Rough Riders (1997)

The surprising thing about this first screen account of the exploits of the most famous fighting regiment in the Spanish-American War is how mellow and reflective it is. Given that director John Milius' filmography includes such red-meat entrees as Red Dawn and Conan the Barbarian, his approach to America's little ten-week adventure in Cuba in 1898 might have come across as another excuse to thump one's chest over a splendid nation of fighting men. The first hints that Milius is going for nuance come with Tom Berenger's portrayal of Theodore Roosevelt. After the film opens with Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, giving a speech at the War College stating that the only way man can prove himself is in battle, the next hour or so of the film portrays young T.R. as an enthusiastic but admittedly inexperienced bumbler at military matters, as he quickly offers to subordinate himself to the more grizzled Leonard Wood (Dale Dye). When Edith Roosevelt (Illeana Douglas) visits her husband in Florida just as he is about to ship out for Cuba, he's more interested in making love to her than in bonding with his men. The Rough Riders are rightfully shown to be the world's first multicultural fighting unit, composed of everyone from Roosevelt's New York aristocratic pals to cowboys and Indians and Mexicans, and they're ably assisted by a unit of African-American soldiers, led by John Pershing (Marshall R. Teague). Milius and co-writer Hugh Wilson allow many of their vividly drawn cast of characters moments of reflection on cowardice and duty, but it all comes down in the end to the camaraderie of the regiment. Berenger, who co-produced, does a credible job of imitating Roosevelt's high-pitched voice and love of hyperbole, and he's ably backed by Dye and, as a frontier sheriff turned tough sergeant, Sam Elliott. History buffs will have a ball watching a parade of characters rarely portrayed in films: William McKinley (played by Brian Keith, who portrayed Roosevelt in Milius' underrated The Wind and the Lion), William Randolph Hearst (George Hamilton), Frederic Remington (Nick Chinlund), General Joe Wheeler (Gary Busey), and Stephen Crane (Adam Storke), who covered the war as a journalist and, according to this film, got rave reviews from the Civil War veterans who had read his classic The Red Badge of Courage. The Battle of San Juan Hill is ably staged, but in its aftermath, the film lingers in a less celebratory mood, as Roosevelt tearfully apologizes to the men for calling them cowards when they momentarily held back just before the final charge. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide