A Few Words About A few words about...™ Buffalo Bill and the Indians... -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris · Dec 11, 2014

Buffalo Bill and the Indians or, Sitting Bull's History Lesson is yet another Robert Altman film that allows cinephiles to immerse themselves in his work.

If Nashville is his most accessible film, Buffalo Bill falls to a more difficult level, requiring attention to detail and a thoughtful viewing experience. We're not talking Bergman here, but if there was an American iconic filmmaker of similar cloth, I feel Mr. Altman was our man.

The problem with Buffalo Bill is in the Blu-ray, which is unfortunate for a film of this kind of importance.

Derived from what appears to be an older HD telecine, from a dirty interpositive - is it too much to ask that a post house run an element through a cleaner before harvesting an image? - it has reasonably continuous dirt built into what is a beautifully colored image.

Grain and details have a bit of a muddled look. Not certain if some untoward digital thing is occurring just below the surface of the image, but I don't like it.

A beautiful and important film, let down by a careless transfer, from a dirty element. We've had a very nice run of quality releases from masters being supplied by MGM to Kino. I was looking forward to this being another.

Image - 2.5

Audio - 5

Pass / Fail - Fail

RAH

Bob Cashill · Dec 11, 2014

Frustrating. I've never seen a decent version of this on home video.

Ejanss · Dec 11, 2014

It was also based on a play, as Altman was starting to gravitate more toward filmed stage plays, like "Secret Honor" and "Come Back/JimmyDean".
It's a good mid-70's deconstructionist neo-Western for the first half, but by the last third of the movie, when it's a two-character scene between Bill and Sitting Bull, you can see the stagey off-Broadway roots.

Matt Hough · Dec 11, 2014

A shame about the transfer. I had asked to review this, too, but am glad I didn't get it since it deserves better. This is one of Altman's films that has grown on me over the decades, and I wish it had gotten more respect.

Vic Pardo · Dec 12, 2014

I remember seeing BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS at an advance screening for college press at which Altman appeared afterwards for a Q&A. One of the college reviewers asked how close it was to the finished version. Which should give you some idea of the reaction at the time. Altman responded that this was pretty much it, other than a few minor tweaks here and there--and the crowd seemed disappointed. The film was a critical and box-office flop and producer Dino di Laurentiis was so fed up with Altman that he took him off of RAGTIME. (Granted, I think I would have liked Altman's version of RAGTIME better than whoever it was who directed it--I'm drawing a blank on it right now.)

I need to see BUFFALO BILL again to see what it's like so many years later. I'm a huge western fan, so I've not revisited many of the "anti-westerns" of the 1970s. Forgive me if I prefer Audie Murphy's Billy the Kid to Michael J. Pollard's. And Burt Lancaster's Wyatt Earp to Stacy Keach's. And Tyrone Power's Jesse James to Cliff Robertson's. And, of course, Joel McCrea's Buffalo Bill to Paul Newman's!

Richard Gallagher · Dec 12, 2014

I pre-ordered this and will watch it in spite of the disappointing transfer. I saw it in a theater in 1976 and couldn't get into it, so I'll be interested to see if I like it better the second time around.

Robert Harris · Dec 12, 2014

For a positive note, color and densities are quite lovely.

RAH

Ejanss · Dec 12, 2014

Vic Pardo said:
I remember seeing BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS at an advance screening for college press at which Altman appeared afterwards for a Q&A. One of the college reviewers asked how close it was to the finished version. Which should give you some idea of the reaction at the time. Altman responded that this was pretty much it, other than a few minor tweaks here and there--and the crowd seemed disappointed.

(LOL - I concur with the "Unfinished" look, but then, that's my opinion of most Altman.)

The film was a critical and box-office flop and producer Dino di Laurentiis was so fed up with Altman that he took him off of RAGTIME. (Granted, I think I would have liked Altman's version of RAGTIME better than whoever it was who directed it--I'm drawing a blank on it right now.)

Milos Forman, an odd choice, but a hot property for big budget "unadaptable" controversial-period properties after Hair and before Amadeus.
And while Altman would have captured the "interlocking stories", he would have stood back as odd observer, and not caught the particular tragic ironies of the main central-thread story.

I need to see BUFFALO BILL again to see what it's like so many years later. I'm a huge western fan, so I've not revisited many of the "anti-westerns" of the 1970s. Forgive me if I prefer Audie Murphy's Billy the Kid to Michael J. Pollard's. And Burt Lancaster's Wyatt Earp to Stacy Keach's. And Tyrone Power's Jesse James to Cliff Robertson's. And, of course, Joel McCrea's Buffalo Bill to Paul Newman's!

Well, by "70's revisionist anti-Westerns", was referring more to Altman's own McCabe & Mrs. Miller, around that mid-70's time when we started getting more historically period-realistic depictions of the West without going all Sergio Leone.
(Case in point, recently Netflix'ed di Laurentiis' "The White Buffalo", which was giggled at at the time for coming out after King Kong and Orca, but turns out to be a fairly classy-looking Charles Bronson post-Western, to go alongside "Breakheart Pass".)

I'd put Bb&tIoSBHL in the same category, if not for that big fake stage climax to ruin the whole third act.

Bob_S. · Dec 13, 2014

I remember my mom taking us kids to see it at the local drive-in. It was b-o-r-i-n-g! I was so excited too because I loved westerns.

James David Walley · Dec 28, 2014

Vic Pardo said:
The film was a critical and box-office flop and producer Dino di Laurentiis was so fed up with Altman that he took him off of RAGTIME. (Granted, I think I would have liked Altman's version of RAGTIME better than whoever it was who directed it--I'm drawing a blank on it right now.)

Actually, that's not quite accurate. Reviews were pretty favorable. The problem is that Altman had had his falling out with di Laurentis before the film was released, and "Dino di Horrendous" opted to bury the film with a rush-release and very little advertising. It was, indeed, a "box office flop," mainly becuase of zero studio support -- it had come and gone before anyone other than devout film buffs even noticed, and, even for us, the fact that Altman's follow-up to Nashville got so little promotion was deeply puzzling,,,until we heard about the producer/director feud.

And someone earlier in the thread mentioned that this was Altman's first move toward films of plays. Personally, I'd put it the other way around: after this, and getting yanked off of Ragtime by di Laurentis, Altman went from a hot property to pretty cold, and wound up at the point where the only things he could get financed were low-budget adaptations of stage works that were highly-regarded by theater critics, but not considered bankable cinematic works by the studios.

Robin9 · Dec 28, 2014

Vic Pardo said:
Forgive me if I prefer Audie Murphy's Billy the Kid to Michael J. Pollard's. And Burt Lancaster's Wyatt Earp to Stacy Keach's. And Tyrone Power's Jesse James to Cliff Robertson's. And, of course, Joel McCrea's Buffalo Bill to Paul Newman's!

Forgive you? I'll support you!

(In truth, I prefer Robert Taylor's Billy The Kid and Henry Fonda's Wyatt Earp)

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