Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976)

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Bill & the injuns, there´s always a lot of characters and details in the frame. I like it, but I like more the autoritative automistycal character of Cody, and his yesmen. Greta narration by Burt Lancaster. Grerat no comment sequence of the meeting of presidente Cleveland with Sitting Bull. The chronicle of a fake epic hero and a sad defeated indian

Description: The time is 1885. Colonel William F. Cody (Paul Newman) is the chief attraction in an open-air-and-tent show called "Buffalo Bill's Wild West: An Absolute Original & Heroic Enterprise of Inimitable Lustre." The action of the film takes place in and around this vaudeville environment where tourists come to see various acts (buffalo wrestling, sharp-shooting) and entertainments (stage coach robberies, cowboys fighting Indians). Buffalo Bill and his entourage (Joel Grey as producer, Kevin McCarthy as public relations man, Harvey Keitel as handyman) have packaged the history of the Wild West in circus stunts and carniv The time is 1885. Colonel William F. Cody (Paul Newman) is the chief attraction in an open-air-and-tent show called "Buffalo Bill's Wild West: An Absolute Original & Heroic Enterprise of Inimitable Lustre." The action of the film takes place in and around this vaudeville environment where tourists come to see various acts (buffalo wrestling, sharp-shooting) and entertainments (stage coach robberies, cowboys fighting Indians). Buffalo Bill and his entourage (Joel Grey as producer, Kevin McCarthy as public relations man, Harvey Keitel as handyman) have packaged the history of the Wild West in circus stunts and carnival spectacles. When Grey announces at one point, "I'm going to Cody-fy the world," we recognize the preposterousness of their ambitions. And when Annie Oakley (Geraldine Chaplin) asks Buffalo Bill why he doesn't tell the truth in his show, the superstar replies, "I got a better sense of history than that."

There is a great deal of excitement in camp when Chief Sitting Bull (Frank Kaquitts) is brought to the Wild West Show by the Army. He is accompanied by a strong, willful interpreter (Will Sampson). The idea is to put the Chief in a vignette about the Battle of Little Big Horn. The Indians have an alternate story they want to tell — a dramatization of American soldiers slaughtering unarmed Indian women and children. Needless to say, their piece is rejected. Instead the white audiences are given Buffalo Bill's revision of history: in the Battle of Little Big Horn, Custer wins! "Truth is whatever gets the most applause." ... (more) (less)