Sometimes, you come across movies that you know everyone thinks are terrible, but then you watch them and come out realizing you've just seen some great films.The White Buffalo, with Charles Bronson and Will Sampson, is one of those movies. Based on a novel by Richard Sale, this film takes place in the American West post-Civil War and sees Bronson as historical figure "Wild Bill" Hickok preparing to fight a giant white bison that haunts his dreams. Sampson plays another historical figure, Native American chief Crazy Horse, who is also after the beast because it killed his infant daughter. Right away, we have a great kind of story: normal men going up into the snowy mountains of the West to fight a legendary monster that haunts anyone who feels its presence and lives in its territory. However, what makes it much better is the dark themes within. One thing to note is that this is not a "fun" version of the West with cowboys and bandits. The minute Bronson arrives into town and sees a big pile of bison bones, you know that this film is going to feel pretty bleak. In fact, around the time the film takes place, the "white man" had started to expand into the West and with that, started to push out the local Native American tribes and take over their lands. Not only that, the "white man" had killed off most of the bison that Native Americans relied on for every aspect of their lives, from food to clothing to shelter to tools. Still on the subject, hatred of the "white man" towards Native Americans is something else that is a heavy presence in the film. During his journey to find the beast, Bronson takes his old friend, Charlie Zane, played by Jack Warden with him, but when Crazy Horse joins them, Zane dislikes him pretty much instantly and one can watch and wonder if he's going to let his personal racism get in the way of the hunt. Hickok and Crazy Horse are both aware of the hatred between their people and yet somehow are able to see past those hatreds and become understanding friends. Both Bronson and Sampson give pretty restrained but effective performances. A good number of side characters are also interesting. We have John Carradine in a small role as an undertaker and a sultry Kim Novak as an old lover of Hickok's. A few of the scenes with these side characters could admittedly come across as filler, but the best ones establish what kind of relationships Hickok has developed over the years and how he reacts to each of them. People usually say that the bison is simply a demon that Hickok fears, but it may be more than that: it could be a representation of the guilt he feels and the pain he has caused others over the years. It is even mentioned throughout the film that he blew away a Native American called the Peacemaker, and he later acknowledges his guilt over the incident. What the film also has going for it is the haunting atmospheres and music. How good is the music? All I can say is, by the time the end credits started with pictures of Bronson and Sampson as their respective characters, and the music started, I truly felt that I had witnessed a haunting battle between a legendary monster and two historical figures in a bleak American West on the verge of being changed completely by the "white man."

Charles Bronson plays real life figure Wild Bill Hickok, who in this story is suffering from nightmares where he is confronted by a huge(and charging) white buffalo. Bothered by these nightmares that even have him awakening shooting his guns in the air(!) he resolves to track this beast down. He travels with his friend Charlie(played by Jack Warden) through different frontier towns(meeting up with old flame Kim Novak) yet he plows on, eventually teaming up with real life Native American Crazy Horse, who is also out to kill the buffalo, who has decimated his village, killing many of his tribe. The three men eventually find the white buffalo, which is indeed huge, and no dream...Intriguing western is certainly offbeat but effective, with good acting and direction(J. Lee Thompson) that builds to an exciting climax. Good music score and epic feel to the story also help, even if the supporting apparatus holding the charging buffalo is visible if you freeze-frame the DVD!

The White Buffalo is directed by J. Lee Thompson and adapted to screenplay by Richard Sale from his own novel of the same name. It stars Charles Bronson, Will Sampson, Jack Warden, Clint Walker, Slim Pickens and Kim Novak. Music is scored by John Barry and cinematography by Paul Lohmann. Plot finds Wild Bill Hickok (Bronson) and Crazy Horse (Sampson) teaming up to fight a giant white buffalo during the bleak winter of 1874. Hickok is plagued by nightmares of the beast, Crazy Horse is out purely for revenge after the rampaging creature laid waste to his village and killed his newly born son.It flopped at the box office, which in all honesty is not hard to understand, for The White Buffalo had too many things to fight against to put up a good showing. It's very much an odd movie, a strange blending of genres, it often looks cheap and it had the unenviable task of trying to stay in the giant beast slipstream created by Jaws two years previously. After Spielberg unleashed his Carcharodon Carcharias on the cinema loving world, a number of film makers tried the same idea but with different creatures, Grizzly and the star studded Tentacles were just two around the same period, even King Kong got a re-imaging in 76, while The White Buffalo was also up against the Richard Harris led Orca: Killer Whale (also featuring Will Sampson) this same year. Was the 1970s film lover in need of a hybrid creature feature Western with shades of Moby Dick stitched into the narrative? One with an oddly cast Bronson playing a legendary man of the West with sun glasses and penis rot? No was the answer, but a cult fan base grew over the years and it's definitely worth more than a second glance these days.Film pretty much thrives on mystical symbolism, shades of the supernatural hang over proceedings, while the Native American culture is given adherence as well. The idea of teaming up two legends of the West, enemies at that, also gives the picture a high novelty factor. As the two men, and Warden's gruff Charlie Zane who is along for the ride, go off in search of the beast, they must overcome hostilities of the human kind as well as the harsh winter that nature has provided for the back drop. Time is afforded development of story and principle characters, this is not merely an excuse to be a carnage based creature feature, it has ideas formed around man against nature, men against their fate, often it is philosophical, even literate. Of course this has proved to be seen as pretentious by some, and once the big white animatronic thunders into view with its awesome sound effects, it's easy to be steered away from the more brainy aspects of the piece!John Barry lays a magnificent foreboding score over the top of it, a score that deserves a better film in truth, but it imbues the picture with a sense of dread, helping us to stay with Wild Bill and Crazy Horse to see if they can cut down the demon while casting off their own? The studio filmed sequences are unfortunate, but necessary considering the budget restrictions, yet the sets do have a garish quality about them, further aiding the weirdness on offer. Cast performances are perfectly in keeping with the material, Bronson as cool as ever, though it should be noted that Novak, Walker, Pickens and Stuart Whitman really are light support players here. Much has been made of the creature design, unfavourably so, but it's one of the better animatronic creations of the 70s. Put it alongside those used in the Kevin Connor pictures around this period and you can see its benefits. Though facial close ups should have been kept to a minimum!It's obviously not high art and it has ideas above its station, while some of Michael F. Anderson's editing is so dizzying your head might explode. But this is no ordinary picture, surreal and hypnotic, intelligent yet off beat, it's better than you might think and worth viewing more than once with expectations levels correctly channelled. 7/10

Chief Crazy Horse will join forces with Wild Bill Hickok and his Indian-hating long-time pal, Charley One-Eye, in pursuit of a giant white buffalo that is danger to all mankind. While the buffalo looks like something made in a Hollywood Jim Henson work shop that might pop up in a Neverending Story movie, I think it was important for the filmmakers to establish that this is larger than life and perhaps not just some ordinary creature any hunter could kill. Hickok has seen the buffalo in many a terrifying dream, knowing that he must find it or else he'll never have peace. Crazy Horse is out for revenge, his daughter a victim of the white buffalo's rampage through his people's village, his tears of agony reducing his role in the tribe from War Chief to Worm; he must find the buffalo, kill it, and take the skins back to his village, placing the fur around his daughter's dead body, freeing her soul from never-ending torment. Charley One-Eye sees $2000 worth of gold in the flesh of the beast, standing faithfully by Hickok's side, but their relationship becomes strained when Hickok befriends Crazy Horse. There are some great supporting parts (Jack Warden as high-strung, but reliable, Charley One-Eye Zane steals the film, even though his disgust for "redskins" can be tough to take; it is understandable that such sentiments would exist in abundance considering the race relations at the time of this story in the 1800s) such as Kim Novak (looking fabulous, but so woefully underused) as Poker Jenny Schermerhorn, a possible love interest if Hickok's life weren't preoccupied (she wants a little playtime with Hickok but he exasperatingly speaks about how such sexual relations aren't possible due to an incident involving his "peeper"), Slim Pickens as a stagecoach driver with a peculiar vocabulary (if you notice, the screenplay is full of colorful, quirky dialogue, attempting to authenticate the period and how the men of this time might talk), a gleam-in-the-eyes John Carradine as an undertaker who always appreciates business brought his way (Slim delivers unfortunate folks who suffer fatefully at the hands of the dangers of the Old West), Stuart Whitman as a no-good knife man who works with a con woman played by Cara Williams often working over victims who happen to ride the same coach as them, Ed Lauter as cowardly cavalry sergeant, Tom Custer, with an ax to grind with Hickok over a saloon incident, and especially Clint Walker as Whistling Jack Kileen, a towering figure who holds a grudge until those who earn his ire are dead. Douglas Fowley is a hoot as a conductor scolding Hickok for shooting his guns out of a nightmare awakening passengers on board a train seeing him to his destiny, even opening Wild Bill's story with some narration. The white bison is presented as a mystical creature symbolizing death to Hickok, its rampage handled in a way not to show direct contact on screen past seconds, as if it sweeps through, does the damage, and leaves the carnage as a reminder that while most of its kind are now damn near extinct (an incredible scene showing hills of bison bones as a telling example of man's unhinged need to satisfy greed and rob the land of the animals that walk the earth), man will be punished for the inability to co-exist with the buffalo. Contains statements about the inhospitable, hostile relations between the white man and red man, as Hickok attempts to make amends for his behavior in the past by offering peace with Crazy Horse, while Charley represents a racist hatred that runs so deep he'd soon shoot any Indian that comes in his sights. Will Sampson as Crazy Horse has quite a powerful presence; hesitant to get too close to the white man (for obvious reasons), yet dignified and courageous enough to accept Hickok's offer of food and shelter before their big hunt would really start. Atypical western for Chuck Bronson; his performance conveys a tired man who has burned every bridge and has lost all his friends, not even able to exist in the same proximity with his new one, Crazy Horse. You see the horror of the white buffalo, the fear that exists (look at how director J Lee Thompson shoots Chuck's eyes); it is a performance of subtlety, but I'm sure many will just call it non-acting. The location shooting of the cold, wintry landscape in the West our characters inhabit can be flat breathtaking. A criminally underrated western that deserves a second look, especially from Bronson's faithful.