Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

mstxmac My main quibble with this script (and I did love the movie) was at the time I was reading my copy of Richard Harding Davis, "The Notes of a War Correspondent", his description of the battle came from the actor playing Stephen Crane's. RH Davis is worthy of a rousing action movie in his own right. Would have been a great addition to the movie.

Robert J. Maxwell Whether you get much out of this or not depends on what you're looking for. It's John Milius' film and he leaves his imprint on it. He's a weapons enthusiast. On some of his films he had it written into his contract that he would be allowed to hunt all the wild animals that were to be killed during the production. He's appeared on "Tales of the Gun" and displayed his expertise.I appreciate that. I don't mean it critically because I'm curious about weapons technology too, and I'm happy to see that the U. S. troops in the Spanish-American war don't use Winchester carbines but dysfunctional Krag-Jorgensens, compared to the superior Spanish Mausers.Yet the rendering of the battles in Cuba that featured Colonel Theodore Roosevelt are overdone to a turn. BANG. BOOM! The troopers do one of two things: fight or linger over someone's dying body during an exchange of manly sentiments. Tom Berenger's Theodor Roosevelt is outlandishly exaggerated. The dialog runs unchallengingly alone lines like, "By God, Sir, you are a cad!" At the height of a pitched battle, someone grabs a heavy machine gun and while mowing down the enemy he shouts out lines from Shakespeare's Henry V -- "Once more unto the breach!", and so forth.I couldn't stand it. It reminded me of the comic books I'd read as a child.Yet, I applaud it for its informative value. After all, who knows anything about the Spanish-American War, which has justly disappeared down the memory hole along with other mistakes like the War of 1812 and the Mexican-American War. And it is nice to see a movie directed by someone who cares a little about the historical accuracy of the technological details.

billmoline Great movie and for the most part historically accurate. There were however a few minor errors of omission or commission. Gary Busey played a fantastic Gen. Wheeler but the actual Gen. Wheeler was considerably smaller in stature and weighed maybe half as much. There are pictures of Gen. Wheeler standing with TR and Col. Wood, both of which were taller and heavier. The movie does not depict the intense heat in Cuba in July with near enough severity. The heat was unbearable and went a large amount toward the reason for the incredibly high disease rate. Rough Riders as well as the other soldiers of the Cuban Campaign were 8-10 times more likely to die of malaria and dysentery than from being shot in combat. The movie spent only a little time on this.

ww33biz This movie combines the best elements of western and war movies. Fantastic cast. Berenger is outstanding as Roosevelt. Who would have thought he would be so good in this role? From his other movies I've seen, this is a totally different type of role for him. And Sam Elliot, Gary Busey, Chris Noth, George Hamilton, and all the rest of the cast are outstanding. Wonderful casting job.What a sleeper this movie is. I can't believe it's out of print, and never even been issued on DVD. Get a used copy if you possible can. You won't be sorry! WW Tampa