The White Buffalo is directed by J. Lee Thompson and adapted to screenplay by Richard Sale from his own novel of the same name. It stars Charles Bronson, Will Sampson, Jack Warden, Clint Walker, Slim Pickens and Kim Novak. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Paul Lohmann. Plot finds Wild Bill Hickok (Bronson) and Crazy Horse (Sampson) teaming up to fight a giant white buffalo during the bleak winter of 1874. Hickok is plagued by nightmares of the beast, Crazy Horse is out purely for revenge after the rampaging creature laid waste to his village and killed his newly born son.
It flopped at the box office, which in all honesty is not hard to understand, for The White Buffalo had too many things to fight against to put up a good showing. It's very much an odd movie, a strange blending of genres, it often looks cheap and it had the unenviable task of trying to stay in the giant beast slipstream created by Jaws two years previously. After Spielberg unleashed his Carcharodon Carcharias on the cinema loving world, a number of film makers tried the same idea but with different creatures, Grizzly and the star studded Tentacles were just two around the same period, even King Kong got a re-imaging in 76, while The White Buffalo was also up against the Richard Harris led Orca: Killer Whale (also featuring Will Sampson) this same year. Was the 1970s film lover in need of a hybrid creature feature Western with shades of Moby Dick stitched into the narrative? One with an oddly cast Bronson playing a legendary man of the West with sun glasses and penis rot? No was the answer, but a cult fan base grew over the years and it's definitely worth more than a second glance these days.
Film pretty much thrives on mystical symbolism, shades of the supernatural hang over proceedings, while the Native American culture is given adherence as well. The idea of teaming up two legends of the West, enemies at that, also gives the picture a high novelty factor. As the two men, and Warden's gruff Charlie Zane who is along for the ride, go off in search of the beast, they must overcome hostilities of the human kind as well as the harsh winter that nature has provided for the back drop. Time is afforded development of story and principle characters, this is not merely an excuse to be a carnage based creature feature, it has ideas formed around man against nature, men against their fate, often it is philosophical, even literate. Of course this has proved to be seen as pretentious by some, and once the big white animatronic thunders into view with its awesome sound effects, it's easy to be steered away from the more brainy aspects of the piece!
John Barry lays a magnificent foreboding score over the top of it, a score that deserves a better film in truth, but it imbues the picture with a sense of dread, helping us to stay with Wild Bill and Crazy Horse to see if they can cut down the demon while casting off their own? The studio filmed sequences are unfortunate, but necessary considering the budget restrictions, yet the sets do have a garish quality about them, further aiding the weirdness on offer. Cast performances are perfectly in keeping with the material, Bronson as cool as ever, though it should be noted that Novak, Walker, Pickens and Stuart Whitman really are light support players here. Much has been made of the creature design, unfavourably so, but it's one of the better animatronic creations of the 70s. Put it alongside those used in the Kevin Connor pictures around this period and you can see its benefits. Though facial close ups should have been kept to a minimum!
It's obviously not high art and it has ideas above its station, while some of Michael F. Anderson's editing is so dizzying your head might explode. But this is no ordinary picture, surreal and hypnotic, intelligent yet off beat, it's better than you might think and worth viewing more than once with expectations levels correctly channelled. 7/10
It flopped at the box office, which in all honesty is not hard to understand, for The White Buffalo had too many things to fight against to put up a good showing. It's very much an odd movie, a strange blending of genres, it often looks cheap and it had the unenviable task of trying to stay in the giant beast slipstream created by Jaws two years previously. After Spielberg unleashed his Carcharodon Carcharias on the cinema loving world, a number of film makers tried the same idea but with different creatures, Grizzly and the star studded Tentacles were just two around the same period, even King Kong got a re-imaging in 76, while The White Buffalo was also up against the Richard Harris led Orca: Killer Whale (also featuring Will Sampson) this same year. Was the 1970s film lover in need of a hybrid creature feature Western with shades of Moby Dick stitched into the narrative? One with an oddly cast Bronson playing a legendary man of the West with sun glasses and penis rot? No was the answer, but a cult fan base grew over the years and it's definitely worth more than a second glance these days.
Film pretty much thrives on mystical symbolism, shades of the supernatural hang over proceedings, while the Native American culture is given adherence as well. The idea of teaming up two legends of the West, enemies at that, also gives the picture a high novelty factor. As the two men, and Warden's gruff Charlie Zane who is along for the ride, go off in search of the beast, they must overcome hostilities of the human kind as well as the harsh winter that nature has provided for the back drop. Time is afforded development of story and principle characters, this is not merely an excuse to be a carnage based creature feature, it has ideas formed around man against nature, men against their fate, often it is philosophical, even literate. Of course this has proved to be seen as pretentious by some, and once the big white animatronic thunders into view with its awesome sound effects, it's easy to be steered away from the more brainy aspects of the piece!
John Barry lays a magnificent foreboding score over the top of it, a score that deserves a better film in truth, but it imbues the picture with a sense of dread, helping us to stay with Wild Bill and Crazy Horse to see if they can cut down the demon while casting off their own? The studio filmed sequences are unfortunate, but necessary considering the budget restrictions, yet the sets do have a garish quality about them, further aiding the weirdness on offer. Cast performances are perfectly in keeping with the material, Bronson as cool as ever, though it should be noted that Novak, Walker, Pickens and Stuart Whitman really are light support players here. Much has been made of the creature design, unfavourably so, but it's one of the better animatronic creations of the 70s. Put it alongside those used in the Kevin Connor pictures around this period and you can see its benefits. Though facial close ups should have been kept to a minimum!
It's obviously not high art and it has ideas above its station, while some of Michael F. Anderson's editing is so dizzying your head might explode. But this is no ordinary picture, surreal and hypnotic, intelligent yet off beat, it's better than you might think and worth viewing more than once with expectations levels correctly channelled. 7/10