Pretty Good

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

It's unfortunate that Paul Newman chose this film's leading role. This film contributes as does others of its genre, a demoralizing of Native Americans and certainly depicts Pres. Grover Cleveland refusal and insensitiveness to Chief Sitting Bull's request so typical of U.S.A. government then and now. What was Chief Sitting Bull's request? "Return our land to us; we are the rightful owners!" Would you honestly show this film to Native Americans? Newman has presented himself in other social "justice" films; however, I feel he struggled with this film as is evident by his role in which he became a "hostage" to the script. That is, Newman failed (or rather,the director)to connect with the intent of the author's mythology and realism; instead, the viewer could only connect with Newman and not the intended character he played.

I am a huge Robert Altman fan and, I have to admit, I really hated this film the first time I saw it. Most of his films have fairly slow paces which can sometimes be enjoyable and can other times be challenging; however, my initial reaction to the pace of this film was incredibly tedious, boring, and *really* tried my patience to the point where it was not an enjoyable experience in any way. So, I watched the whole thing, went to bed, then watched it the next night after reading a bit of historical context into Buffalo Bill. It helped a *great* deal with the multi-tasking of following some the historical context of what was said in the film while simultaneously enjoying the individual subtleties of the cast's improvisation. The eclectic cast is really wonderful even at their most subtle as in most Altman's films. I particularly enjoyed Will Sampson, Geraldine Chaplin (my favourite role of her's here), Burt Lancaster, and, of course, Paul Newman...even Harvey Keitel was great. If anything, one should take in the cast of this film and I encourage anyone to do a Google search of some kind just to get a bit of historical context of Buffalo Bill before watching, as I did, if you don't know too much. Certainly, by no means, is this film up to par with other Altman masterpieces like 3 Women, but worth two viewings if you are interested in seeing most of his films.

A film that divides critics equally, Robert Altman's 1976 offering is a clunky movie that fails to sparkle and delivers far less than it should. Flowing haired Paul Newman plays the titular hero, and the premise centres around his Wild West sideshow and his attempts to lure the legend that is white-American nemesis Sitting Bull into the show ring. Meanwhile, the great red Indian chief secretly has his own agenda, and the stand off comes in Newman sacrificing historical fact for blatant commercialism whilst Sitting Bull wants his opportunity to put the record straight on behalf of him and his people. Altman went on record and denied any deliberate political allegory, but there is certainly plenty of evidence to suggest otherwise. The main problem with the movie for me is that a Wild West sideshow with the chief protagonists turned into circus acts just doesn't work. And whilst Gerladine Chaplin is highly watchable as Annie Oakley, with her breathtaking shooting skills ready to go wrong at any minute, there is little to engage the viewer here and it doesn't rise above the mediocre. Newman delivers his lines admirably, and, for such a consummate professional is not inconvenienced by the fact that the movie misfires, but it's too slow in places. He was very similar in WUSA, where he was perfectly able to display his skills with ease whilst all around him was uninspiring, but there are a few too many movies like that in the Newman cannon. This is probably for strict Newman or Altman fans only (unless you really want to spot a youthful looking Harvey Keitel) but you won't be rushing to see this one again and again.

I was not particularly fond of "Buffalo Bill and the Indians" when I saw it in the theater in 1976. I found the story ponderous and the cinematography rather difficult to handle. When the movie was first released in 1976, quite a bit of controversy surrounded the washed out color and hazy yellow filter Altman had used to film the movie. I believe the intention was to make the movie look like a faded photograph. The final effect, at least to my eyes, was the equivalent of watching the film through yellow tinted sunglasses that were very, very dirty. I simply did not care for it. Nonetheless I couldn't deny it had made a strong impact on the feel of the film. I recently watched the movie in HD on cable and was shocked to see that the hazy yellow filter that once colored the entire film was gone. The story was still ponderous but the images were as brightly colored as if they had been filmed for a TV movie. The image was much easier to watch but it caused me concern. By removing the filter, MGM had completely changed the feel of the film. Even though I hadn't liked it, this was no longer the movie that Altman had intended. It was like colorizing a black and white film. I know that the movie was re-edited by Dino de Laurentis for European release and that Altman had denounced the changes that had been made. Perhaps the removal of the filter was made for this re-edited international version. I really don't know because I never saw it, but if it was, it should be restored to the original for modern distribution. I find this a troubling precedent for the release of experimental films like this for DVD. The audience can no longer experience the film as it was intended. I can only hope that when the film is released on Blu-Ray they will allow the option of watching the film both with and without the filter Altman intended. As strange a failure as it was for a seasoned director like Altman to make, the look of "Buffalo Bill" and the Indians should be preserved as he had intended it.