i blame birth of a nation myself for commence the long running tradition of hollywood travesty of history and of which there can be few great example than this . apart from get the name of custer and his 7th cavalry and crazy horse and the sioux and president grant spell right and the geography correct and the fact that custer and his men be indeed wipe out to a man and the rest just take hyperbole and invention to ludicrous limit . throw in some downright hackneyed scene of the pure exposition and ( try custer and his wife learning of the phony gold rush to excuse the invasion of the sioux territory and custer testimony in front of congress plead the right of the red indian and to top it all and custer storm into the president office to beg to return to his post ) and honestly there plenty more of the same and some of these scene almost comical in their corniness . . and yet and and yet and it still a great actioner with flynn as dashing a ever and dehavilland as beguiling a ever and the young anthony quinn get a start a crazy horse and director walsh as barnstorming a ever in his depiction of crowd scene and of course the tumultuous action sequence . ford teach u in liberty valance to believe the legend before the truth . here i think be close to the legend of the legend but hey and it only a movie and a rollicking and wonderfully enjoyable classic hollywood movie at that .