When Captain Benson returns to Fort Lincoln with his bride to be he is surprised to find it apparently abandoned; he climbs in and finds a handful of drunken soldiers and a woman ranting about how her husband had died because of him... it turns out this was the base of Custer's 7th Cavalry and while Benson was away a large proportion of the regiment including is CO where killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Benson had been a friend of Custer and many of the survivors believe he was able to use this friendship to avoid the battle. He can't prove this wasn't the case so is soon shunned by the other officers and given the sort of assignments that should be beneath somebody of his rank. When a presidential order comes through to go to the battle site to retrieve the bodies of the fallen officers and bury the men he volunteers and takes the bunch of misfits and drunks he found in the fort at the start of the film with him. On the way some of the men want to get rid of him; clearly he will have more than the Sioux to worry about on this mission. When they finally get to the site they fine that the Sioux have already buried the dead and set about finding Custer's grave; at this point the Sioux arrive and make it clear that no bodies are to be removed; vastly outnumbered it looks as if they are doomed...
This isn't the most action packed western I've seen by a long way; much of the film is spent with the inquiry into what happened and Benson's potential father in law who is clearly not happy with his daughter's choice of husband. When their mission gets underway there is only a little bit of action although this includes an impressive fight between Benson and a knife wielding Sioux, even the final confrontation which one might expect to be a wild shoot out is fairly tame with only one arrow shot and a deus ex machina ending that many viewers will find ridiculous... after all that one might think I didn't enjoy it but surprisingly I did; Randolph Scott did a fine job as Capt. Benson and while there wasn't much action there were some fairly tense scenes; especially the final stand off. While this never claims to be based on fact a quick reading of the real events will show few details of the aftermath of the original battle are left unchanged to suit the plot so if you want accuracy you'll be disappointed if you just want a decent story set in pleasant (inaccurate) scenery you should like it though.
This isn't the most action packed western I've seen by a long way; much of the film is spent with the inquiry into what happened and Benson's potential father in law who is clearly not happy with his daughter's choice of husband. When their mission gets underway there is only a little bit of action although this includes an impressive fight between Benson and a knife wielding Sioux, even the final confrontation which one might expect to be a wild shoot out is fairly tame with only one arrow shot and a deus ex machina ending that many viewers will find ridiculous... after all that one might think I didn't enjoy it but surprisingly I did; Randolph Scott did a fine job as Capt. Benson and while there wasn't much action there were some fairly tense scenes; especially the final stand off. While this never claims to be based on fact a quick reading of the real events will show few details of the aftermath of the original battle are left unchanged to suit the plot so if you want accuracy you'll be disappointed if you just want a decent story set in pleasant (inaccurate) scenery you should like it though.