THE WHITE BUFFALO (1977)

THE FILM

FILM DIRECTOR: J. Lee Thompson

SCREENWRITER: Richard Sale

FILM STARS: Charles Bronson, Will Sampson, Jack Warden, Slim Pickens, Kim Novak, Clint Walker, Stuart Whitman, John Carradine, Cara Williams, Douglas Fowley, Clifford A. Pellow, Ed Lauter, Martin Kove, Dan Vadis.

COUNTRY: USA

THIS BOOK

AUTHOR: Richard Sale

TYPE: Novel

PUBLISHER: Mayflower

THIS EDITION PUBLISHED: 1977

COUNTRY: Great Britain

COVER: Paperback

THE ORIGINAL BOOK

ORIGINAL AUTHOR: As Above

YEAR FIRST PUBLISHED: 1975

ORIGINAL BOOK TITLE: The film title

NOTES

GENRE: Western

WORDS: I read this many years ago when I was about 15 I think. I don’t have much of a recollection of it in a “compare and contrast” to the film. I recall liking it. But, when you first discover the joys of reading (as opposed to “having to read”) as I had in my very early teens every book is magical and, perhaps, seemed better than what they were.

Books weren’t easy to come by, at least they weren’t for us. This came from a book exchange in Ashgrove, Brisbane, the suburb over from where I lived. It sold second hand books, cheaply and as the name suggests you could bring in books and  get credit towards other books or cash. “Book Exchange” … do they still exist or are they all “Antiquarian and Rare Book” stores today? I spent a lot of time in those stores. I wish I had the buying power I have now.

Anyway, much like this book, I digress. The book is odd. it is written, partially, in old western language, and intertwines myth, dream and reality and has something to say about … something. What now I don’t recall. Author Richard Sale is a screenwriter (and sometimes director) though, oddly, not of westerns and not even of (many) action films. His screenwriting background is perhaps why the book reads easily though it clearly, also, has higher literary aspirations, and I have no problem with that.

I saw the film at about the same time (actually I saw the film before reading the novel) and I recall that being even more dreamlike, though “like a dream” that I’m familiar with I find it more memorable than any number of better films. There is something in the film. Ambition, perhaps,  even if its goals haven’t been reached. Director  J. Lee Thompson said of the film “It’s a Moby Dick of the west. It’s a film we hope will work on many levels. On the first it is a wonderful, sensitive story between Wild Bill Hickok and the great Indian chief Crazy Horse. On the second it talks of a man having to find himself, seek his destiny, rid himself of fears and become more human.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Buffalo.

It’s a strange story (Sale wrote the screenplay also) of real life characters not in real life situations in an, almost, fantasy like landscape. Wild Bill Hickok is haunted by violent reoccurring dreams of a giant white buffalo. He must find and kill the beast if it exists. On the search he meets the Native American Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, who is also searching the plains for the giant white buffalo, which had killed his daughter. Together they (eventually) team up to kill the creature.

What struck me at the time, having been brought up on American cowboy movies was the feeling of foreignness in the film. The cast is American and it was filmed in the US but (British) director J. lee Thompson (much underrated, probably because he worked with Bronson so much) , (Italian) executive producer Dino De Laurentiis, and (British) music composer John Barry give it an international favour. And that coupled with its post modern (?) view of the west, means it will stand out, or stick in the mind. It’s also a sad view of the west, or that’s how I recall it. The west has ended and all that is left after the westward expansion and exploitation is a battered and altered landscape populated by characters in need of psychiatrists. The film is often derided but I have fond memories of it and recall many scenes – the giant (animatronic) buffalo (both fake and dreamlike), the mountains of buffalo bones after the hunters have taken their skins, the weird looking Wild Bill Hickok (looking nothing like the traditional Hickok in my mind), and the strange characters that pop in and out of this Don Quixote type tale, with Hickok, as played by Bronson near its center.

But, that’s why I watched the film in the first place, probably. Bronson. My Uncle, Barba Ivo, loved Bronson and I would watch films with him when my Mum was at work. Bronson never let us down.

The cast in this film is spectacular. Four favourites of mine Bronson, Stuart Whitman, Clint Walker and John Carradine appear and are backed by Will Samson, Jack Warden, Slim Pickens, Kim Novak, Ed Lauter and in a small bit former “sword and sandal” star Dan Vadis.

Is it a good film. I don’t know but I know will watch it again … maybe soon.

LINKS

TRAILER

US Film Tie In Edition