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The White Buffalo is a film that like all others, I happened to come across by chance. This film captured my attention when I was searching for different movie posters as references for an art project. Sadly, it does not seem that The White Buffalo is a movie that is widely known, even on the more obscure corners of the web.
Regardless, I checked the trailer and it filled me with enough interest to purchase the Blu-Ray on Amazon. To be frank, I was ready to watch a Moby Dick western kind of movie. What was waiting for me was something I had completely not expected.
Following the unexpected triumph of Stephen Spielberg’s masterpiece Jaws in the 1970s, there was a furor in the industry to create beast feature flicks. Every studio, hoping to cash in on boosted demand, was coming out with beast horror films. Prolific producer Dino De Laurentiis was no different, releasing three such films in the span of two years. King Kong is the best known of them, the Orca is the most hated and The White Buffalo is the one that, among the trees, tends to fall between the cracks. I think it is such a shame since it’s easily the best of the bunch.
The White Buffalo had a budget of just $6 million, however, was released around the same time with a marketing blitz expecting the same amount of revenue as other features released alongside. I haven’t been able to see any box office figures for the film, but it was received poorly by critics and amassed no revenue at the box office.
The White Buffalo illustrates the life of the old Western legend Wild Bill Hickok. The year is 1974, and an older version of Hickok has been having reoccurring nightmares of a buffalo attacking him with a spike. He is terrified of fear itself, which has driven him into madness. His willingness to hunt the buffalo under the disguise of searching for treasure in the Black Hills demonstrates that he is at least willing to fight back. But, everywhere he goes, he is confronted by foes who want to take him down.
On the other side, the same White Buffalo has also butchered the Lakota tribe, which includes the crazy horse’s young daughter. The soul of the young girl is stuck in hell, forever tormented unless her body is put laded within the pelt of the buffalo. Crazy Horse then throws away his title and proclaims himself a worm. He now has but one goal kill the buffalo and anyone who dares stand in his way.
Even when both characters, Crazy Horse and Hickok, are hunting the White Buffalo for their reasons, one can argue that Hickok is the better character. Starting and most of the time, Hickok is fighting to prove his relevance and machismo in the world. This character drives us through the plot while Crazy Horse only seems to exist in the world whenever Hickok is around. He doesn’t have the same importance for me compared to Hickok. Weirdly though, it does work for me in this instance. With Crazy Horse being the better lacking character, Wild Bill Hickok does try to narrate the story without confrontation. He doesn’t have to compete with Crazy Horse who appears stealthily, only when he decides he wants to join the story.
In contrast, Crazy Horse was an exceptionally skilled war chief who garnered the admiration of both his own people and his enemies. He fought numerous wars for the Lakota against the white settlers and invaders, passionately opposing the “civilization” that they were trying to impose, all in the name of progress and modernization. Admittedly, this is where my knowledge runs dry as I do not know much about Wild West history, but I am sure that these two never crossed paths. However, my imagination conjures up the image of two enemies who would have mutual respect for each other.
In context, that is what the White Buffalo is about. The beast itself is simply a setting or depiction of the two main historical figures, who, in my opinion, serve as the epitomai of their specific spectrums For Caucasians vs Native Americans in the early years of US History. This is what I found particularly interesting. Hickok is a racist and is shown rather overtly as such in all of the scenes of the film, but the audience still sympathizes, and, to some degree, has respect for him in the progress of the film. The demons he is dealing with are from his own doing and they are nonetheless very staggering.
On the other hand, Crazy Horse is regarded as a heroic figure and a person of greatness, but he is depicted in a somewhat sad manner. A large part of the film revolves around Crazy Horse and Hickok’s dialogues where they progressively start viewing each other as equals and brothers and thus build towards mutual respect and understanding. Yet Crazy Horse is shown as being either unable or reluctant to sincerely absolve Hickok for what he had done in the past.
Charles Bronson performed the role of Wild Bill Hickok and this film is The White Buffalo, where he acts as a last major attempt in westerns. Will Sampson, who was typecasted on similar roles during the 60s and 70s, plays Crazy Horse. Overall, they both give commendable performances mainly in the moments where the two of them must interact. These moments of the film are what keep it from falling to pieces, so it is good they take the material seriously and are able to portray the character’s views and motives.
You do not get to actually see much of the White Buffalo until the climax of the film. This is not highly unusual for a film within the creatures feature genre, but is rather extreme in this case. A lot of it is because, as I mentioned previously, the film pays more attention to Hickok and Crazy Horse’s interactions and their attempts to come to terms with each other than to be a monster movie, so people with strong stomachs or those coming to this expecting jaws in the west are likely going to be disappointed. It just isn’t that type of film (although the trailer does make it look like that). Not that this film is dull, I should add. Where some places in the plot would lose their liveliness, there are well placed gunfights inserted. While still unfortunate, the Buffalo himself only being a physical character during the first and last ten minutes of the movie is one of the many sad things.
Nonetheless, the White Buffalo, when shown, always feels impactful and is appropriately set up. More often than not it is either limited to strange dream sequences or shown in brief flashes, but the film manages to make the creature look almost nightmarish, which is impressive. It is also surprisingly terrifying in nature, and while much of it comes from how Carlo Rambaldi designs the creature alongside the terrifying screams and grunts, and of course John Barry’s score it is still stunning.
It’s hard for me to classify The White Buffalo as a monster movie; it has features of the genre but it’s much more complex than that. The White Buffalo is potentially very frightening as it is the last monster in the story, but the movie, at a bigger level, is not really about a huge white murderous buffalo. To me, the buffalo is more emblematic, and serves to depict the challenges that Hickok and Crazy Horse are facing together. In this sense, the film is especially interesting for me as so many different meanings can be derived from the Buffalo Themselves, based on the viewer and viewing. In fact, it could be a sign of nature’s anger against the white man’s devastation of it (Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill played a large role in the almost extinction of the Buffalo) or it could embody the more overarching idea of racism and white supremacy, or even a hundred other things. Regardless of the perspective, The White Buffalo embodies Wild Bill Hickok’s inner demons, and he is a big reason why the White Buffalo is such a problem in the first place.
However, he and Crazy Horse the innocent casualty of his past deeds have to put their biases against each other aside and collaborate if they are to stand a chance at overcoming it.
When it comes to special effects in The White Buffalo, there are quite a few, although most are focused on the White Buffalo itself. This is a segment of the movie that drew a great deal of criticism at the time of its release because many people complained that the buffalo was so obviously an animatronic. Personally, while I do think that the effects aren’t the best, I do not view them as negative of a light as some other reviewers seem to.
What captivates my attention and interest is the perspective of Carlo Rambaldi’s design in The White Buffalo. It’s clear that realism and believably were not his top concerns. What he wanted was to create an almost surreal, nightmarish beast and its effects. I think the movie does achieve that. While it’s true that sparse bits of filming props turn rumors into reality, motion visuals in conjunction with the strange setting and the music enhance the audience’s allowance of the frequent and barefaced puppetry set forth. Moreover, the emotion-transmitting images are relatable. Above everything, my attention and interest lie in the effect’s portrayal as preposterous as the feature is.
I’ve already mentioned that John Barry’s score for The White Buffalo is truly fantastic. I feel that it is one of those margins that in turn focus and mediate the target regarding emotion transmitted throughout the film. From less frantic to more skin crawling scary, each note accompanying brings additional perspective to scenes and aids in painting the picture on the screen. However, this type of video merges in the primary goal so actively that it’s hard to imagine my head being alone with it, which I think, some would find great.
Let me be straightforward on this. I really enjoy this movie. The White Buffalo has taken the place of one of my top 5 movies and has replaced Wizards. To be honest, though, I’m not the biggest fan of Westerns. I don’t mean to offend anyone, but I have, and will always watch, westerns only once. The White Buffalo, on the other hand, is different and it constantly lingers in my thoughts for some reason and I end up watching it way too many times.
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