Sfida a White Buffalo

In fact, "The White Buffalo" may on the surface appear to be just another Dino De Laurentiis production of the time like "King Kong" or "Orca", but it's rather intriguing and very moody. It's really an offbeat character study in which the character in question, none other than Wild Bill Hickock (Charles Bronson) has to face an internal demon of his by also doing battle with a real one, supposedly the last of the great white buffaloes that have mostly been wiped out.

On his way to meet his destiny, Wild Bill - now travelling under the alias James Otis - meets a variety of colourful characters, including his old friend Charlie Zane (a hearty Jack Warden) and Poker Jenny (Kim Novak, looking as beautiful as ever). Some of his encounters get intense, with the requisite amount of gunfire and bloodshed, but things really pick up once Bill and Charlie make the acquaintance of the Indian named Crazy Horse (Will Sampson), who is on his own quest to slay the beast.

The special effects may draw criticisms from some viewers, but this viewer never had any problem with them, and certainly appreciated seeing old style animatronics. The wintry atmosphere of "The White Buffalo" is incredible, accompanied by genuinely spooky music by John Barry, and the film has a wonderful spiritual quality not to be found in other collaborations between Bronson and director J. Lee Thompson. It's an unconventional choice of material for them, and today it rates as an under-rated entry on their resumes.

Much of the cast are relegated to cameo roles, but make the most out of their brief screen time: Clint Walker, Stuart Whitman, Slim Pickens, John Carradine, Cara Williams, Douglas Fowley, Ed Lauter, and Martin Kove, among others.

With this assemblage of talent and a decent script (by Richard Sale, based on his novel), this makes for fairly compelling viewing.

Seven out of 10.

'The White Buffalo' is one strange western. Some call it western version of the 'Jaws'. Anyway, this is not bad movie at all, far from greatness, but definitely entertaining. The buffalo itself isn't very scary as a monster, but rather hokey. The film is carried by star power of Charles Bronson who gives stellar performance as Wild Bill Hickok on the hunt of terrifying white buffalo. He is supported by wonderful cast with Will Sampson and Jack Warden, and Kim Novak, John Carradine and Ed Lauter making cameos. After magnificently directed opening scene rest of the film might feel little bit let down, but the atmosphere is held together by John Barry's haunting score.

Nothing sensational or thought provoking, but still worth to watch when you want to see some different twist in the western genre.

The thing about the White Buffalo itself is pretty hokey, the buffalo is really not scary enough to give anybody nightmares. What makes this movie a standout are the supporting roles by Stuart Whitman, Kim Novak, Jack Warden, etc. Also it's great to see Will Sampson as Crazy Horse. However the best thing about this movie is the language. Words like "flummoxed" appear. It's how I imagine people in the 1870's would have talked in the American West. I cannot recall another Western where language has been put to better use.

To understand the failure of WHITE BUFFALO, one has to explain what moviegoers and critics were expecting when the film was released back in 1977.

WHITE BUFFALO was released in the late 1970s, in between KING KONG and ORCA, which were all produced by Dino de Laurentiis. WHITE BUFFALO was seen then as part of this unofficial "Big Animal on the Rampage" trilogy de Laurentiis produced. This is unfortunate because amongst the three movies, WB is the best and, clearly, the most misunderstood movie of the bunch, and one of the most misunderstood movies ever made. Timing is everything and in WHITE BUFFALO's case, everything went against it.

After the spat of spaghetti westerns made during the 1960s and early 1970s, audiences grew tired of them. They wanted something else. By the early 1970s to mid 70s, the number of westerns was dwindling fast and western stars like Charles Bronson needed to make a transition away from the tired genre. In 1974, Bronson starred in DEATH WISH, which became a huge hit all over the world. Bronson was suddenly seen as a contemporary action hero (Clint Eastwood also made the same transition from western star to action hero with the Dirty Harry series around the same time).

By the time WHITE BUFFALO was released, Charles Bronson had made a couple of modern-day action movies and his new audience (that made DEATH WISH such a smash) expected to see the Charles Bronson they knew and liked in contemporary action roles and were disappointed with what WHITE BUFFALO had to offer in terms of action, violence and sex.

But then the people who still remembered Charles Bronson as a western movie star were also disappointed with WHITE BUFFALO because the role Charles Bronson played, the legendary Wild Bill Hickok, was so different from the type of roles he did in his previous westerns that they didn't warm up to this strange shoot 'em up.

And then there are the horror/sci-fi fans, who went to see KING KONG or JAWS, and expected to see another type of "Big Animal on the Rampage" film, and were clearly disappointed with WB because it is NOT a JAWS-like movie (even if there are some scary JAWS-like moments in WB). This is due mainly to the terrible advertising from the studio, which had NO idea how to sell this odd western, and decided to sell WB as a "Big Animal on the Rampage" film because of the theme present in the title and story.

So, when one looks at all of this in hindsight, one can clearly see that WHITE BUFFALO simply had NO chance of succeeding, with critics or at the B.O., regardless of how good or bad the movie was in itself. There were too many misleading and conflicting factors outside of the film itself for anyone to have a clear and objective view of it. This is why it's always good to look at a movie decades after it was made when all the hype and/or expectations are by now forgotten or gone and one can (hope to) view a movie for what it was, not necessarily for what people, critics or even movie studios and stars expected it to be. So when I watched WHITE BUFFALO recently (I had already seen it back in the 80s and always remembered it), I was pleasantly surprised by it. It is much better than what anyone thinks of it.

I'm the first to say that Dino de Laurentiis is a hack. And that director J. Lee Thompson is not a very good director. And that Charles Bronson is not the best actor in the world. But even with all these seemingly negative elements, WHITE BUFFALO is pretty good. It's obvious that Bronson and Thompson saw an opportunity to create something that was close to their hearts and basically created an "artsy" kind of western, most likely without Dino being aware of this. Yes, there are several problems with WHITE BUFFALO but the good qualities of the movie overshadow the bad ones. And watching the movie today, one can clearly see that the film is supposed to be seen, first and foremost, as a MYTHICAL ALLEGORY (It's no wonder United Artists had no idea how to sell this movie. How do you promote an allegorical film?) The white buffalo; the meeting of Wild Bill Hickok and Crazy Horse, etc. The dream-like atmosphere is what makes WHITE BUFFALO so memorable. The conflicting narratives, between the standard western and the one with allegorical elements, give the latter even more power because as we watch the movie, one sorta forgets that the film has a white buffalo in it and when it finally arrives, the whole thing seems even more unreal. Imagine a western directed by David Lynch.

Aside from the couple of shots where you can clearly see the track on which the mechanical buffalo is mounted on, the buffalo itself is okay. There isn't any scene in WB that last long enough with a clear view of the mechanical animal to have a really good idea how it looks like. The scenery is beautiful and the music by John Barry is excellent. And there is a strange, foreboding claustrophobic mood that permeates the whole film. And Jack Warden gives an excellent performance as Bill's partner. His performance anchors the dream-like film. WHITE BUFFALO is NOT the disaster that everyone claims it to be. And it definitely has a cult following.

I know a lot of people are not too impressed with this film. However when i first saw this about 14 years ago the images and atmosphere and chilly locations made an impact on my mind. I have seen this film several times and agree it is not one of Charles Bronson's best efforts but I still love watching this film regularly. The hunt for the white buffalo in the Black Hills is presented as a psychological battle in the mind of Wild Bill Hickok (Bronson) and a spiritual one for Chief Crazy Horse (Will Sampson). Sure the creature itself may look unrealistic,but the concept of battling your nightmares and the teaming up of two racial enemies as well as the dark cold almost sinister locations make this an interesting experience in my view. I also feel the dialogue is extremely appropriate with the use of 'Gold Diggers slang'. I am sure I am in a minority when I say I like this film so much.