**SPOILERS** Strange set of characters here with Wild Bill Hickok, Charles Bronson, teaming up with Oglala war chief Crazy Horse aka Worm, Will Sampson, to take on the great White Buffalo. The White Buffalo has been haunting Wild Bill's dreams for over a year and the only way he can finally put his nightmares to an end is to hunt down and kill the beast.
Traveling to the Black Hills of South Dakota in the mining town of Cheyenne Wild Bill, wearing a pair of cool looking shades, uses the name James Otis so no one would recognize him. It seems that Wild Bill has made enemies with almost everyone in town who, if they knew he was there, would blow him away the first chance that they get. Wild Bill's ridicules disguise, looking like a cross between Dr.Fu Manchu and a 1950's Greenwich village beatnik, doesn't fool anyone with him, in a series of shoot outs, ending up putting about a half dozen gunslingers into the towns Boot Hill cemetery.
Finally going out into the Black Hills with about the only friend he has in town the one-eyed and Indian hating Charlie Zane, Jack Warden, Wild Bill runs into the exiled and former Ogala War Chief Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse has been kicked out of his village by his old man the original "Worm", Chief Tug Smith, for acting like a wimp not a brave and fearless Ogala warrior. This is after the White Buffalo, the same one in Wild Bill's dreams, did a number on Crazy Horse's village killing among some dozens of Ogala's including his own infant daughter!
It takes a while for Crazy Horse and Wild Bill, after each took turns in saving each others lives, to become allies in their personal war against the "Great White Buffalo" of the "Black Hills".
The movie "The White Buffalo" was a box office dud in the USA but somehow became a smash hit overseas especially in Asia and the Far East. This may have been because of Charles Brosnson's Genghis Khan-like interpretation of Wild Bill Hickok. That may have had Brsonon mistaken by the millions of Asian movie-goers for a fellow Oriental. The White Buffalo itself is anything but convincing in it's rampaging throughout the film. The big white and pink eyed bison comes across looking like the mechanical bull, standing still when it was supposed to be charging, in the movies "Urban Cowboy" and "Stir Crazy".
In the end it took a lot more for Wild Bill to get his one eyed Gabby Hayes-like partner Charlie Zane from shooting his new found friend Crazy Horse aka Worm in the back then in him backing Bill up when the White Buffalo made its grand appearance; In the films final slowdown between man and beast. The breathless photography of the scenic and snow capped Black Hills together with the movies beautiful and haunting musical score made the film "The White Buffalo" more then worth sitting through.
***SPOILER ALERT*** With the White Buffalo, finally being put down by Bill Worm & Charlie, now history Wild Bill could now go back to sleep without having nightmares about the big "Albino Bison" charging at him. The one-eyed Charlie had now learned to respect the American Indian, whom he despised and hated all his life, in what Worm did in his bear handed Indian-style, with only a tomahawk, confrontation with the big white bison. And most of all "Worm" in proving with his bravery that he's fit to carry the name can go back to being called "Crazy Horse".
P.S There's no evidence that Wild Bill Hickok and Chief Crazy Horse, who were both murdered within a year of each other, ever really met during their lifetimes. What is known is that Crazy Horse was given his name by his father who was also named Crazy Horse. Being Ogala tradition to not have children named after their parents Crazy Horse senior changed his name to Worm, after naming his newborn son Crazy Horse, which he was to be known by for the remainder of his life.
Traveling to the Black Hills of South Dakota in the mining town of Cheyenne Wild Bill, wearing a pair of cool looking shades, uses the name James Otis so no one would recognize him. It seems that Wild Bill has made enemies with almost everyone in town who, if they knew he was there, would blow him away the first chance that they get. Wild Bill's ridicules disguise, looking like a cross between Dr.Fu Manchu and a 1950's Greenwich village beatnik, doesn't fool anyone with him, in a series of shoot outs, ending up putting about a half dozen gunslingers into the towns Boot Hill cemetery.
Finally going out into the Black Hills with about the only friend he has in town the one-eyed and Indian hating Charlie Zane, Jack Warden, Wild Bill runs into the exiled and former Ogala War Chief Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse has been kicked out of his village by his old man the original "Worm", Chief Tug Smith, for acting like a wimp not a brave and fearless Ogala warrior. This is after the White Buffalo, the same one in Wild Bill's dreams, did a number on Crazy Horse's village killing among some dozens of Ogala's including his own infant daughter!
It takes a while for Crazy Horse and Wild Bill, after each took turns in saving each others lives, to become allies in their personal war against the "Great White Buffalo" of the "Black Hills".
The movie "The White Buffalo" was a box office dud in the USA but somehow became a smash hit overseas especially in Asia and the Far East. This may have been because of Charles Brosnson's Genghis Khan-like interpretation of Wild Bill Hickok. That may have had Brsonon mistaken by the millions of Asian movie-goers for a fellow Oriental. The White Buffalo itself is anything but convincing in it's rampaging throughout the film. The big white and pink eyed bison comes across looking like the mechanical bull, standing still when it was supposed to be charging, in the movies "Urban Cowboy" and "Stir Crazy".
In the end it took a lot more for Wild Bill to get his one eyed Gabby Hayes-like partner Charlie Zane from shooting his new found friend Crazy Horse aka Worm in the back then in him backing Bill up when the White Buffalo made its grand appearance; In the films final slowdown between man and beast. The breathless photography of the scenic and snow capped Black Hills together with the movies beautiful and haunting musical score made the film "The White Buffalo" more then worth sitting through.
***SPOILER ALERT*** With the White Buffalo, finally being put down by Bill Worm & Charlie, now history Wild Bill could now go back to sleep without having nightmares about the big "Albino Bison" charging at him. The one-eyed Charlie had now learned to respect the American Indian, whom he despised and hated all his life, in what Worm did in his bear handed Indian-style, with only a tomahawk, confrontation with the big white bison. And most of all "Worm" in proving with his bravery that he's fit to carry the name can go back to being called "Crazy Horse".
P.S There's no evidence that Wild Bill Hickok and Chief Crazy Horse, who were both murdered within a year of each other, ever really met during their lifetimes. What is known is that Crazy Horse was given his name by his father who was also named Crazy Horse. Being Ogala tradition to not have children named after their parents Crazy Horse senior changed his name to Worm, after naming his newborn son Crazy Horse, which he was to be known by for the remainder of his life.