The Worst Film Ever

Perfect cast and a good story

Load of rubbish!!

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Charles Bronson stars as Wild Bill Hickock, and here suffers from nightmares of a giant white buffalo that charges him. So he wants to kill the giant buffalo for real! Then he travels with his friend (Jack Warden) and stops in various towns (meeting also an old flame), and even teams with Indian Crazy Horse, who is also his blood brother. The three men finally challenge the white buffalo for real and kill him.This Western is highly underrated, but it contains some surprises for movie buffs: is directed by J. Lee Thompson, and it stars also Kim Novak as Bronson's ex girlfriend, Will Sampson as Crazy Horse, John Carradine as a caretaker, Stuart Whitman as a unfortunate pickpocket, and Clint Walker (who passed away last week at age 90) as a famed outlaw. And even the soundtrack is nice.Recommended only to die-hard Western fans. And Jack Warden here is a hoot!

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

"It's not down on any map; true places never are." ― Herman MelvilleLee Thompson's "The White Buffalo" is a fine western undermined by a number of unnecessary dream sequences and poor special effects. The film stars the inimitable Charles Bronson as Wild Bill Hickok, an ageing gunslinger who team up with Chief Crazy Horse to track down and kill an infamous, murderous white buffalo.Though resemblant of Moby Dick – our heroes are a pair of violent obsessives - the film, like most westerns released after 1961, also functions as a giant allegory for the passing of time, the death of an era, and the slow demise of the Old West and its assorted totems (cowboys, wagons, Indians etc). In this regard, most Westerns are thoroughly stupid (everything from "Once Upon a Time In the West" to "The Wild Bunch" to "Junior Bonner"), using steam-engines, railways, machine guns, automobiles, trains, electricity, buffalo's or blaze of glory bloodbaths as clunky "metaphors" for what is essentially the death of a false image. Few genres are more self absorbed, mournful and dangerously nostalgic as the western.Bronson wears unusual sunglasses in this film; round lenses with leather side-guards. Were these available in the era depicted? 6/10 – Worth one viewing.

Chief Crazy Horse will join forces with Wild Bill Hickok and his Indian-hating long-time pal, Charley One-Eye, in pursuit of a giant white buffalo that is danger to all mankind. While the buffalo looks like something made in a Hollywood Jim Henson work shop that might pop up in a Neverending Story movie, I think it was important for the filmmakers to establish that this is larger than life and perhaps not just some ordinary creature any hunter could kill. Hickok has seen the buffalo in many a terrifying dream, knowing that he must find it or else he'll never have peace. Crazy Horse is out for revenge, his daughter a victim of the white buffalo's rampage through his people's village, his tears of agony reducing his role in the tribe from War Chief to Worm; he must find the buffalo, kill it, and take the skins back to his village, placing the fur around his daughter's dead body, freeing her soul from never-ending torment. Charley One-Eye sees $2000 worth of gold in the flesh of the beast, standing faithfully by Hickok's side, but their relationship becomes strained when Hickok befriends Crazy Horse. There are some great supporting parts (Jack Warden as high-strung, but reliable, Charley One-Eye Zane steals the film, even though his disgust for "redskins" can be tough to take; it is understandable that such sentiments would exist in abundance considering the race relations at the time of this story in the 1800s) such as Kim Novak (looking fabulous, but so woefully underused) as Poker Jenny Schermerhorn, a possible love interest if Hickok's life weren't preoccupied (she wants a little playtime with Hickok but he exasperatingly speaks about how such sexual relations aren't possible due to an incident involving his "peeper"), Slim Pickens as a stagecoach driver with a peculiar vocabulary (if you notice, the screenplay is full of colorful, quirky dialogue, attempting to authenticate the period and how the men of this time might talk), a gleam-in-the-eyes John Carradine as an undertaker who always appreciates business brought his way (Slim delivers unfortunate folks who suffer fatefully at the hands of the dangers of the Old West), Stuart Whitman as a no-good knife man who works with a con woman played by Cara Williams often working over victims who happen to ride the same coach as them, Ed Lauter as cowardly cavalry sergeant, Tom Custer, with an ax to grind with Hickok over a saloon incident, and especially Clint Walker as Whistling Jack Kileen, a towering figure who holds a grudge until those who earn his ire are dead. Douglas Fowley is a hoot as a conductor scolding Hickok for shooting his guns out of a nightmare awakening passengers on board a train seeing him to his destiny, even opening Wild Bill's story with some narration. The white bison is presented as a mystical creature symbolizing death to Hickok, its rampage handled in a way not to show direct contact on screen past seconds, as if it sweeps through, does the damage, and leaves the carnage as a reminder that while most of its kind are now damn near extinct (an incredible scene showing hills of bison bones as a telling example of man's unhinged need to satisfy greed and rob the land of the animals that walk the earth), man will be punished for the inability to co-exist with the buffalo. Contains statements about the inhospitable, hostile relations between the white man and red man, as Hickok attempts to make amends for his behavior in the past by offering peace with Crazy Horse, while Charley represents a racist hatred that runs so deep he'd soon shoot any Indian that comes in his sights. Will Sampson as Crazy Horse has quite a powerful presence; hesitant to get too close to the white man (for obvious reasons), yet dignified and courageous enough to accept Hickok's offer of food and shelter before their big hunt would really start. Atypical western for Chuck Bronson; his performance conveys a tired man who has burned every bridge and has lost all his friends, not even able to exist in the same proximity with his new one, Crazy Horse. You see the horror of the white buffalo, the fear that exists (look at how director J Lee Thompson shoots Chuck's eyes); it is a performance of subtlety, but I'm sure many will just call it non-acting. The location shooting of the cold, wintry landscape in the West our characters inhabit can be flat breathtaking. A criminally underrated western that deserves a second look, especially from Bronson's faithful.