie was the worst movie I'd ever seen, and I saw it back in 1974.

Handsome but dull western (courtesy of Spanish landscapes) to depict Custer on a mission to steal land from the Indians. A blond ROBERT SHAW looks convincing enough on horseback but something about his accent seems wrong and charisma is lacking. The Indians look more European than like American Indians and too many of the action scenes are slow paced and repetitive as Custer and his men go on various missions.MARY URE as his wife, Libby, has little to do but register impatience with being kept in the background between battles with long waits before she shares the screen with real-life hubby, ROBERT SHAW. A more mature looking JEFFREY HUNTER (sporting gray hairs) is Will Benteen, one of Custer's more loyal officers.The mountainous plains in Spain are no substitute for our standard glimpses of John Ford territory with not a single shot looking as though photographed in the American West. But it's the dull storyline that defeats the movie from ever becoming anything more than a series of handsomely photographed outdoor sequences. A surprise Indian attack by the Cheyennes on an Indepdence Day Celebration is one of the more colorful moments and triggers Custer's determination to fight the redskins, no matter that they greatly outnumber his men.Nothing in Shaw's performance suggests the color and vigor of Custer's bigger than life personality nor does the screenplay do any real justice to the man or the myth. As storytelling goes, the first half of the film manages to be just plain dull and the film only picks up speed as it nears the climactic fight at Little Big Horn.Battle skirmishes with Indians are, on the whole, well staged and full of furious gunsmoke and flying arrows--but the big set piece is saved, of course, for the finale which comes too late to save the first half of the film from the doldrums. One is left with the impression that some inventive fictionalizing would have helped (as it did with THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON).Summing up: A very miscast Shaw plays Custer as a snarling villain who barks orders and the story has a plodding script. Could have been much more impressive if filmed in the U.S. on more realistic locales with more accurate casting. A cameo by ROBERT RYAN is no help at all.