The White Buffalo

Bronson plays Wild Bill Hickok, whose nemesis is the giant white buffalo of the title which haunts his nightmares. But the major struggle in the film is over whether it is a 'big' or 'small' picture. Biggest are: the buffalo, another Dino (King Kong) De Laurentiis presentation; the cast of mainly fading stars featured in cameo roles; and the self-consciously epic character names like Hickok, Crazy Horse and Custer. All of which suggests a thunderously empty yarn mounted around yet another mechanical gimmick. Yet Richard Sale's adaptation of his own novel hints at something more intimate. His Hickok is haunted, ageing, and diseased, trapped and uncertain in his own myth. Because of this, the movie occasionally takes an interesting turn, but less often than it should, because J Lee Thompson's direction clings to the increasing number of action set pieces with all the relief of a drowning man clutching a life raft.