Buffalo Girls

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..."

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.

This is an amazing movie. The only reason the IMDb rating is 6.7 is because this TV movie is such a secret. A lot of people have never seen it or heard of it. Otherwise, it would garner a solid 8.5 or 9!

This is a 3 hour story that pulls true bits from history into a novel story about Calamity Jane, which she narrates thru letters written to a child she gave up for adoption. Angelica is absolutely convincing as Calamity Jane. Her accent & appearance and heart is fully in every moment of the film, as are the other players - and it is a 100% perfect feat of casting.

There are so much wonderful dialogue & so many quotes throughout the movie - within Calam's narration to the banter of Jim & Bartell to the in-charge Doozie, and the wise observations of No Ears.

It's full of humor and drama, and then there are the most bittersweet moments!

Highly recommended!

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.

Angelica Houston is marvelous as Calamity Jane as is Melanie Griffith as a real life Brothel owner...Sam Elliott plays Wild Bill Hickcock as a charming rogue. His characterization makes sense when you realize Hickok died a young man and probably didn't have a chance to grow old to maybe find out who he really was... It's an interesting take on the character, but to me the revelatory performances,in this film are Jack Palance and Tracy Walter... I could watch them all day as old men who loved the West and its freedom. You can absolutely feel it when they start to yearn for the old days when Buffalo and Beaver were abundant. Somehow they make me yearn right along with them. Great great actors.