On the Olie Stone web site it shows that for 2007 he is going to retell history and make Son of the Morning Star the Even Connell book on Custer and the Battle on Greasy Grass Ridge (Little Big Horn) OH BOY - can hardly wait - NOT!

What Olie does to history is a horror - Think of Platoon, JFK, WTC coming out this year...

Oliver Stone does skew it and distort history a bit. They are generally interesting and entertaining though. Frank, refer back to your Da Vinci Code post for this one as well.

Gino - Glad to see someone can distinguish "Fact from Fiction."

At least Stone doesn't start off by claiming his movie is fact. He's not a historian, he just makes great movies.

I think this is going to be a tough movie to make. I know that most people like to believe that Custer's men gathered up in a litttle circle and fought of the indians until the they were overwhelmed. But historical and achaelogical evidence seems to show that Custer's men were ambushed and scattered into small unit running firefights in every direction.

Well, successful or not, what a cool title!

Alan,
You are right. The "Last Stand" was nothing like the Busch version. Custer Bravely standing in the center of his men, guideon flying in the breeze. It was chaos, units were overwhelmed and in the end, Custer, his adjutants and stragglers died with their boots on, in an cluster on Greasy Grass Ridge

A interesting book to read is "Archaeology,History,and Custer's last battle" by Richard Allan Fox.
It is boring in some spots. But it backs up alot of his account of Custer's actions. He says that Custer was on the offense and his command collasped very suddenly. Also that E co. was attempting a breakout down the hill instead of a fight up the hill. Osprey's book "little Big Horn 1876" by Peter Panzeri seems to draw heavily on fox's book
brian

Well, that's probably too bad. I read the book and found it a good read. This episode of history has been botched in the movies countless times, from Errol Flynn to Robert Shaw(?!!). Actually the book was already made into a TV movie, starring, rats, can't think of his name. But it wasn't bad at all, stuck close to the book and its chronology.

BTW, the title comes from Custer's habit of attacking the camps at dawn.

Barry

i too like Connell's book and spent ages looking for it before finally buying a copy.

The TV version starred Gary Cole (IIRC) and was okay apart from the need to have a voiceover from Buffy St Marie which kind of trampled over what the book said.

For another view of Custer's action try John S Gray's 'Custer's last campaign' where he makes a valiant attempt to reconcile all the conflicting accounts and produce a coherent version of the battle. If you can make ot through the mind-bendingly complex time and motion charts it has some interesting ideas of what Custer may have done after sending Reno off on his feint attack.

EDIT: 'They died with their boots on' was on TV recently, with the most amazing version (as in amazingly bad) of the last stand.

I read the book many years ago, and found it to be pretty interesting. I also remember the Gary Cole version, and I really can't see why Stone would try to redo it, unless he's planning on completely altering the story, which of course Stone is certainly not above doing. Custer can be portrayed so many ways, and who knows what Stone will make of him.

I remember the Richard Mulligan 'Custer' from Little Big Man - staring Dustin Hoffman. The Custer here was a bit looney. "Celibacy of the saddle" was an ailment he was suffering from.

Saw the TV movie, pretty good as they go, after having read the book, which I thouroughly enjoyed.
There was a book, written inthe thirties, titled, Custer's Fall by David Miller. It documents accounts of the battle as told by the victors, the Sioux, et al. One interesting thing is that one of the first casaulties was a man in buckskins roughly meeting Custer's description who was apparently mortally wounded at the head of a column or patrol.
If that was GAC, it might explain some of the rout that then took place. NOt that the outcome would have been much different, but the telling of the story and the concept of a "Last Stand" would certainly take a different spin.
Anyway, while not a big fan of Stone, this could be a new look on the event.
According to a military history magazine, one of the best recreation of the Battle of the Greasy Grass was actually Tonka which gave even Custer teh correct side arms. IMHO, the best looking Custer was in last summer's Into the West which showed GAC with short hair for his last campaign.

Custer - myth and legend...
Most historians agree that the mans ego most likely lead to his demise but he wasn't the kook that many of the Hollywood concoctions make him out to be. Nor was he the heroic image that Flynn made him out to be at the end. However, his men evidently worshipped him and would truly have followed him to Hell which they ultimately did.
The battlefield evidence which has recently been revealed shows that there was no great "last stand" but a number of pockets of soldiers who tried to defend themselves from the overwhelming numbers of sniping Indians who surrounded them and whittled their numbers down.
A large number of the Indians are now believed to have had repeating rifles.
Yes, it will be interesting to see what Olie Stones interpretation of this turns out to be.