CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Thehibikiew Not even bad in a good way

Iseerphia All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Cristal The movie really just wants to entertain people.

denis888 John Milius has proved everybody here that he could do a real master work of art. This is a very good mini series and it is done without false jingoism, without bombastic pathos, without silly pretense, but with a gusto, with real zeal, with real impeccable taste and vigor. John fervently studied the sources and here we see a real candid picture of a very tragic start of Americano-Spanish war of 1898. The casting is so superb that even Mr. Maxwell with his unbeatable Gettysburg would have been jealous. I was very happy to see three of Gettysburg stars here, even four - Tom Berenger, Sam Elliott, Buck Taylor and a cameo of Patrick Gorman. And then, here are also such luminaries as Gary Busey, Chris Noth in his arguably best role and great late Brian Keith as President McKinley. Tom Berenger as Colonel Theodore Roovelt shines all the movie through - he is loud, clumsy, arrogant, funny, sluggish, but also smart, clever, brave, audacious and unmitigated. He is very good in military roles and here Tom proved it again, Sam Elliott is another great asset, his deep resonant voice and cold look make the film very decent. Brad Johnson as Henry Nash is another great victory here, he is cowardly at first, but clever and brave later then. The excellent music, soft humor, deep sympathy to common soldiers, spellbinding scenery, marvelous battle scenes all make this movie a real gem and a real must see for all History fans, like me. I am still under deepest impression. Great job!

vintagevalor-2 I first saw this picture some years ago and just watched it again. One of the finest Military pictures ever made, with two outstanding performances by Tom Berringer and Gary Busey. For those other reviews who look down on this film, you have no heart. There is more humanity, heart, compassion, pathos, adventure, sacrifice, heroism, and greatness is this picture than one can shake a stick at. It is a great film on a par with GETTYSBURG, which I think is the finest military film ever made. Tom Berringer is stunning as Roosevelt, the finest performance of his career. Busey is just marvelous as "Fighting Joe Wheeler", the best thing he has done since Buddy Holly. Dale Dye is excellent as Leonard Wood, holder of the Medal of Honor for the Indian Wars, for whom Fort Leonard Wood is named. Chris Noth is memorable as Craig Wadsworth, particularly in a scene with Stephen Crane where he talks about his "Red Badge of Courage". All in all this is an excellent film about a little known area of American history. The Spanish-American war brought America onto the world stage and we have never left. See it. You won't regret it.

thomas-jensen1 I did enjoy the movie a great deal and was able to look past some of the historical errors, (hard for a military historian). One major point is the inclusion of Fredrick Funston in the film. Funston is truly a character worth a film of his own, small town Kansa boy (Iola, Ks) makes good. While he did fight in Cuba it was prior to the Spanish American War. He was recovering from wounds in the US at the time of the war. He did raise a volunteer regiment, the 20th Kansas that later saw action in the Philippines where Funston and Privates Trembly and White of the 20th Kansas all received the Medal of Honor. Funston was later a key player in the great San Fransico earthquake and on the Mexican border prior to WW I. He was slated to command all American forces in WWI when he died suddenly in 1916 in San Antonio. The command then went to Pershing.

bellkenneth Tom Berenger is a superb actor, and I think his talent is often overlooked. He was funny, affecting, and ennobling in "Major League," a comedy about a misbegotten baseball team. He was chilling, on a knife's-edge (a one-man Hitchcock plot - no way to tell where he was, or what he might do, or what he knew... but no mistaking the motivation and emotion, either... indescribably human, he was) in "Betrayed." His performance there was such that one hated and feared him from the very start, but ended up praying that he would not be slain. I heard little about his effectiveness in either case. And yet, there was, of course, his screen-shattering performance as Sgt. Barnes in the brilliant, alligorical, and hard-hitting Oliver Stone production, "Platoon." He won plaudits for that one, and well-deserved ones.In this one,"Rough Riders," he is given a juicy, meat-filled slice of adolescent Americana, to play - an incorrigible and inimitable American hero, the irrepressible Theodore Roosevelt. Rather than restraining himself, or attempting to portray TR as - well, as an adult - Berenger seems to let his performance carry itself, unconsciously. He is as over-the-top as TR himself. This is, at all times, under a thin, barely-controlled layer of respectability, very similiar itself to the state in which TR himself seemed to be born. TR's life, much of the time, was a bouncy, swashbuckling melodrama - and Berenger plays all of this to the hilt, and with the necessary controlled-abandon. He might be critisized for over-acting if it wasn't for the plain fact that this is, in fact, the way TR behaved. And anyone who cares to witness Mr. Berenger's other performances (including his most recent roll, as a delightfully dour and cynical sheriff, on USA's "Peacemakers") can see, his sensitivity to the depth of the characters he plays is extraordinary - one can almost pity him, in this case, for choosing to play a man who himself embodied unbelievable melodrama.Suffice to say, the entire picture is worth watching, just to see bully old Teddy back again, alive and in the flesh, trying to start a war, and then trying to fight and win that war... Berenger brings it all to life, brilliantly. He shouts "bully!" with enthusiasm, he studiously prepares several pairs of spectacles for his expedition to Cuba, we see him trying to improve his piping, asthma-riddled voice, the better to command his soldiers - and, later, we see him fall quite out of his chair at the jest of a comrade, declaiming, "I was overcome with mirth!" Such scenes will overcome the viewer with mirth, as well - but a knowing mirth.Having said that, this film's best moment is near the beginning, and it involves Illeana Douglas, who plays Teddy's wife, Edith, with a healthy dash of long-suffering tolerance, as if she would leave the set if she could just quit loving the man she'd married. Her defense of the macho (but defenseless) TR in the face of the French is played off terrifically. She comes across as precisely what Edith herself, in fact, was - a woman who had long since resigned herself to the hell-for-leather forays of her headstrong husband... and she defends him with the ruthlessness of a woman who knows that no foreigner will ever understand the boundless Americanism (or worldy childishness) of her husband.This is not a brilliant film, but it is an entertaining one. The battle scenes are well done, but, aside from what I mentioned above, the real fun in the picture is in the "boot-camp" scenes. A well-cast and icily forbidding Sam Elliott, along with the silent, brooding threat-in-being of David Midthunder, makes these scenes more interesting than the typical military drill-sergeant fare. By the end of the training process, even those watching the movie are longing for the approval of the aloof and mysterious Midthunder - who, in a nicely balanced final scene, explains himself in a way that banishes mystery, conjures comradeship, and evokes sympathy.One other character commends attention here. Gary Busey plays the ancient Confederate General Joseph Wheeler - a hero of the Civil War (for the South, anyway). Like Berenger, his acting is sure to be termed overdone, excepting the reality that his character was, in fact, a hell-for-leather, horse-riding, Yankee-skewering madman... And there is great pleasure in the watching of Busey bringing this nutty semi-senile General to life. He demands assurances from the President, and we see him repeatedly mistake the Spanish, who we Americans were fighting in this war, for "Yankees." (In the end, the addled, overweight, and over-enthusiastic General settles upon the phrase "them Yankee Spaniards," when referring to the enemy...) It is a fun portrayal of a man whose time has past, but who refuses to acknowledge the fact. Busey's Wheeler is so wound up in the sound of the guns, that he loses all reason, becomes delirious, and yet, beneath it all, hangs inadvertantly to the vestiges of heroism. I think there is little choice but to root for the ill-guided but irresistable General. Having such a melodramatic icon on screen with a viviedly-created TR is almost too much fun to bear. There is humour and adventure enough for all, in this. In the end, I recommend this picture for the terrific performances of Tom Berenger and Illeana Douglas, as well as the historical accuracy of much of it. I have left out, in these comments, sympathetic and effective performances by Chris Noth and Holt McCallany, who help make the movie go, and serve to tie the audience into the volunteer soldier idiom. Francesco Quinn brings patriotism, duty, and honour to life - unexpectedly (at least, to Anglo-Americans who know nothing of Latin qualities) in the guise of a love-struck Latin-American. His character, I think, speaks the most towards what modern soldiers might say, that we "all fight for each other." Quinn elevates these platitudes into reality, as the film portrays him carrying out his values, making decisions according to a code he had initially resisted in the interests of staying with his sweetheart. I have also left out Brad Johnson, who's trite "bad-man who learns honour" roll is, nevertheless, well-played. I could write much more... alas, just watch it, and see. A lot of fun. And very, very well done.