The White Buffalo
May. 01,1977 PGIn this strange western version of Moby Dick, Wild Bill Hickok hunts a white buffalo he has seen in a dream. Hickok moves through a variety of uniquely authentic western locations - dim, filthy, makeshift taverns; freezing, slaughterhouse-like frontier towns and beautifully desolate high country - before improbably teaming up with a young Crazy Horse to pursue the creature.
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Reviews
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
I have seen almost all the films signed by J. Lee Thompson, a very good director, a lot of action films. He worked very often with Charles Bronson, a very dear actor, for him and for me. This is not one of the best, neither for Bronson or Thompson. It's decent enough but, the subject itself and how that buffalo look, it's more appropriate for teenagers. The best performances comes from Will Sampson and Jack Warden.
Some people read this film as being some sort of socio-political / existentialist metaphor /allegory . Would it be too simplistic to suggest it's simply a bad movie ? You can understand why a film like this might have some deeper meaning . It does have J Lee Thompson as director who did make the well regarded ICE COLD IN ALEX which did pit human beings against the amoral opponent of the Sahara Desert and so one might be forgiven thinking if THE WHITE BUFFALO is really about man versus nature . It's also a film that has a relatively big name cast but lets be honest how many times have you seen a big name ensemble cast in a movie and come to the conclusion there's no difference between being an actor and being a whore ? If you've seen as many bad movies as I have then I have no doubt that the average prostitute has higher standards than the average movie star Everything about this movie is summed up by the plot summary of the title page of this website : " In this strange western version of JAWS Wild Bill Hickok hunts a white buffalo he has seen in a dream " which is no doubt a euphemism for " Look guys it's not really a bad film , we're trying to be all metaphorical and poetic here , please be kind and gentle to us " . I'm afraid that when you're watching a film and you constantly find yourself laughing all the way through it as on screen events play out then it's not poetic film in the same way that Terence Malik would have directed but more of an unintentional comedy . Perhaps if you're going to be unkind then THE WHITE BUFFALO can be described as " Stylistic parody " but even then you're being more kind to a film that deserves little kindness
What haunts the famous gunslinger of the West? A Native American who attacked the settlers? A group of Calvary soldiers who were fighting against the tribes? Well, it's none of them! The thing that haunts Wild Bill Hickok (Charles Bronson) is a white buffalo! Not only he was affected, Chief Crazy Horse (Will Sampson) has been too. When his daughter was killed by its stampede, he would give a mourning shout. For that, he was later reduced to the name, "Worm". This creature is far more elusive than Crazy Horse, himself. So Hickok goes by another name, James Otis. He does have one friend in the saloon, when Custer (Ed Lauter), and his Calvary confronted Hickok. But Hickok, took them out. After meeting Charlie Zane(Jack Warden), they go on the quest to find gold claims. Rather than finding the claims, they run afoul of Crazy Horse. Since they are enemies, they would bridge the gap between them to fulfill a quest: Hunt the White Buffalo. The Lakotas did have rivals back then, other Indian tribes who would want to take out Crazy Horse. Then it came the ultimate showdown: Men vs. Beast. And the nightmare was over for both. Of course, both of these enemies met a different fate later on. What did this animal do to this man? It's supposed to be a pure creature, however, this one is anything but that! Great, but weird movie of the Old West. 3 out of 5 stars
To me this movie is one of those romp types of films where you can almost feel that you are gleaning an actual glimmer of what the times it was set in were actually like. Beyond hearing phrases like "marble hat" and "wooden suit"...which immediately reminded me of "Treasure of the Sierra Madre"...where Bogart's character warned he would "let it out of you in little round holes" (reminiscent of the gunfighter saying "you'll be pushin' up daisies"!)...I really liked the ambiance of this movie...the barren gloominess of the snow and the sereneness of it all...with a backdrop of unpredictable terror provided by the/a treacherous behemoth (that ALWAYS must be dealt with) personified by the unpredictable buffalo...that was actually like a fleeting, supporting character in the grand scheme of the story. But the MAIN thing I liked (in addition to appearances by favorites like Stuart Whitman, Jack Warden, John Carradine and Will Sampson) is how it reminded me of the HARD men of the past! How they MUST have been SO rugged and resourceful. I like...no I LOVE...to escape this...OUR time of the meterosexual and the politically correct, SOFT men and people of today! Watching this movie (and choice, timeless ones from the 70s and earlier...as the 80s brought an irreversible tinge of hazy pseudo to EVERYTHING!) took me back to when men were MEN!! I am, quite frankly, disgusted by what we have become in this society. Thank God I can see a movie like this and not only feel a bit of nostalgia from when I was growing up as a starry-eyed, young kid (yes, I saw this movie a LONG time ago and always liked it)...but I can get a decided feel (especially watching old westerns) of/for what REAL men were like in our country's past...HARD men like Wild Bill Hickok and Crazy Horse...men of the frontier! The ghost-like screenplay/music (especially in the ending credits) mixed with these legendary subjects will always be alluring for grudgingly- sentimental and romantic fellows like me.