Customer Reviews

American Experience: Last Stand at Little Big Horn

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It's refreshing to see a balanced review of histories most famous event. A very well done production dealing with an understandably guarded people. If you've watched the film read the book "Killing Custer". It gives amazing additional insights into the history of the native american people as well as insider views on the making of the film, success and challenges along the way.

A 60 minute DVD about the "Last Stand" should include more than fifteen minutes on the famous battle. The problem here is that the viewer has to sit through over fifty minutes on the how and why problems of frontier America which led to the famous battle. If I buy a documentary on the Battle of the Little Big Horn I want it to be about the battle of the LBH and not have a social and political agenda which is prevalent among PBS documentaries. Save your money and find a copy of "Custer's Last Trooper." Much more interesting.

I was a little disappointed in the video. I had read the book Killing Custer and wanted this video to suppliment the book. Without reading the book, or others on the same subject, this video alone does not offer much.

Daniel Jolley or as he describes himself "darkgenious" really is a "darkidiot" he admits he already has a slanted view on Custer. He then goes on about some mindless dribble about custer not being a good cavalry commander. Look at Custer's civil war record and it was nothing but Victory after Victory. He captured more battle flags. more guns and prisoners than any other Union General. His men worshipped him so much they copied the way he dressed and they put more stock in receiving the Custer cross than they did any medal the Army gave out for Bravery. He had more requests for transfer to his unit than anybody else did too. He played a huge part in the Union Victory at Gettysburg and was the guy that finally ran Lee into the ground and accepted the flag of truce from Lee.

The beginning of the War Jeb Stuart ran rough shod over the Union Cavalry until custer came along. He was the first one to defeat Lee and finally it was one of his own soldiers that finally killed Stuart. He was such a vital clog in the Union victory Sheridan purchased the table that Lee and Grant signed the surrender on and gave it to custers wife with a note saying without your gallant husband none of this would have been possible. President Lincoln made a special effort to meet Mrs. custer on a train they were traveling on because he wanted to meet the wife of the gallant soldier he heard so much about. People say he had a high casualty rate and it was but you will when your aggresive and keep the pressure on the enemy. Just exactly what the cavalry is suppose to do. You want to talk about high casualty rates how about Grant when he was attacking Richmond and his officers were concerned because so many solders were getting killed and Grants respnse was I will glady sacrifice two of my soldiers for one confederate soldier. This is easy to do when your sitting back and ordering soldiers to attack and you dont have to worry about getting killed yourself. Custer always led the charge or if they were being pursued he was in the rearguard. He was always where the fighting was the fiercest.

The confederate soldiers even had a bounty on him to show much they knew it would help their cause if they could have killed him. If Custer would have been killed in the last week or so of the Civil War he would be remebered today as one of the great American heroes. He had a hard adjustment once the war was over and he wasnt the great Indian fighter. His first confrontations with the Indian didnt go well because he couldnt catch them because they wouldnt stand and fight and they knew the country and the Indians were masterful at using the country and fighting a hit and run type of battle. Custer learned though and won the Battle of the Washita river against Black Kettle. Black Kettle was apeace chief but his warriors were not and his warriors along with warriors from other tribes along the kansas and Colorado borders were raiding killing and raping and taking women prisioners for over a year. In a little over a years time they killed over 150 settlers and that is why the army was out.Custer found the village from following a raiding party's trail that led to the village. When the battle was over they found belongings that was took from raids among the whites along with a army mailbaig. This wasnt an innocent village that so many people try to portray. As far as attacking women and kids in the village what did the Indians do when they attacked white homesteads with maybe a father and mother and a couple of kids and the raiding party could be numbered from 20 to 300. that is something else people dont want to mention either

Custer was defeated at the Little Bighorn due to the him being letdown by Reno and Beenteen and the Indians being great warriors and fighters. Read some of the later books by the historians and you can get a much better view on the battle. books like To "Hell with Honor" and a "Terrible Glory" aand "Custer Vindicted" to name a few

After reading the book through I came back to Amazon for the film, which turned out to be every bit as moving as the words on the page. I didn't feel as though the film was an edit for the film format as is so often noted when you've "read the book". Amazon service was first class.

I ordered this DVD on 29 March and received it today, 1 April.

I am a big fan of PBS's The American Experience and this hour-long DVD is no exception. I have it shelved with my other Native American books and CDs.

You don't have to be a military history buff to benefit from this DVD. Photographs of railroad owners, European settlers and the push West for Manifest Destiny after the Civil War all accelerated the Indian Wars out West. For more settlers to come to the barren lands, the Indians had to be removed/exterminated/resettled elsewhere.

Live narration, however, is offered by the grandchildren of the Native survivors.

One sees how all those factors mentioned above came together at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Add a young, dashing Civil War hero to be in charge of this battle. Custer's biggest fault, besides his constant self-promotion through legends and tales, was his over-confidence in defeating the Lakota Sioux. (This over confidence was also evident in southern Civil War generals and Iraqi War strategists as well.)

One also learns how the Battle of Little Bighorn allowed Buffalo Bill (William Cody) to become successful with his Wild West Show, re-enacting the battle and the death of Custer over and over again. Again, the interconnection of Americana is one thing that makes this PBS series "The American Experience" so fascinating. Custer's wife Elizabeth died a wealthy woman herself in 1936, benefitting from the Custer legend long after he had died.

Scenes from then and now are presented, allowing the viewer to see the terrain as it was and how it is now. This is great knowledge for those wanting to travel to southeastern Montana to visit this sacred land.

One can not cover all the facts of Little Bighorn in one hour, but for a good overvue this DVD does not fail, and the viewer gets a good idea of what the American ideologies were back then.

The narration by Scott Momaday is excellent. His voice provides a neutral voice (no emotion) throughout the DVD.

This biopic is yet another superficial analysis of a conflict that was both intricate and inevitable. There were no heros or villains. Soldiers, including Colonel, not GENERAL, Custer, were following policies dictated by superiors, including the President of the United States. They were not villains. Likewise, the Souix were protecting themselves and their land but were brutal to all enemies, white and indian alike. Soldiers who were captured were brutally tortured, usually by the women. They were not heros. This piece of "history" is a whitewash.

Custer had no chance. His portion of the 7th Calvery had 210 men and charged into the middle of the village that had 2000 warriors at mid-afternoon. His initial attacking force under Major Reno had been replused and retreated from the bottom end of the village, freeing up those Indians to attack Custer from another angle when he was already engaged.
The Sioux and Cheyenne had a lot of Henry and Winchester repeating rifles and most of them were firing from gullies making very small targets of themselves. While the troopers were exposed on ridges with single shot trap door Springfields. It's estimated that the Sioux and Cheyenne lost fewer than 50 warriors, while Custer lost 210 and Reno lost another 50 or so.

If Custer had waited a couple of days until the other forces came up the 27th, then maybe they could have joined forces and avoided a massacre. But it was not in Custer's make-up to wait and share the glory with another force that he was not in command of.

Custer should get credit though for holding off the Confedrate calvary that failed to hit the backside of the Union line opposite from Pickets force at Gettysburg.

The most shocking thing about this documentary is that the events took place in the 1870s yet, this shows the children of Natives and whites discussing what their key figure fathers told them about what happened. Folk must have some longevity genes in them. There was one Native interviewee here who had great things to say, but I could barely understand him. I don't know if it was due to his age, his accent, or maybe he didn't have dentures.

There is one thing that stands out about this topic: Custard was so busy promoting himself that he wasn't a good leader. He just messed up. There's a perception that Europeans and their ancestors conquered non-Europeans with ease. But this battle, Shaka Zulu's battle in South Africa, the Ethiopians' defeat of Mussolini's army in the Horn, show this is not true. To be honest, the French defeat in Algeria and the American defeat in Vietnam are two more recent signs of this.

This documentary was just okay, but it was refreshing to learn anything more about the war in the Black Hills.