Film Review: The White Buffalo (1977)

Among the filmmakers trying to exploit the success of Jaws with big‑budget monster films, few were as enthusiastic as the legendary producer Dino de Laurentiis. Following his success with King Kong, he tried again with The White Buffalo, a 1977 film directed by J. Lee Thompson, resulting in one of the more unusual westerns made during the period.

The plot, based on the novel by Richard Sale (who also wrote the screenplay), is set in the American West of 1874. White settlers haven’t quite conquered it yet, but their presence has already brought the large buffalo population to near‑extinction levels, while the white buffalo, a rare albino kind revered by Native Americans for its spiritual importance, has become even rarer. It is one such animal of gigantic proportions that haunts the dreams of “Wild Bill” Hickok (played by Charles Bronson), the (in)famous adventurer and gunslinger who returns to the West in order to try his luck searching for gold in the Black Hills of the Dakotas. After meeting an old friend, a one‑eyed trapper Charlie Zane (played by Jack Warden), who tells of a frightening encounter with the beast, he decides to hunt it. Meanwhile, Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse (played by William Sampson) also becomes determined to kill the white buffalo in order to avenge his little daughter, who was killed by the beast while it rampaged through his tribe’s camp. The two men belong to different worlds, but as they approach their target, various enemies and the elements force them to strike a partnership.

Charles Bronson built his stardom by playing stone‑cold characters who prefer doing to talking. The role of Hickok represents one of the more unusual turns in his career, because his character’s visible fear and anxiety when faced with mortality allow him to show a somewhat wider range. He is well‑matched by Sampson, the famous Chief from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, who brings dignity to a character that could easily have turned into a series of ethnic stereotypes. Those two are well supported by a small army of talented character actors, as well as Kim Novak, who ended her decade‑long retirement from acting to play Hickok’s old flame. J. Lee Thompson handles the action scenes well, at least in the segments that put the mountainous locations of New Mexico and Colorado to good use. Sale’s script also features interesting ways in which the characters talk, as well as segments where they discuss the inevitable ending of the Old West and their respective ways of life, often with mystical overtones and a sense of doom. The relationship between Hickok and Crazy Horse gains another dimension if the audience happens to know that both legendary personalities would soon after the events in this film meet violent ends, something the film notes in its closing titles. However, all this effort is wasted because the titular “character” – a gigantic grazing animal – simply fails to be as intimidating and impressive as man‑eating sharks or city‑stomping apes. Carlo Rambaldi’s special effects are poor, and this becomes especially evident in the final scene, obviously shot on studio sets and using tracks to move the charging beast in a rather predictable manner. Music by John Barry elevates the film a little, but it also has the misfortune of reminding the audience of Dances with Wolves, a later and much better film with similar themes.

RATING: 5/10 (++)

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