It seems within THE WHITE BUFFALO is a different kind of Western that Charles Bronson and director J. Lee Thompson not only wanted to make, but did... at least halfway through...
One where "human antagonist" Clint Walker has the kind of vengeful passion to kill main character/real life legend Bill Hickock because of the past he's both dodging and facing... thrust towards the gigantic title beast that, like JAWS, a trio of contrary men are joined together to expire...
Especially Native American Will Sampson who, like the other gentle giant actor Walker, has never been so intense, also portraying a fictionally-set true legend, Crazy Horse, and with his own revenge towards the buffalo that'd killed his child... giving his overboard performance more than a touch of camp...
And the always capably-cast Jack Warden is a one-eyed codger/trapper... the Robert Shaw here and, though full of tough dialogue, he's rather underused...
Then again this is Bronson's slowburn ride; a kind of metaphysical Western with exploitation style deaths including a loudmouth racist and foul-mouthed hooker (feeling like a deleted scene) and a grungy tavern brawl/shootout, harsh and grainy despite the period-clothing that, like the much superior BREAKHART PASS, seems both newly-made then contrived-dirty and dusted clean, right out of the studio's costume department...
Leading to a climax that's more anticipation than the kind of marring violence the first half had already disposed of... making this a unique passion-project from its very incarnation, so there was no other choice than for THE WHITE BUFFALO to become a cult film.
One where "human antagonist" Clint Walker has the kind of vengeful passion to kill main character/real life legend Bill Hickock because of the past he's both dodging and facing... thrust towards the gigantic title beast that, like JAWS, a trio of contrary men are joined together to expire...
Especially Native American Will Sampson who, like the other gentle giant actor Walker, has never been so intense, also portraying a fictionally-set true legend, Crazy Horse, and with his own revenge towards the buffalo that'd killed his child... giving his overboard performance more than a touch of camp...
And the always capably-cast Jack Warden is a one-eyed codger/trapper... the Robert Shaw here and, though full of tough dialogue, he's rather underused...
Then again this is Bronson's slowburn ride; a kind of metaphysical Western with exploitation style deaths including a loudmouth racist and foul-mouthed hooker (feeling like a deleted scene) and a grungy tavern brawl/shootout, harsh and grainy despite the period-clothing that, like the much superior BREAKHART PASS, seems both newly-made then contrived-dirty and dusted clean, right out of the studio's costume department...
Leading to a climax that's more anticipation than the kind of marring violence the first half had already disposed of... making this a unique passion-project from its very incarnation, so there was no other choice than for THE WHITE BUFFALO to become a cult film.