Buffalo Girls (1995)

Anjelica Huston is Calamity Jane, Melanie Griffith plays Dora DuFran in this tale of two good friends during the waning days of the West.

Calamity is a spirited character who eschews the typical ways of life for women in the West, becoming a wife or a whore.

Instead, she often passes herself off as a man, and that’s precisely what she does when she joins up with George Armstrong Custer as a mule skinner along with good friends Jim Ragg and Bartle Bone (Jack Palance).

The one man capable of making Jane think more like a woman is Wild Bill Hickok (Sam Elliott). And after getting spruced up by Dora, Jane enjoys a one-night stand with him.

The result is a daughter, born out of wedlock to a mother with no stable means of providing for herself, let alone a child.

So when an Englishman visiting the West offers to care for the baby — he and his wife recently lost their own daughter — Jane gives in.

Dora, meanwhile, has her own man problems, though they’re largely of her own making.

In spite of her past as a prostitute, she has a devoted and well-off rancher named Teddy Blue (Peter Coyote) who begs her to marry him.

Dora refuses, for reasons he doesn’t understand, and those repeated refusals end up pushing him into the arms of another woman.

Meanwhile, Buffalo Bill is recruiting talent for his Wild West show. After all, he’s been invited to play in front of the queen of England.

Jane refuses to sign up. At least until she learns that her daughter is now living back in England and that her adopted mother has died.

So she joins the show, hoping to bring her daughter back to the now tamer American West.

Review:

A spirited performance by Anjelica Huston in the lead role and from Melanie Griffith as her unlikely friend can’t completely salvage this two-part mini-series, initially aired on CBS.

Let’s say viewers can swallow a former trapper who joins the Wild West show in hopes of getting enough money to buy a pair of beaver so he can repopulate the West with the furry creatures.

Let’s say viewers can swallow a former whore who won’t marry the man she loves because of her fear of living on a secluded ranch, a fear born of childhood trauma.

Can viewers really swallow Calamity Jane stumbling upon the Battle of the Little Bighorn just as the warriors are celebrating their victory? And coming face to face with Sitting Bull?

The cast also includes Reba McEntire as sharp-shooting Annie Oakley. She doesn’t show up until the second part, but her shooting skill plays a key role in Calamity’s plan to reconnect with her daughter.

The film works best when Anjelica and Melanie are on screen together. And the last time that happens is downright touching.

Directed by:
Rod Hardy

Cast:
Melanie Griffith … Dora DuFran
Anjelica Huston … Calamity Jane
Gabriel Byrne … Teddy Blue
Peter Coyote … Buffalo Bill Cody
Tracey Walter … Jim Ragg
Floyd Westerman … No Ears
Jack Palance … Bartle Bone
Charlayne Woodard … Doosie
John Diehl … Gen. Custer
Lieve Schreiber … Ogden
Andrew Bicknell … Capt. James O’Neill
Paul Lazar … Doc Rames
Russell Means … Sitting Bull
Reba McEntire … Annie Oakley
Sam Elliott … Wild Bill Hickok
Jane E. Goold … Skeedle
Michael Eiland … Harry
Jerry King … Jack McCall
Jeanine O’Connell … Mrs. O’Neill

Runtime: 180 min.

Memorable lines:

Calamity Jane, in a letter to her daughter: “In them days, Janey, there was only two ways for a woman to survive out west – wifin’ and whorin’. Since I wasn’t cut out for either one, I had to find my own way of surviving. So I lived like a man and sometimes passed myself off as one. It got kind of sticky at times, but it gave me a kind of freedom that few women ever knew.”

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Calamity Jane, hoisting a drink in a Deadwood saloon: “Alright, you sinners, let’s drink to my bazooms. They got me out of Custer’s irregulars.”

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Dora, discovering Calamity’s affection for Wild Bill: “Love’s a serious condition, darlin’. But it ain’t fatal.”

Dora, after Jane’s taking a spin with several men on the saloon dance floor: “See there, you can dance.”
Jane: “That ain’t dancin’. That’s grizzly wrestlin’.”

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Jane, after learning that Teddy Blue has married someone not named Dora: “Now you’ve been my friend a long time, Blue. But if you feel lower than scum at the bottom of a pond right now, you got it comin’.”

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Bartle Bone, upon learning how much Jane bet on Annie Oakley’s shooting match: “Are you crazy?”
Calamity Jane: “God damn calamitous, that’s what I am.”

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Calamity Jane, to the man who adopted her daughter, when he refuses to let them meet: “You son of a snake.”

Anjelica Huston as Calmity Jane, all gussied up for Wild Bill Hickok in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Gabriel Byrne as Teddy Blue, surprised to see Calamity Jane show up at his wedding in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Floyd Westerman as No Ears, spotting whales in the water on the trip to England in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Russell Means as Sitting Bull, convinced to participate in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Reba McEntire as Annie Oakley, pledging to do her best to win a bet for Calamity in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Peter Birch as Lord Windhouvern, the English marksman pitted against Annie Oakley in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Andrew Bicknell as Capt.. James O’Neill, the English gent who offers to take guardianship of Calamity’s child in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Hannah Taylor Gordon as Janey, the daughter Calamity turned over to an English couple shortly after birth in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Charlayne Woodard as Doosie, Dora DuFran’s assistant, watching an old friend approach in Buffalo Girls (1995)

Malenie Griffith as Dora DuFran and Gabriel Byrne as Teddy Blue, worried about Calamity in Buffalo Girls (1995)