"Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (Widescreen)"

Robert Altman fans will recognize stock characters from his other films, but will be entertained (perhaps delighted) throughout.

Spoilers follow - Buffalo Bill has a great first half-hour and then wobbles all over the place. The movie looks like it's going to be a typical Altman Audio/Visual stew of show business, fire arms, and history. The Wild Bill show looks wonderful, the cinematography is great, the dialogue seems pretty good and the casting inspires some optimism. Then the Indians show up. Sitting Bull and William Halsey are portrayed as noble, mysterious and aloof. The movie spirals into a series of events where they confound the smarmy Bill Cody over and over. The last hour of the movie requires Newman to act more and more flustered by Sitting Bull until he has a really cringeworthy breakdown in front of the ghostly Chief.

Anyway, there's stuff for hardcore Altman fans (I'm one) to watch for. Newman is initially impressive in his role and then sputters. The pageants and attention to details that Altman excels at are well done. Ultimately the themes of showbiz and history wilt before the rambling blah of the noble savage.

I never thought an Altman movie would bore me, but this one was interminable. He makes the point about Buffalo Bill, and hence all showbiz and celebrity (and politics), being a fraud in the first 15 minutes. But this is a two hour plus movie, and the next hour and 45 minutes is a lot of improvised movement & wandering around that signifies nothing & conveys nothing new beyond that.

The good things about the picture are Paul Newman, Will Samson, the dignity of the man playing Sitting Bull,Burt Lancaster, and the wonderful recreation of the look of Buffalo Bill's show. ( My father saw his show as a child, and the excitement & wonder of it never left him). But there is a whole lot of watching Newman walking around & having muddled dialogue with this one and that one, all adding up to not much.

If you want to indulge your guilt over the sorry and dreadful treatment of Native Americans knock yourself out. Even this very real subject is handled poorly here as well, the worthwhile moments overwhelmed by too much extraneous nonsense. And, as one reviewer pointed out, the real Buffalo Bill was said to have treated the Native Americans with kindness & respect and they regarded him well.

When you are an intuitive and flexible and improvisational film-maker, as Altman is, it is inevitable that you won't bottle lightning everytime out. And Altman has had his misfires, as has Kubrick, Kurosawa, Fellini, Bergman and every other brilliant artist. This is one.