Rough Riders (1997) on Netflix
Theodore Roosevelt, the Assistant Navy Secretary, gives up his post to raise a volunteer cavalry regiment for the war with Spain. Volunteers from every corner of the country join its ranks.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.3/102,484 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
The United States government decides in 1898 to take up the cause of the Cuban rebels fighting Spanish rule. Theodore Roosevelt, the Assistant Navy Secretary, wants to see the war first hand, so he leaves his post and helps raise a volunteer cavalry regiment, the 1st US Volunteer Cavalry. The unit becomes known as the Rough Riders, its ranks filled by men from every part of the country and every kind of background, among them the stagecoach robber Henry Nash and patrician men. Captain Bucky O'Neil and Colonel Leonard Wood serve among its officers, and the volunteers gather and train for the fighting ahead.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Rough Riders (1997)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Tom Berenger had starred in Gettysburg in 1993 for Ted Turner and was a long time admirer of Roosevelt; he pitched Turner the idea of a mini series on the Rough Riders, giving him an outline, and Turner agreed to finance a four-hour mini series for TNT.
- Berenger originally intended to play Colonel Leonard Wood, with Stephen Lang to play Roosevelt; Berenger said the mini series "needs a couple other names" and that it would be as much fun as Gettysburg was to do.
- Milius had tried to make a film about Roosevelt and the Rough Riders for a number of years but "nobody cared"; when he pitched a film about Roosevelt and the Spanish-American War, studios would say "It's not exactly a Western, and it's not a war picture, so what is it?"
- The film was shot in Texas over 48 days on a budget of $19 million, and as Milius put it, "Believe me, there were no trailers for the stars or anything."
- It has been speculated that Milius based Nash's character on William Sterin, who with three other men robbed a train in Arizona in 1889; O'Neill led the posse that captured them, they were sent to the Yuma Territorial Prison, pardoned in 1897, and in 1898 Sterin joined the Rough Riders under an assumed name.
- Rough Riders was the most watched basic cable original movie in the month of July, delivering 16 million households over its 10 plays.
