Buffalo Bill And The Indians (1976)

Buffalo Bill Cody (Paul Newman) imports Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts, not much of an actor but what a face!) to perform in his traveling Wild West show. But the chief is neither as savage as expected nor as docile as he would like. Very loosely based on Arthur Kopit's play INDIANS, what appears on the surface is a typical Robert Altman film with its multi-character, fragmented structure. But Altman can't get it together and the film meanders aimlessly, soft and flabby at its core, and unable to form into a cohesive whole. There's an underlying smugness to the film as if Altman didn't realize his obvious truths about the Old West weren't already old hat. In the title role, Paul Newman is a disaster. Paul Newman is a superb actor and a genuine Movie Star but he's all wrong here. As the anti-heroes of THE HUSTLER or HUD no one can touch him but Newman as a bigger than life Western mythological hero? Altman has the right actor for the role in the film but instead of casting Burt Lancaster as Buffalo Bill, Lancaster is subdued in a minor role as the behind the scenes man who set Buffalo Bill up as a legend. The massive cast includes Harvey Keitel, Joel Grey, Kevin McCarthy, Will Sampson, Shelley Duvall, Robert DoQui and in the film's two best performances, Geraldine Chaplin and John Considine as Annie Oakley and her husband Frank Butler.