They Died With Their Boots On: Video Analysis

The first video clip from, They Died with Their Boots On, had one specific part to it that stood out. Just like any paintings, it showed a brief couple of seconds of George standing on top of the hill alone, and even though he was surrounded by Indians he went down swinging. The way this clip showed the 7th was in a very interesting way, they showed none of the other soldiers standing except for George. This made it easy to pick out which one he was but also it made it easy to show that he was a proud strong fighter with courage. It also showed him dying like a hero. He was surrounded by Indians and out of ammo in both of his pistols, yet he still pulled out his sword and looked death directly in the eyes. The second video clip from, Sons of Morning Star, showed something very interesting. It showed the historic pose of George looking death in the eyes just like all the paintings depict but what it also showed is something very interesting. It showed him not being the last man alive. One thing I thought was very interesting is when it showed George going down, it also showed the 7th flag going down. The reason for this was to show that it truly was the end and that no one was going to overcome the battle. This video clip showed George as more of a leader and not a fighter. It didn’t show him actually firing shots at the
Indians until the very end but instead of him commanding his men to battle and instructing them on how to fight. After learning about George a little bit more in class and that my previous depiction of George was what most historians would believe to be inaccurate, the third video clip, Little Big Horn, shows George as a mad man and what would seem to be a more logical depiction of what really happened.
This video clip made it very easy to tell which character was George due to him wearing his yellow and white clothing. In this video clip though, instead of being shown as a hero who went down fighting, he was shown as a man who was almost going insane. He still went down proud and in this video just like the first he went down as the final man
standing. The fourth video clip, Little Big Horn, General Custer’s Men are Annihilated by the Cheyenne and Lakota, again shows George wearing his yellow and white clothing. The two parts of this video clip that stood out the most were when the Indians attempted to steal the American flag and George heroically takes it back and stabs it in the ground. This was very symbolic because it showed that he was not going to give up and he was going to fight for what he believed in until the very end. The other part that stood out was how the showed the white horse standing at he ends. George is again showed as the last man standing and looks death in the eyes and died a noble death but what was interesting is how the horse stayed there even after everything happened. “Whether Custer be hero, villain or simply fool, and in whatever medium when it comes time for him to die he is, with few exceptions, magnificent” (Dippie 125). All of these clips are very relatable in many ways. George is shown standing out from all of the other men in the 7th. Whether it is due to him wearing different style and colors of clothing or due to him being the only one standing we always who which character he is. Another similarity is how all of these clips battles are ended. They all show George being the last or one of the last men standing, in all of the clips his weapon of choice was a pistol or two, and he always looked death in the eye as the battles drew nearer and nearer to the end. The significance of this is how the image of George was and still is for the most part today. All of the men in the 7th including George knew they were going to die; they all knew there was no chance of escape but they kept fighting on. They were courageous they were honorable and they died a noble death. In every video clip, they were surrounded and picked off one by one yet they kept fighting till no one was able to any more. The reason this image has continued to be around and continued to be a part of the present day is because it showed the, “qualities that Americans wanted their sons to have” (Dippie 126). All of the men in the 7th that died were hero’s, but George was a special brand of hero.