I see in the Trivia section that Gary Cole loves this role because he was able to do extensive horseback riding, but I read a long time ago somewhere that he was terribly afraid of being on horseback, and his fear caused many retakes. Anyone know the truth?
shareEither way, there is an impressive amount of people falling off their horses here, and horses falling too. It must have taken a big chunk of the budget.
shareI don't know if he was really afraid but i do know it doesn't show in his performance. He WAS Custer, not just a man playing Custer. I was really surprised he didn't receive an Emmy nomination or a Golden Globe or SOMETHING for his role in this movie.
shareMe too, but just a guess here that the film stepped on many toes and perhaps it was buried in many ways because it was very accurate right down to the corruption in the Grant administration, as historians have mentioned and to the anger of some whites. Sometimes we forget that even today there are still many hard feelings between Native Americans and Whites that existed at the time of Custer and Sitting Bull - perhaps less in some ways but for the tribes that did not go over to casinos as a way to make money (as the Seminoles did here in Florida), life on the reservations is still terrible, with very high unemployment and alchoholism. Perhaps the one major problem added to their problems since the 1800's is drug abuse, but with technology some on the reservations are using the Internet for business and that helps, but deep problems remain as seen about 6 months ago on one reservation over the selling of alchohol...
P.S. I was part of a cycling group that were guests at a rural Seminole (Brighton) reservation here in Florida in the last years before casinos made the Seminoles wealthy, and though the reservation community was clean it was rural poverty. On arrival we were assigned places to pitch our tents under a long Chickee, and no doubt the entire small community of 500 knew we were there, because from time to time a Seminole child would come by asking for a quarter, and some in our group would find a quarter in their packs but others like myself didn't and the child would smile and leave only to be replaced by another child, and I recall their smile but it was sad that they found it necessary to ask a stranger.
The only medical clinic was 50 miles away and the only telephone for public use was in the BIA jail (as Custer said, the Bureau of Indian Affairs have had problems since it was created), and there were very limited facilities for our large group, so while everyone was friendly our 1 night and 2 days gave us at least some idea that life on the reservations is still hard for tribes that did not go over to casinos for their earthly riches...