Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson

One straightforward theme, or point to make - the legends of the old Wild West were inventions. Their feats were exaggerated, or either completely made-up. Their heroism more or less equated with bloodthirsty, opportunistic murder and mayhem. Their mythical status built by the show business power and ethos prevalent during the 1800s, where entertainment and history are mutually exclusive and incompatible with each other. On the other side of the coin, Native Americans were portrayed as savage, barbarous and ruthlessly cruel inhuman beasts with no honor or dignity - cowardly, sneaky and untrustworthy. Americans who grow up reading about the likes of Buffalo Bill might find it hard to equate his image with reality, but Robert Altman's film Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson tried to paint a portrait of the man in his own very distinctive cinematic style. That he set out to do this during the United States Bicentennial celebrations, at at time when the naked truth was only just starting to seep into the American consciousness meant that many critics and moviegoers couldn't fully enjoy this one.

In 1869, a 23-year-old William Frederick Cody met publisher, journalist, and writer Ned Buntline. Cody was a scout for the U.S. army, and at times hunted buffalo for Kansas Pacific Railroad workers, who nicknamed him Buffalo Bill - and Buntline used him in fictional tales about Cody's adventures on the frontier. The popularity of these stories prompted Cody to travel to Chicago in 1872 to pursue a career on the stage, and he featured in several productions until founding the Buffalo Bill Combination, a Wild West show in 1874, touring for 10 years. In 1883 he created a circus-like attraction called Buffalo Bill's Wild West, where he performed re-enactments of various feats he's said to have accomplished, and within a few more years he'd formed a partnership with Nate Salsbury and Evelyn Booth and formed Buffalo Bill's Cowboy Band. The show featured famed performers such as Annie Oakley and her husband, Frank Butler. There were re-enactments of the Pony Express, Indian attacks on wagon trains, stagecoach robberies and Custer's Last Stand. The show would usually end with an Indian attack on a settler's cabin, where Cody and a group of cowboys would ride in to the rescue.

Altman's movie begins in 1885, with Buffalo Bill's Wild West in full swing. Paul Newman plays "Buffalo Bill" Cody, a pompous and pampered man approaching his 40s who has grown over time to believe in the invented feats Ned Buntline (Burt Lancaster) wrote about. Everything about him is fake - he wears a wig, is afraid of birds and his pistols spray buckshot so he can't miss the targets he can't hit. Annie Oakley (Geraldine Chaplin) is the main attraction apart from himself, with her husband Frank Butler (John Considine) always nervous about getting shot by a stray Oakley bullet. Into his show comes infamous Indian Chief Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts) and his interpreter William Halsey (Will Sampson) - and Cody is taken aback when they refuse to play the part of cowardly, dastardly Indians attacking Custer. Instead, Chief Sitting Bull wants to play a part in a show that illustrates Army troops massacring unarmed Native Americans - men, women, children, and even the dogs. He wants to tell the crowd about dishonoured treaties and lies. Sitting Bull's dignified manner, and ability to win the support of the crowd without resorting to theatrics, starts to play on Buffalo Bill's mind, and eventually even his soul.

Along with Newman and Lancaster, Altman brings along some of his old hands and introduces some very capable acting talent to this, another broad ensemble effort. Kevin McCarthy as publicist Maj. John Burke is a welcome face, as I often enjoy watching this amiable performer. Harvey Keitel is among the cast, as a relative and something of a hanger-on to Bill Cody - he appears in this the same year he appeared in Scorsese's Taxi Driver, marking his ascent. Shelley Duvall, as First Lady Mrs. Grover Cleveland, makes her 5th appearance in an Altman film, after being in Nashville, Thieves Like Us, McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Brewster McCloud. For Bert Remsen, as The Bartender, this was the 6th go-around after appearing in all of the films Duvall did plus California Split. Allan F. Nichols, Geraldine Chapman (as Annie Oakley) and Robert DoQui had all appeared in Altman's huge previous production Nashville, and John Considine (as Annie Oakley's manager and husband, Frank Butler) had appeared in California Split. You can tell that some actors really thrive with the freedom Altman gives his performers, and some, like Keitel, struggle a little bit, albeit with talent enough to get by.

The film is introduced as if it itself is a 19th Century Buffalo Bill Show, with resplendent credits to match. It's a nice touch, with florid descriptions of Altman, the film and the performers beginning with "Robert Altman's Absolutely Unique and Heroic Enterprise of Inimitable Lustrel..." and continuing in that manner. In the meantime we hear Buffalo Bill's Cowboy Band perform as they would during shows - and this old-time brass and percussion marching band type of music is what we'll hear throughout the film, especially one "Buffalo Bill" kind of signature tune which can become a little tiresome after the first dozen or so times we hear it. We hear the likes of "Charge" and other trumpet tunes as appropriate - Altman is obviously putting us ringside, and although the film's composer is credited as Richard Baskin (Altman's arranger and organizer on Nashville) we hear much that's familiar, such as the "The Star-Spangled Banner". Sound-wise, you can tell that Altman is still having a great time with multi-track recording systems as far as highlighting specific voices at just the right moment. BAFTA winning sound people such as Chris McLaughlin had been a part of his crew since California Split, when the 8-track system was first used.

Altman's cinematographer was once again Paul Lohmann, whom he had used on California Split and Nashville. The camera work isn't as "showy" as it was when he was using Vilmos Zsigmond on The Long Goodbye or Jean Boffety on Thieves Like Us. Altman seems to be more focused on words and meaning than visual complexity and cinematography as an art, but you'll still notice those zooms, which are frequently used in this film. What is truly rich, and incredibly detailed, is the production design and set decoration. Anthony Masters, production designer and well as set/art decorator for 2001: A Space Odyssey, on which he was Oscar-nominated, has filled the various tents of the Buffalo Bill Show with what looks like thousands of historical artifacts. Art director Jack Maxsted (Oscar winner for his work on Nicholas and Alexandra) has recreated Buffalo Bill's Wild West in magnificent fashion, and set decorator Dennis J. Parrish has created a visually rich and complex world, transporting all the performers back a century with a panache deserving of great respect. This is what makes this Altman film look as great as it does. 3 time Oscar winner Anthony Powell served as costume designer.

This was the first film from Altman since That Cold Day in the Park that critics for the most part didn't gel with, and I wasn't sure myself the first time I watched it - but after reading about Buffalo Bill and the history of the era, then watching it again, I found myself noticing countless details and nuances of performance which increased my viewing pleasure. There's a lot more packed into Buffalo Bill and the Indians than meets the eye the first time around, and Paul Newman really delivers, giving us a Bill Cody that verges on the ridiculous, but stays well within the borders of real world authenticity - he's a man who must keep up a pretense of being 'great' despite the fact he's as ordinary as you or me. In fact, Cody carries with him a great fear of being found out and exposed as being ordinary, and it's this fear which guides his actions and words. When confronted with Sitting Bull - a truly dignified great man of history, Cody flails, fluffs his lines, and makes embarrassing mistakes. The way this unfolds in this film is really interesting, and I immensely enjoyed watching Newman project this character's torment throughout.

I guess I would say that this is Altman's most difficult film up to this point in his career - it expects a lot more from the audience than his previous ones, and those who don't vociferously agree with his stance on American history might feel the focus stays too intently on it's targets for the film's entirety. Much like latter-day films such as The Death of Stalin however, it allows a comic approach to introduce simple and painful truths to stand naked without the usual comforting adornments. The taming of the "Wild West" was a murderous, heinous part of America's history - one that included genocide, and unspeakable cruelty. Those who were adorned as heroes of this age were often not what they were portrayed to be - their feats were complete invention by authors, which graced newspapers, magazines and novels. When Native Americans fought back, they were branded as savages, murderers, bloodthirsty maniacs - justifying what was being done to them. They were in a no-win situation. Buffalo Bill's Wild West was a theatrical representation of all these lies, and Bill Cody, an invention himself, the main attraction.

I think Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson is another film that deserves another chance once we catch up to the filmmakers sensibilities, and adapt ourselves to his unique methods. The film is rich in history, and every scene is meticulously constructed with period details. It's another Altman film which richly rewards multiple viewings with something new to be discovered each time. It doesn't immediately strike you, and it takes time to acclimatize to it's unerring, never deviating focus - but if you really look deeply into this film's soul you just might fall in love with it. On it's surface level, it's as straightforward as one of Bill Cody's shows, and we all know what Altman is saying - but the film isn't trying to convince us, but rather to make us experience the fakeness and futility ourselves, and convince us of how important it is to acknowledge that our perception of historical figures and history itself is no more real than the image on that screen. That our nostalgia is for times and places that never existed in the first place, and as a result is baseless. To not base our history on what entertainers have to tell us, no matter how beguiling it might be.