Movie Review: They Died with Their Boots On (1941)

They Died with Their Boots On is a George Armstrong Custer biopic directed by Raoul Walsh. It covers Custer's life from his arrival at West Point to his last stand at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, and for a big history buff such as myself it does so poorly. I heard and expected this movie to not be too accurate, especially since it makes the common biopic mistake of compressing years to decades of a person's life into a single movie. But I was still quite shocked by some of the choices.

They Died with Their Boots On was the last of 8 on-screen pairings between action movie star Errol Flynn and leading lady Oliva de Havilland. If one isn't particularly concerned by historical faithfulness, it's an entertaining flick. The actors do their jobs and the protagonists are likeable. The humor, especially in the West Point and courtship scenes, is quite nice as well. Errol Flynn of course plays Custer. He's as charming as he was as Robin Hood or Captain Blood. You won't see much critical appraisal of the historical figure here. Like the real Custer he's impulsive, but this trait is never shown as detrimental to the men under him as it truly was. Olivia de Havilland is of course Libby Bacon, later Libby Custer. Like Flynn's Custer she's likeable but stripped of some of her more controversial attributes (to be fair the movie doesn't cover the post-Bighorn period where she defended her husband's reputation by attacking his peers and superiors in the military). The most recognizable supporting cast includes Sidney Greenstreet as a the historically rotund General Winfield Scott, a young Anthony Quinn as Crazy Horse, and Hattie McDaniel as the Bacons' servant Callie (this character is more of a Mammy than McDaniel's own Gone with the Wind character who gave the stereotype her name).

It would take me forever to list all the historical deviations this movie takes, so I'll try to just hit on the larger ones. I will be spoiling much of the movie, which is heavily fictionalized. Movies that deviate from the historical record can still be good, especially if they acknowledge that they're "inspired by" or "loosely based" on real events (Last Samurai is a good example). I do think that They Died with Their Boots On is more concerning, however, when one gets to the second half.

The movie starts with a distilled interpretation of Custer's time at West Point. It correctly shows him as a troublemaker with a record high number of demerits. He and Libbie meet here instead of in 1862, but it's an understandable way to compress events. The largest deviation concerns famed Union officer Phil Sheridan. Here he's shown as a older, highly influential general as well as commandant of West Point. In reality Sheridan was a 30-year old second lieutenant at this time and posted far west. He wouldn't reach the rank of general until late in 1862. It is understandable that the movie tries to introduce him early since he was Custer's big supporter both during and after the war. Winfield Scott, who did help out Custer when he was looking for an assignment, is shown commanding the US Army through the end of the Civil War. In fact, he dropped out of command by the end of 1861 because his bad physical health prevented him from dealing with the stress of his job. The movie likely expanded his role to simplify the ever-changing Union command arrangements as well as have more Sidney Greenstreet.

For an Errol Flynn movie, They Died With their Boots On is surprisingly light on actual action. If one takes out Custer's scuffles with other officers and corrupt government agents, there's only a few minutes of battle scenes and they're not close to accurate. The eastern Civil War battles take place in the California hills, and Custer's participation in the shown clashes are exaggerated. He is shown earning a medal for a heated rearguard action at First Bull Run, and then gets credited with saving the Union at Gettysburg by repelling General Jeb Stuart's Cavalry Corps (this actually became a popular myth about Gettysburg). The Gettysburg scene is also just shots of Custer leading horse charges while explosions go off near him, with no shots of actual engagement with Confederates. I guess since this was the New Deal-WWII era, the filmmakers wanted to reduce images of Americans killing each other.

What really drives up the historical inaccuracy is the invention of fictional antagonists, headed by Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy). Working with his father and an army officer, he constantly works to undermine Custer's career. When the story moves out west, he runs a bar and agency where he gets Custer's cavalry drunk and sells rifles to the Indians. The corrupt government agents and their allied business interests were a common theme of old westerns, a way to provide a villain. In this movie's case it enables the director and screenwriter to sidestep Custer's controversial actions during the Indian Wars while not vilifying the Sioux. This is a large part of what makes the movie's last act so troubling to historians.

Custer is shown making a peace treaty with Crazy Horse wherein the Sioux will keep the Black Hills. Custer in fact never advanced or made any such deal, nor did he meet Crazy Horse in person (though the filmmakers can be forgiven for the second invention as it adds some drama). When Custer goes to a court-martial in Washington, Sharp spreads rumors of gold in the Black Hills to attract settlers there. He hopes to start a war so that the Sioux will be removed and he and his business partners can profit from the exploitation of the Black Hills. Gold actually existed, and this plot point turns Custer into a noble sympathizer of Indian interests.

The Battle of Little Bighorn is undeniably romanticized. Custer's strained relations with his subordinate officers Marcus Reno and Frederick Benteen are not shown (neither are Reno and Benteen themselves). Instead of dividing his force to attack the Sioux-Allied camp, he boldly charges at them headlong. The movie even has the gall to say that by charging the Sioux and fighting to the death, Custer and his 7th Cavalry bought time for an infantry regiment to escape. This totally ignores the real Custer's blundering and the waste of lives under his command. The movie then ends with the statement that by rescuing the infantry and exposing the corrupt officials, Custer in fact scored a victory. One wonders if the ghost of Libby Custer (who actually died just 8 years earlier) had a hand in the screenplay.

I don't have a problem with movies that alter historical events and characters. I do have a problem when they create a false narrative that completely contradicts reality. They Died with Their Boots On is competently made and has quite a bit of entertainment value, but as an aspiring historical writer I just can't get over how badly it rewrites history in its last act.

Rating: 4/10