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Son of the Morning Star (1991)

Rate: 8
Viewed: 3/25

Morningstar
3/25: Son of the Morning Star is a dramatic improvement over Custer of the West by getting nearly everything correct.

Not only that, the story is told from two points of view: Custer's wife and a Cheyenne woman named Kate Bighead aka Antelope. The difference between these two is that the former made up a lot of stuff while the latter was a witness to many things Custer did and knew the people who were personally involved. There are a great deal of details with respect to the military of the time which are nice to see.

I had pointed out in my review of Custer of the West that Robert Shaw needed to grow his hair and goatee some more although he got the eyes. Gary Cole finally almost gets the image correct even though the color of his eyes isn't quite there. It's a really important aspect because Custer was a vain man which made a difference in how the Indians saw and described him.

Another plus of Son of the Morning Star is the inclusion of two incidents: the Fetterman Massacre and the Battle of Washita River. Of the latter, I'm disappointed that it mentioned only in passing of Custer taking an Indian woman when in reality he kept her as his sex slave and Libbie knew all about it, putting a stop to it one year later.

In Custer of the West, Custer was constantly addressed as general, but that isn't entirely accurate in terms of formal rank. He complained about it in Son of the Morning Star, and the filmmakers correctly got where his rank was supposed to be at: lieutenant colonel. By the way, because of the success of Dances With Wolves, Kevin Costner was the original choice to play Custer, but they decided to go with Gary Cole, who played the role perfectly well, to save money. Happily, they got Rodney E. Grant to appear as Crazy Horse along with other authentic Indians which were 150 in all.

The best part of Son of the Morning Star is the final forty-five minutes which is central to Custer's legacy. It cleared up a lot of confusion for me because different regiments were here and there and I couldn't get everything straight overall. Plus, the battle showed how the terrain, which was shot on location in Badlands National Park and Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, played an important role, causing everybody to be uncertain of what's happening.

All in all, Son of the Morning Star is the most accurate account of George Armstrong Custer's life post-Civil War.