Paul Newman is Buffalo Bill, a man who has turned a mostly fabricated legend into a big-business Wild West show.
He’s come to believe he’s as big as that legend and sometimes feels the pressure to measure up to it.
He and his business associates — namely partner Nate Salisbury and Maj. John Burke — are in the process of negotiating for a new star.
That star: famed Sioux Sitting Bull, who arrives with a list of demands and isn’t particularly impressed by the trappings of show business.
He refuses to perform in a re-enactment of Custer’s Last Stand that portrays Custer’s death as a back-shooting by a horde of Sioux warriors when he was expecting a heroic duel with the chief.
He is willing to perform in the re-creation of the massacre of an Indian village. That’s an offer Bill declines.
Mostly, Sitting Bull joined the show because he believes that’s the best way to meet President Grover Cleveland.
Sure enough, Cleveland arranges to see the show with his new wife.
Sure enough, a meeting takes place. It doesn’t go quite as the chief envisioned.
Paul Newman as Buffalo Bill, welcoming Sitting Bull to his show in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Joel Grey as Nate Salisbury, the man who organizes the Buffalo Bill show for William Cody in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Review:
A shockingly dull, long, rambling film from the director that brought us the marvelous “McCabe and Mrs. Miller” (1971).
Here, very little happens over the two-hour runtime.
Oh, viewers learn that Buffalo Bill isn’t the hero he’s been made out to be, with dime novelist Ned Buntline sitting in a nearby saloon pressing home the point.
Let’s see, Cody needs buckshot to hit his targets. The famed Indian scout fails to track down Sitting Bull when the aging chief decides to head to the mountains for the first moon.
As for the river that Buffalo Bill and his troupe can’t quite figure out how to cross … Sitting Bull and his Sioux companions traverse it with no difficulty.
That pretty much sums up the plot in a film where the best scenes have Frank Butler nervously holding targets for his sharp-shooting wife, Annie Oakley.
Frank Kaquitts as Sitting Bull, joining the Buffalo Bill show in hopes of meeting the president in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Will Sampson as WIlliam Halsey, the man who does the negotiating on Sitting Bull’s behalf in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Directed by:
Robert Altman
Cast:
Paul Newman … Buffalo Bill
Joel Grey … Nate Salisbury
Kevin McCarthy … Maj. John Burke
Harvey Keitel … Ed Goodman
Allan Nicholls … Prentiss Ingraham
Geraldine Chaplin … Annie Oakley
John Considine … Frank Butler
Robert DoQui … Osward Dart
Mike Kaplan … Jules Keen
Bert Remsen … Crutch
Bonnie Leaders … Margaret
Frank Kaquitts … Sitting Bull
Burt Lancaster … Ned Buntline
Pat McCormick … Grover Cleveland
Shelley Duvall … Mrs. Cleveland
Runtime: 125 min.
Burt Lancaster as Ned Butline, the author who takes credit for creating the Buffalo Bill legend in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Kevin McCarthy as Maj. John Burke, the man who arranges for Sitting Bull to join the show in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Memorable lines:
Ned Buntline, recalling the start of the legend: “I said, ‘Bill, any youngster out to set the world on fire best not forget where he got the matches.'”
Ed Goodman: “Sitting Bull? I didn’t know he was interested in show business.”
Fellow show employee: “If he wasn’t interested in show business, he wouldn’t have become a chief, Ed.”
Buffalo Bill to Ed Goodman: “Remember, son, the last thing a man wants to do is the last thing he does.”
Maj. John Burke: “Sitting Bull is here to relive great moments of his history for the enjoyment of thousands of paying customers.”
William Halsey: “Sitting Bull says that history is nothing more than disrespect for the dead.”
Geraldine Chaplin as Annie Oakley, thrilled to have made a difficult trick show in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
John Considine as Frank Butler, nervously holding a coin for wife Annie Oakley to shoot in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Buffalo Bill of Sitting Bull: “I can’t believe that little runt would treat me like that. It’s harder being a star than an Indian.”
Annie Oakley: “He (Sitting Bull) wanted to show the truth to the people. Why can’t you accept that? Just once?”
Buffalo Bill: “Because I got a better sense of history than that.”
Buffalo Bill to an opera singer: “Why don’t you plan to stay around for a few days? And I’ll show you what the real Wild West is like.”
Neb Buntline: “You ain’t changed, Bill.”
Buffalo Bill: “I ain’t supposed to. That’s why people pay to see me.”
Bonnie Leaders as Margaret, one of Buffalo Bill’s singing lady friends in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Harvey Keitel as Ed Goodman, Buffalo Bill’s nephew, sharing a secret with Annie Oakley in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Ned Buntline: “Buffalo Bill — the thrill of my life having invented you.”
Buffalo Bill: “The difference between an Indian and a white man in all situations is that an Indian is red. And an Indian is red for a good reason. So we can tell us apart!”
Ned Buntline: “Yes, he was truly born to entertain. No ordinary man would have had the foresight to take credit for acts of bravery and heroism that he couldn’t have done. And no ordinary man could realize what tremendous profits could be made by tellin’ a pack of lies, in front of witnesses, like it was the truth.”
Pat McCormick as Grover Cleveland and Shelley Duvall as his new wife, visiting Buffalo Bill’s show in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
Paul Newman as Buffalo Bill, watching Sitting Bull moving his camp as a sign of troubles to come in Buffalo Bill and the Indians (1976)
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