Buffalo Girls

This movie pulls out the two sides of me. On one hand it is entertaining. On the other hand, it is nearly completely historically inaccurate. Wild Bill, Calamity Jane, Dora Dufran, Buffalo Bill Cody, Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull were all real people. There are some portions of this movie that are as close to historically truthful as they can be. If I am being honest, no one really knows the whole truth about these famous people. My love for stories of the old west and the people in them makes this an entertaining show to me. The acting is very good and the sets interesting if again, looking nothing like the actual Deadwood and Black Hills. If you are going to watch this show, watch it for the love of Westerns and a decent story, not for the history that you can learn. Enjoy it purely for enjoyments sake.

Not sure how it was presented originally but now, in 2021, I was able to watch it on a single DVD, two 90-minute episodes. In 4:3 picture format. The first one focused on the 1870s with real characters like Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody. The second one contains a lot on the tour Buffalo Bill's Wild West show took through England a few years after.

Through it all the most featured character is Calamity Jane, depicted very well by Anjelica Huston. In the England segment Reba McEntire is very effective as Annie Oakley. All in all a very well presented set of stories about the old west.

My wife watched the first episode with me, I watched both. On DVD from my public library.

Here goes my passion for westerns :) I just watched "Buffalo Girls". To be honest, at the beginning I was reserved - western with women, huh... It's like prejudice. The one and only western with a woman main character I really love is "Cat Ballou" with Jane Fonda. Well, there are two such westerns now. You know, Buffalo Girls is one of those movies that come as a pleasant surprise. Anjelica Huston is Calamity Jane, Melanie Griffith is Dora DuFran. They both are doing very good job with their characters. And the support actors are just great. Jack Palance and Tracey Walter as two good old friends, simple people with simple naive dreams. Both actors I know since I was a kid and my dad took me to watch Tim Burton's "Batman". Jack Palance is one great actor, I enjoy his mere presence in movies. Tracey Walter's character is probably my favorite character in the movie. Peter Coyote, Keys from E.T. is also here. Charlayne Woodard makes a very good appearance. And of course Red Crow - this man just inspires. I've seen him in "Dances with Wolves", "Dreamkeeper" and "Hidalgo" (three great movies in my opinion), but I was really surprised to find out that he has done some voice acting for "Captain Planet and the Planeteers". "Buffalo Girls" is really good movie. After the end I felt that feeling that usually comes with western movies - pride, loneliness, nostalgia... Like I belong there in the praerie. Watching the sunset, listening to Willie Nelson and thinking "Those were the days..."

Wild. Untamed. Legendary. Buffalo Girls celebrates the bold escapades of tough-talking Calamity Jane Canary and her illustrious cohorts. It's the waning days of the Wild West and Jane, the rough 'n' rugged cowgirl, is searching not only for her long-lost daughter, but the Wild West she once knew.

This movie would probably never have come my way, except that when reading an interview with Tracey Walter, he praised this film highly, suggesting and implying that it was his favorite role. That really made an impression on me, and therefore I picked it up.

I feel mixed. On the one hand, the casting is amazing. For a television film, it has some really big names and that is impressive. I was also surprised how faithful it was to the historical record, including Calamity Jane's daughter. The costumes are a bit silly (especially the wigs) and the dialogue is not as strong as it could be, but overall this is a fairly decent movie.

I missed it's original release on television. This was a great find in the video store. They should have made it for the big screen. Fun, entertaining and refreshing. Congratulations to the actors and the filmmakers on a making such a wonderful movie. Well done!