THE WHITE BUFFALO
I've always lived by the rule that Charles Bronson never made a movie not worth seeing at least once. It has never failed me and still hasn't. I remember seeing the poster for THE WHITE BUFFALO and thinking "a monster movie about a giant buffalo? I'm intrigued but also confused. Yet it has Charles Bronson." Around this time big Dino de Laurentiis had put out ORCA and KING KONG and I assumed this would be similar and obviously the marketing people thought so to by the looks of the Boris Vallejo poster.
Big Chuck plays Wild Bill Hickok who is traveling under the alias of James Otis. It seems Bill is having trouble sleeping as he frequently dreams of a violent encounter with a giant white buffalo. About the same time a giant white buffalo has trampled an Indian village, killing many, including the daughter of Crazy Horse(Will Sampson). In order for her soul to be at rest Crazy Horse must kill the buffalo, which sets him on the same path as Hickok. So we don't have a monster movie in the traditional sense but more of a slaying your inner monsters who in this case happpen to be manifested in the shape of a giant white buffalo. Throw in the common theme of the vanishing west and the men who made it and we got a message movie. Not your most popular genre in 1977, the allegorical western with Chuck Bronson and a great white buffalo so I suppose I can sympathize with the marketing guys. "What do we do? I don't even get it. Are there titties? Do buffalo eat people? I'm scared." But in their defence, the Boris Vallejo poster is pretty cool.
Along the way we get an assload of bit parts by cool guys like Slim Pickens, Clint Walker,Stuart Whitman,old whore voiced Kim( Look Out Doug McClure, she's Satan) Novak and John Carradine. There's gun fight or two, and a run in with the not long for this world Tom Custer ( brother of George). One of the highlights has to be the insanely cool lingo that is used, like calling a buffalo a spike, a blow job is flying the eagle or just saying "flummery". It's similar to TRUE GRIT in that respect. People, mostly idiots, seem to like to compare this to JAWS which is just wrongheaded. Ignore them, don't answer the door, whatever it takes. There are complaints about the buffalo prop looking fake. It's looks fine, shut up. If you like weird westerns with a metaphysical bent, you'll like it. The outdoor photography looks great, the indoor set stuff looks like an indoor set but so what. It's adds something to the dreamlike atmosphere. I doubt there's a big rush to get this out on dvd in the States, so you're gonna have to look for it but it's well worth seeing for somebody looking for something different.
"I'm sick and tired of this motherfuckin' buffalo on this motherfuckin' plain!"