Touche pas à la femme blanche

Righteous indignation about the Vietnam war was no guarantee of artistic merit, as this fiasco demonstrates. Conflating Then and Now, the film has the 7th Cavalry clattering through the streets of modern Paris, while the Sioux roam Les Halles (a vast building site at the time). On orders from President Nixon, General Custer (Mastroianni) sets about extirpating the savages ('Cheyennes, Algerians...'), with assists from Buffalo Bill (Piccoli) and General Terry (Noiret). But Sitting Bull (Cuny) turns the tables, the sinister figures in CIA sweatshirts slink off, and Bull delivers the message: 'We still have other Custers to kill.' Despite that cast, the film's pervasive shallowness and silliness render it unendurable.