Another retelling of the custer myth. Called a carnival version of the west by some western afficeniados. Filmed in Spain. Starring Robert Shaw and Robery Ryan.
One of my favorites!! I even keep this with my spaghetti collection rather than with my standard American produced westerns. I knew the first time I saw it back in the very early 80s that there was something different about the production that was foreign in nature.
Hard to explain unless you see it but there was something sort of goofy about this. Though I found it to be very entertaining and cinematic, the action scenes are nice and prolonged … pretty violent for a G rated film. Nice dialogue scenes with Lawrence Tierney.
Exellent film, in fact my favorite by legendary director Robert Siodmak (The Killers, Criss Cross). I was fortunate to see this film on the big screen from a good 70mm print and it blew me away. A character study of Custer more than anything else, the intense performance of Robert Shaw could have earned him an Oscar if the film had been a success. Sadly the movie seems to be unpopular with some people, because it’s not historically accurate or they don’t like the portrayal of Custer. All I can say: well, it’s a movie, a work of art, not a history textbook…
A character study of Custer more than anything else, the intense performance of Robert Shaw could have earned him an Oscar if the film had been a success.
I concur.
Robert Shaw, as always, is amazing.
Well, it’s not very historical. The most accurate film I have seen about Custer has to be Son of the Morning Star. I used to really like Custer of the West as a kid but then as I began to read about Custer and the Indian Wars, it became much more difficult to take it seriously. However, I will say that I think Robert Shaw’s performance was absolutely fantastic. If it had have been more like Custer of the West meets Son of the Morning Star, this could have been a real masterpiece. I have to admire the filmmakers for their ambition to make an epic Eurowestern. The style of the film is quite unusual, as well. There’s just something different about it.
By no means perfect, but for some reason I like this movie.
Like you put it: There’s something different about it.
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[quote=“scherpschutter, post:7, topic:1279”]By no means perfect, but for some reason I like this movie.
Like you put it: There’s something different about it.
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The line that always stuck with me was “shoot the bird down, sergeant!” I can remember the first time I came across this movie. I was seven years old and I found it in the western section of this underground video shop. It was a really cool place. There was an upstairs with various collectible items and a back part that was sort of a “junk shop.” Then you’d go downstairs into this basement with walls of old VHS tapes. I can remember that the three films I bought that day were Custer of the West, Dances With Wolves and Stagecoach. 
So, I’ve grown up with this film.
There was such a shop in Antwerp in the 80s and early 90s, when I lived there. They had items for rent and for sale, and if you asked politely, you could also buy those items for sale, vice and versus. I miss those shops today.
I became aware of this Eurowestern thanks to a new release announcement in the release calendar and bought the German 2016 Blu-ray. I have been familiar with General Custer and the Battle of Little Big Horn since my youth, but I had never seen this EW before. Unfortunately, this EW also fails to give sufficient consideration to the perspective of the Native Americans, who were actually acting in self-defense. Although political corruption is touched upon, overall Custer is glorified and whitewashed. The ending of the film was disappointing, with the actual battle only making up about 10 minutes of the film. Robert Shaw plays his role impressively and convincingly.
Overall, however, it is an epic western, although the picture quality of this Blu-ray is more on par with DVD. I hope that a new HD scan was really used for the re-release.
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keep dreaming 
The music score is great and, as you say, Custer is goo but I thought the film was a mess - a series of set-pieces stung together with no apparent linkage between one and another (e.g. the Cinerama show-off scenes involving a guy going down a river of a raft and a train being crashed). Much of it seemed to be metaphorical rather than realistic. The Robert Ryan sequence - a self-contained twenty minute section which bares no relation to scenes after and before - was apparently added because Philip Yordan was worried about the lack of American big name stars in the movie and Ryan was available as he had just used him in Battle of the Bulge. Custer’s problems at Little Big Horn, a vast flat plain in this version, are attributed to an incompetent, unnamed, lieutenant and the forces with him seem to number only about 40-50 rather than the 200-odd who were killed.
I too think it’s mostly a mess, so I’m surprised about the amount of positive reviews here.
You were right, no new HD scan, only in the Amazon description, it’s not on the back cover either. 1:1 reissue, same picture quality as the 2016 Blu-ray. Returning it due to fraudulent misrepresentation. 
The Kino Blu-ray looks good from memory.
Which wasn’t in the database. It is now