Buffalo Bill And The Indians, Or Sitting Bull's History Lesson

In 1885, former buffalo hunter William F. Cody (Paul Newman), who has been turned into a legendary character named "Buffalo Bill" by writer Ned Buntline (Burt Lancaster), is the star of his own Wild West Show featuring reenactments of historical battles, trick riders, fast-draw acts, and sharpshooter Annie Oakley (Geraldine Chaplin). When Buntline arrives at the camp, Cody asks his business partner Nate Salsbury (Joel Grey) to get rid of him, but Buntline refuses to go until Cody meets with him. Cody is preoccupied with the show's new act, the Sioux Indian chief Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts), who through his spokesman Halsey (Will Sampson), demands blankets for all his people and six weeks advance salary, claiming that he has only agreed to appear in the show because a dream has told him he will meet President Grover Cleveland there. Sitting Bull is fired by Cody after he objects to the latter's untruthful staging of the battle of Little Big Horn which makes it appear that the Indians were the aggressors, but Cody hires him back after Annie Oakley threatens to quit.

To Cody's astonishment, he does receive a visit from President Cleveland (Pat McCormick), who stops at the camp while honeymooning with his new bride (Shelley Duvall). Following a special command performance, Cody throws a party for Cleveland, and the uninvited Sitting Bull crashes it to make a request of the President. Cleveland refuses to even hear the request, however, and Sitting Bull leaves the camp. Cody finally meets with Buntline and has a drink with him. Buntline agrees to leave after telling Cody that "it was the thrill of my life for having invented you." After it's reported that Sitting Bull has been found dead, Cody wakes up one night and tries to justify himself while drunkenly ranting to Bull's apparition. The next day, Halsey portrays Sitting Bull during a performance, and Cody easily defeats him in a fight as the wildly applauding crowd cheers him on.

Released in July 1976, right in the heart of that bicentennial summer's celebrations, BUFFALO BILL was greeted with apathy by the public and received a surprisingly harsh critical reaction. While some objected to Altman's "offensive" comic treatment of such a serious subject (the genocide of Indians at the hands of whites), and others attacked it simply as a "bad western," (even though it's actually meant to be an anti-western, a kind of post-modern "How the West Was Really Won"), the suspicion remains that deep down, most people really do prefer the lie and the glamorous myth of history, as promulgated by Cody and his publicists, over the unpleasant truth. It's as if they were saying that it's bad enough Altman has to remind us about how we massacred an entire race of people, but he's gone too far when he starts trashing westerns and "the show business," as Cody's callow nephew would say.

This ignores the film's genuine accomplishments, including the fact that it's pretty funny, and the superb performances of the ensemble cast, highlighted by Newman's marvelous turn as the blustery, drunken Cody. Full of false bravado and empty homilies delivered with somber gravity ("Too bad Injuns can't learn from you coloreds;" "God meant for me to be white...and it ain't easy"), the character takes on added resonance by being portrayed by one of Hollywood's all-time favorite leading men, particularly when his persona merges with Cody's during the finale and the camera zooms into Newman's twinkling blue eyes and sparkling capped-tooth smile after Cody has just "killed" Sitting Bull, practically daring the audience to dislike him. Kevin McCarthy as the cynical press agent, Joel Grey as the tiny promoter invariably hidden behind giant megaphones, and Geraldine Chaplin, performing some great trick shots as Annie Oakley, are all excellent, while Harvey Keitel is hilarious in a rare comic role as Cody's copycat nephew Ed. Beautifully shot entirely on an Indian reservation in Alberta, Canada, Altman creates a wonderful, carnival-like atmosphere, showing the various performers practicing their acts in the sprawling camp and using announcements over the p.a. system in the same ironic manner as in MASH (1970). With its scenes debunking the national anthem, recurring derisive shots of the US flag, and an explicit equation between show business and politics (long before it was obvious and fashionable), the film remains one of the most radical, left-wing movies to have ever come out of Hollywood. (Profanity, violence.) leave a comment