Boring

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

A fascinating recreation of an American legend. Certainly it's not factual. Oddly, one of the few true elements, the hero's descent into side-showing, emerges as a too-familiar cliché, though given a bit of flesh here by McCrea's admirably stoic acceptance and the idea that he's forced into showmanship not by gambling or drink but by sheer financial necessity. In fact Buffalo Bill, the man, is presented as a composite of all the virtues, whilst Buffalo Bill, the picture, is handled with such gusto and panache, so breathtakingly and colorfully photographed, so full of marvelous action with running inserts of stampeding cavalry and Indians on the warpath — all set against superbly eye-catching locations — and so ingratiatingly narrated by Reed Hadley that one can't help but cheer such a grand epic show, produced on such a ding-dong lavish scale. Great technical credits too, including a vivid score and faultless special effects.All this is not to say that "Buffalo Bill" doesn't have its faults. Miss O'Hara is the worst. Looks about as much like a frontier lady as a bird of paradise imitating a sparrow. Even in labor, she's incredibly painted and groomed. In the tiniest of tiny roles, Linda Darnell wipes out Miss O'Hara in their one scene together. McCrea of course is ideally cast. Amongst the support players, we glimpse George Chandler as a sleepy cavalryman and Sidney Blackmer as Teddy Roosevelt. All are effective, with the one proviso that Charles Winninger's old-age make-up is a bit phony and he tends to over-do his usual mannerisms.If I wanted to carp, I could complain about some of the obvious studio back-drops (particularly in the opening scene). Yet despite its occasional faults (and unlike Wellman, I loved the close-out), Buffalo Bill is one exciting movie. What exactly was Wellman's gripe? Here it is: "I didn't like the picture, but I tried to do the best I could with it, but when that poor little crippled kid at the end stands up and says, "God bless you, too, Buffalo Bill", I felt absolutely nauseated."On the other hand, I'm sure Wellman would agree with me that generally the script has its heart in the right place, with pertinent comments to make on wild life preservation and the fate of the Vanishing American. "There are better ways to die," says Yellow Hand when the white man sets about killing off the precious buffalo, "it's a bad thing to starve..." while Cody himself is given the final word on the subject: Dawn Starlight has been killed in battle. Sadly, Cody carries her away. "A friend of yours?" asks the General. "They were ALL friends of mine," Cody quietly replies.

Biopic of legendary frontiersman Buffalo Bill Cody, ably played by Joel McCrea. He fights with and for Native Americans. The two women in his life are senator's daughter Maureen O'Hara and Cheyenne schoolteacher Linda Darnell. O'Hara gets the guy but Darnell is radiant in Technicolor. Her character's name is Dawn Starlight, which is possibly my favorite name ever. The rest of the cast is solid, with Thomas Mitchell, Edgar Buchanan, and Anthony Quinn offering fine support. There's more fiction than fact here, as is usually the case with Hollywood biopics. It's pleasant, straightforward storytelling. Good but never quite as good as you hoped it would be.

While as Biography, "Buffalo Bill" is probably as accurate as the depiction of Custer in "They Died With Their boots On", it is still excellent film making and a fine vehicle for stalwart Joel McCrea, who, despite performances in excellent non-westerns such as "Sullivan's Travels" and "Foreign Correspondent" was known primarily as a Cowboy Star.I would also hold this film up as another example, along with John Ford's Cavalry Trilogy, of a film which depicted Native Americans as a noble race, victimized by the march of western civilization, long before the advent of films such as "Little Big Man" or "Dances With Wolves" The White Man is clearly the villain in this and the Ford films. Early on, Cody admonishes a Government representative, telling him that Yellow hand (Anthony Quinn, who also plays Crazy Horse in "They Died With Their boots On") is a Prince of his people, and should be treated as such.Plus, if the reunion at the shooting gallery and the Wild West Show farewell scenes don't put a lump in your throat, better check your pulse.

When this film was made, people were still in love with cars, freeways and bringing progress to the west. So it was quite an achievement to bring to the screen a divided hero, who from one side admired the Indian way of life, and who understood that the killing of the buffaloes would bring misery to the natives, but at the same time arranged buffalo hunts for people of the east, and as a scout helped the army fight the Indians. When he goes east and see stories written about him by Ned Buntline we know that it is impossible for him (as for any human being) to live up to them, and he is bound to end up in ridicule. People nowadays are more ecology conscious and that makes this film more meaningful than in 1944. The first part of the film shows the west and the war with the Indians with excellent battle scenes and great color. Maureen O'Hara is more beautiful than in any other film I've seen her and so is Linda Darnell. The second part is when Buffalo Bill goes east, and that is when the film is at its best.