The historical epic didn’t experience a resurgence until the turn of the millennium when Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe single-handedly ushered in a short-lived revolution with Gladiator, which leaves you wondering whether or not Geronimo: An American Legend would have fared any better had it released a decade later.
After all, it ticks almost all of the boxes that came to define the sweeping tales set in the past that emerged in the aftermath of the aforementioned classic, with acclaimed The Warriors and 48 Hrs. director Walter Hill helming a script co-authored by Apocalypse Now and Conan the Barbarian scribe John Milius.
Then there’s the stacked cast, which saw Wes Studi in the leading role with support coming from Gene Hackman, Robert Duvall, Jason Patric, and even a young Matt Damon. In the end, though, An American Legend proved to be a disaster of colossal proportions at the box office, even if it did manage to land an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound.
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film only holds decidedly mediocre ratings of 48 and 51 percent, which might explain why it couldn’t even reach $19 million in ticket sales to go down as a thunderous flop. However, the historical epic can always be leaned upon to do a turn on streaming regardless of its reputation, with the Geronimo story becoming the latest to benefit in the medium’s enduring popularity.
Per FlixPatrol, An American Legend is one of the top-viewed titles on Netflix’s global charts this weekend, so at least it’s won a viewership battle long after losing the box office war.
