Though a fictionalized Western based on George Armstrong Custer's 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the film is almost a generic war story covering the enlistment, training, and operational deployment of a group of recruits that could take place in any time period.
This is way too long, but maybe the absence of a star to top the billing gives the plot a little more of a chance, and the story is OK. It's a not unfamiliar love triangle type of tale - with soldiers "Harrod" (Tom Tryon) and "Rogers" (Harve Presnell) vying for the affections of the rather fickle "Lou" (Senta Berger) who seems to me quite adept at stringing both men along quite nicely. Once we escape from the rather dull romantic elements, the action sequences as both men have to put their hormonal differences aside and focus on the marauding Sioux start to hot up, and soon we've got a decent amount of whooping and tomahawk throwing as the army and the natives square up for quite a conflagration. It's colourful and entertaining once it gets going and though it offers little new, it is still a well produced and photographed western which with some pruning (almost all of the romance could go for a start) would still make for a decent cavalry story.