“A UNIQUE SIX-GUN MISFIRE”

By Raymond Benson

Robert Altman in the 1970s was a force to be reckoned with. Mostly his work displayed unconventional experimentation with form, narrative, and especially sound—and too often his stylistic choices failed to connect with a large, general audience. The iconoclastic director made some truly great pictures (M*A*S*H, Nashville) and some eccentrically inventive ones (Brewster McCloud, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Long Goodbye, 3 Women, A Wedding). He was often hit-or-miss, and certainly more on the miss side when he got into the 1980s. The 90s found Altman back on stable footing with a couple of additional brilliant films (The Player, Short Cuts), and more misses.

I was, and still am, a Robert Altman fan. I “got” what he was trying to do in his ensemble pictures—the ones featuring a large cast and a loose, improvisational storyline. However, in 1976, when Buffalo Bill and the Indians was released, I was not impressed. I remember intensely disliking the picture, especially after Nashville had been my favorite film of the previous year. I wrote off Buffalo Bill as one of Altman’s misses, and I never saw it again over the next forty years.

Having now viewed Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray release, I feel as if I’ve just seen a completely different movie from what I remembered. Granted, Buffalo Bill is still not one of the director’s classics—it assuredly belongs in the “miss” category (or rather, in this case, a “misfire”)—but it is much more fascinating and entertaining than it was for me in 1976.

“Inspired” by Arthur Kopit’s Broadway play Indians, the film attempts to be a revisionist satire on show business, myths and legends, and the Wild West itself. The opening titles proclaim it as “Robert Altman’s Absolutely Unique and Heroic Enterprise of Inimitable Lustre!” Set in the 1880s, Buffalo Bill focuses on William F. Cody himself (wonderfully played by Paul Newman) and his “Wild West (Show)” that toured the country and Europe, “re-enacting” famous Indian battles and other historical events in front of an audience. It was the “Medieval Times” of its day. The entire movie takes place at the arena where the company performs.

Cody, aka Buffalo Bill, was a man whose exploits were turned into myths by journalist/writer Ned Buntline (played in the film by Burt Lancaster), and he has come to believe them. Egocentric to the nth degree, Cody rewrites history for the benefit of showmanship. Newman is often hilarious in the role, but he gives the character a disturbing layer of madness. His entire team—his producer (Joel Grey), his nephew (Harvey Keitel), his publicist (Kevin McCarthy), and others in the troop— treats him like royalty, and Cody won’t have it any other way.

But things change when none other than Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts) is hired to be a performer. The fearsome Sioux chief (who really did perform in Buffalo Bill’s actual Wild West show for a few months) turns out to be a small, silent man who speaks through his large, imposing interpreter (Will Sampson). Sitting Bull eventually causes Cody to face the hard truths of his “lies.” By his insistence on recreating history as it actually happened, Sitting Bull symbolizes the plight of the Native Americans at the hands of the white conquerors.

Heady stuff for a movie released in America’s bicentennial year.

The performances are top notch, especially those of Newman, Grey, and Geraldine Chaplin as Annie Oakley. (There are also fine cameos by Altman regulars Shelley Duvall, Pat McCormick, John Considine, and Allan Nicholls.) The picture elicits quite a few laughs throughout, and the overall look and feel of the piece is dead on. What doesn’t work is the haphazard structure, the Ned Buntline interludes, and the bizarre finale in which Sitting Bull comes back from the dead to haunt Cody. It’s an acquired taste, something I apparently didn’t achieve back in 1976 when I first saw the picture. I like to think I’m older and wiser now, and therefore today the movie made more sense.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray looks all right, very colorful, if not pristinely restored. The extras include a not-quite five minute behind-the-scenes featurette, the teaser trailer, and the theatrical trailer.

The new release is a purchase for Robert Altman and/or Paul Newman fans, and, if you’re like me, someone who hasn’t seen the film since its original release. It might be time to give Buffalo Bill and the Indians a revisit.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER FROM AMAZON