Buffalo Bill & the Indians | | Cast : | Paul Newman, Joel Grey | | Director : | Robert Altman | | Studio : | MGM/UA Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen | | Released Date : | June 24, 1976 | | DVD Released Date : | May 08, 2001 | | Language : | Unknown (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | May 19, 2005 | | Summary | A History Lesson, Of Sorts. | Content
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I too first saw this film in a theatre in 1976 after its release; I was with a few other people and to this day none of them probably care for this movie.
I read a lot on the west and have several books about Buffalo Bill Cody, so I wanted to see what Mr. Altman had done with this movie. I can not argue with anyone who doesn't care for this picture, would not try to couch my review so that they would.
Though I realize that the film doesn't give a total picture of what was going on at this time in the still unsettled west it does have a quality of those times to it. Buffalo Bill here is not the young, agile Army Indian Scout of old, nor the brazen hero awarded the Medal of Honor, he has been tempered both by age and the bottle; but let no one doubt that he in fact had done many things that were historical. He was notable and respected in his time, and more over he was a capable western man and scout. Later he was bankrupt not only in money but also in spirit; and his final show days with the 101 Wild West show are pitiful to this day.
One needs to remember, too, that shortly after Sitting Bull left Wild Bill's show, he was savagely murdered by his own Indian Police tribesmen at Pine Ridge Reservation. Though the movie doesn't bring this out, and that was not never its intent, the 'west' was yet an unsettled area in some places, with several places being very dangerous. There are some western writers who claim the Apache were still making raids out of the Sierre Madre into the 1930s.
But men like Buffalo Bill and Frederick Remington who realized not only that the western times were changing, saw their 'west' disappearing, being replaced by something alien, with which they were totally unfamiliar. Each man attempted in his own way to keep "their" west alive in order that later people could visually see and understand it as they had experienced it. Today both men have come in for more than their share of disrespect. In the several college history of art courses I took, not a single painting of our American west was ever to be found in either text book or on mid-term exam.
Some of the flux existing in these times has been captured brillantly on film by Mr Altman, whether that was his intent or not. Even Burt Lancaster's character, Ned Buntline, is at odds & ends and seems to be very much adrift in that new west that is replacing the old west. Even his blue G.A.R. uniform of Civil War days harkens back to a more familiar time, and as he rides off for the final time he doesn't have a clue where he is going.
I treasure this movie and watch it not only for its surrealism, symbolism, and realism, but because it does attempt to show the physical being and personalities of the Wild West Show itself. I'm old enough to have heard and read of what this show looked like, but thanks to Altman's sets I can more plainly realize it, and realize it in blazing color.
I think and have always thought that this is a very worthwhile movie.
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| Rating | | | Date | December 25, 2004 | | Summary | Buffalo Buffoon | Content
| The one thing about the great directors is that even their misfires are interesting which is the case with "Buffalo Bill and the Indians". Director Robert Altman wants to make the case that the mythology of the wild west is a sham and it's greatest legend, "Buffalo Bill" Cody, is an egomaniacal showboat. Altman makes his case from the start and reiterates this theme throughout the film incoherently. On paper it is brilliant casting of cinema's biggest star, Paul Newman, as Cody to play the west's biggest star. But Newman, for the first time in a major motion picture, seems confused as to how to play this character. Newman isn't the only one to flounder in this muddle. Included in the cast are Burt Lancaster, Harvey Keitel, Geraldine Chaplin, Joel Grey and few of them are given any grist to sink their teeth into. The film is a series of scenes that do not cohere. Even the penultimate scene where Cody confronts the ghost of Sitting Bull is incoherent. I debated whether to give this film two or three stars. It's not exactly boring, but it is a mess. |
| Rating | | | Date | December 20, 2004 | | Summary | One of Altman's best | Content
| I saw this film when it was first released in 1976 with two other people in the theater. Its beautiful to look at, funny (as only Robert Altman can be) and Altman gets great performances from his huge cast (Paul Newman, Joel Grey, Kevin McCarthy, and a nearly silent Shelly Duvall are wonderful). Don't expect history or any deep revelations. It gives you plenty to think about, and plenty of laughs along the way. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 16, 2004 | | Summary | Beginner's Altman...... | Content
| If you had never heard of Buffalo Bill or read e e cummings' poem, I think it is doubtful you would appreciate the satire of this Robert Altman film. As a teenager, I read a youth-oriented biography of Buffalo Bill, and from that gathered he was a "real" hero who killed and skinned lots of buffalo. Also around that time (1950s?) the musical `Annie Get Your Gun' with Ethyl Merman first wowed Broadway crowds and Doris Day made an Annie Oakley film (the title escapes me) that led folks to think kindly of Bill who gave her a job in his show. Bill was viewed as a sort-of early PT Barnum. Given my changing attitudes as I matured and came to understand the sick mentality and wanton ways of early Western Americans who killed wholesale, I have perhaps a better appreciation of Altman's effort. Even so, I don't find this film particularly entertaining (i.e. I won't waste time watching it again).
In those insensitive days of yore, "the only good Indian was a dead Indian" or so the cowboys in Western films often said. By 1976, when Altman first released BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, OR SITTING BULL'S HISTORY LESSON, many people's consciousness had been raised, but I seem to recall the film was not an overwhelming success, because many of us still did not quite understand the atrocities that had been committted. As a result, many of us really noticed Altman only a few years later when he made the film MASH.
This film BUFFALO BILL makes me feel sad because I was once so ignorant as to believe mistreatment of Indians was "the American Way." After all, I was a fan of "Death Valley Days" hosted on tv by the actor Ronald Reagan, who pointed out week after week "how the west was won." It would be years before someone made a satirical film of the same name.
This is not Paul Newman's best film. I guess by the 1970s he wanted to be seen as a serious actor, so he went out of his way to make films which did not feature him as male cheesecake. Newman has proved time and again he can do drama and comedy, but he's a lot funnier in "Rally Round the Flag" a leftest spoof of the Pentagon Brass.
The DVD is technically fine, and certainly if you are interested in Altman's progress as a director this is a good place to begin. Joel Grey, Geraldine Chapman and Burt Lancaster are featured in the film. The fellows who played the Indians were not provided credits on the DVD cover, though I think I saw their names briefly in the film credits.
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