Custer's Last Trooper; Touring Custer Battlefield

Winner of a 1991 Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and First Prize at the San Mateo International Film & Video Festival for Best Documentary, Bill Armstrong's Custer's Last Trooper is an exciting look at the myth and the facts about General George Armstrong Custer's legendary battle of the Little Big Horn. Combining past and present, the program intercuts stills and stories from the past with footage from a 1989 archaeological dig at the Custer Battlefield where, on May 25, the remains of a human skull were found. As an expert works on attempts to reconstruct a face from the skull, the program offers an intriguing animated sequence following the movements of the troops, and the battles engaged on June 25, 1876. Diary excerpts, still photos of the principal players, and compelling narration make Custer's Last Trooper an excellent documentary on a perennially popular subject. Touring Custer Battlefield, on the other hand, is an arid piece of filmmaking, in which a "you are there" approach to the narration (i.e.--" as you travel up the road, look to the right...") is used with passable video footage of major points of interest in and around Custer Battlefield. Viewers see the museum, the National Cemetery, an Indian village, and Last Stand Hill, as well as a number of other historic buildings, while the narration dryly recounts the events. Halfway into the program, one realizes that one is seeing the outside of a lot of buildings, but not the inside. Only diehard enthusiasts of the subject would be likely to sit through what feels like a long 30 minutes. Custer's Last Trooper (which I should mention features an eye-catching battlefield illustration by Ralph Heinz as part of its attractive packaging) is highly recommended. Touring Custer Battlefield is not a necessary purchase. (Custer's Last Trooper is available from: Bill Armstrong Productions, 15585 High Knoll Road, Encino, CA 91436.) (Touring Custer Battlefield is available from: The Old Army Press, P.O. Box 2243, Fort Collins, CO 80522; 1-800-627-0079.)