Entry 90: The White Buffalo (1977)

The White Buffalo (1977)

Dir: J. Lee Thompson

"Two legendary enemies unite to fight the charging white beast!"

 

Alright folks, it's time for another theme cluster down here in the basement...This time, it's not tied to a particular month, but it should carry me through the next 10 entries up to #100.  Those of you who know me well in "real life" will probably figure it out pretty goddamn quickly.  Actually, it's more like two sub-themes that'll unite...Fuck it, you'll find out.

I'm currently dealing with the fallout from two (mostly) sleepless nights, Thanksgiving, and a hectic Black Friday at work...Let's see if a little booze and a lot of Bronson can prepare me for a solid night of rest!  Join me now as I journey back to the rootin', tootin' old west, where Charlie goes on a perilous hunt for The White Buffalo...

In this 70s oddity, Chuck plays "Wild" Bill Hickok, returning to the west late in his life after working as an actor in the east because he's haunted by eerie dreams of the titular creature.  Clearly, Bill left a lot of enemies behind when he headed east, 'cause he isn't in town for more than 10 minutes before he's forced to blow away an entire platoon  of horse soldiers who try to jump him...Fuck yeah!  At the same time, an Indian village is attacked by the albino beast, an attack which claims the life of the daughter of Crazy Horse (Will Sampson, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Orca).  After a village elder witnesses him crying like a pansy over the death of his child, Crazy Horse is stripped of his name and honor and informed that they won't be restored until he slays the creature.  Once Bill has killed the shit out of a few more "old acquaintances" and gotten some sweet poon from a former lover, he meets up with 'Horse, and "Wild" and Crazy decide to set aside their differences and hunt down the mythical beast together.   

I initially caught this one on TBS with my dad in the 80s and really enjoyed it; rewatching it as an adult, I still enjoyed it, but my abiding thought was: "Who the fuck was this movie made for?"  By '77, the western's decades-long heyday was well behind it; kids were more likely to idolize Steve Austin or Spider-Man and Post-'Nam, Post-Watergate adults had turned their attention to morally-ambiguous cop thrillers and nihilistic political-conspiracy films.  The oversized, rampaging title creature was clearly inspired by the success of Jaws, but the dwindling old-timers eager to see a western in the theatre would've been totally put off by the inclusion of a fantastical monster going on a gory rampage, while monster movie buffs would be bored by the then-quaint, old-fashioned western atmosphere.  I'm sure this only saw the light of day because it was backed by megalomaniacal huckster-producer Dino De Laurentiis (who never met an idea too absurd to turn into a multi-million dollar spectacle), who was in full-on monster movie mode (he made this between his ill-advised remake of King Kong and Orca).  The film plays out as if De Laurentiis and director Thompson (Cape Fear, The Guns of Navarone; at the beginning of a serious career slump) wanted to make something envelope-pushing, but kept backing down out of fear of alienating one of several (and dwindling) audiences.  At it's best, it's a post-Wild Bunch, pre-Unforgiven revisionist western (bloody violence, soiled clothing, occasionally grimy, on-location sets), but dilutes that by filming half it's scenes on surreal-looking, very obvious soundstages and giving the Native characters incredibly miscalculated, anachronistic "How, white man"-type dialogue.  The promise of an aging Hickok's quest to return to the site of his past glories, battle a "dream-demon" representative of past mistakes and the regrets of old age and make peace with a former enemy is tossed away in favor of a literal monster movie.  Having said all that, I can't deny that it's just strange enough to be a lot of fun to watch, the buffalo effects (by Carlo Rambaldi of Alien and Dune) are pretty damn good and Bronson gives one of his better post-Death Wish performances.  Also, Thompson stages a marvelously surreal, eerie scene in which Bronson casually strolls past a literal mountain of buffalo bones; one of the film's more interesting suggestions is that the white buffalo is a spirit animal seeking vengeance for the hunting-to-near-extinction of it's species.  The eerie score is by John Barry (StarCrash, a shitload of Bond movies).  Film fans take note; this has an incredible supporting cast, including Kim Novak (Vertigo, Just a Gigolo), Jack Warden (12 Angry Men, Used Cars), Clint Walker (The Dirty Dozen, Killdozer), Slim Pickens (Dr. Strangelove, The Howling), Ed Lauter (Raw Deal, The Rocketeer), Martin Kove (Death Race 2000, The Karate Kid) and John motherfucking Carradine as an Irish undertaker!  Worth your time, but a bit bewildering (which isn't necessarily a bad thing).