This rare but intriguing western deals with Will Bill Hickok ( Charles Bronson)who suffers several nightmares about an enormous white buffalo. Will Hickok join forces with Indian chief, Crazy Horse, previous to Little Big Horn battle, (here also named Worm and well played by Will Sampson) and a rifleman named Zane (Jack Warden) to track down a breathtaking white buffalo in the Black Hills . Hickok holds a dodgy obsession with the mythical animal until a spectacular final duel.

This strange picture packs nois action , thrills , chills, tension , violence and semi-surreal outdoors. The highlights of the movie are the impressive mountain of bones and the buffalo attacks with the victims running afoul that deliver excitement enough. Packs something of 'Moby Dick' theme with the obstinate fight of a man to chase his prey . Other reviewers say that the white buffalo represents the fear to mortality . Features good performances from starring trio , Bronson, Sampson and Warden. Ample plethora of veteran secondaries , such as Slim Pickens as a stagecoach conductor , Stuart Whitman as a passenger , Clint Walker as a gunfighter, Douglas Fowley as a train conductor and also narrator , besides John Carradine . Other supporting cast in minor roles are the following ones : Ed Lauter, Martin Kove and of course Kim Novak in a special appearance. Although much is filmed in studio, the freezing frontiers , filthy towns and snowy locations are shot in Bronson Canyon Los Angeles, Chana New Mexico and Canon City, Colorado. Appropriate and atmospheric musical score by the classic composer John Barry.

The picture is produced in average budget by Dino De Laurentis who made a trilogy with giant beasts (King Kong, Orca, White buffalo) and creature design by Carlo Rambaldi (E. T.). The film was professionally directed by J. Lee Thomson who directed good Western ( McKenna gold) and all kinds of genres such as Sci-Fi (Conquest and Battle of planet of apes),terror (reincarnation of Peter Proud, Eye of the devil),adventures (King of the sun, Taras Bulba) and Warlike ( Guns of Navarone, Von Braun). J. Lee Thomson working from the 50s in England, finished his career making Chuck Norris (Firewalker) and Charles Bronson vehicles (Evil that men do, Messenger of death, Death Wish 4 : Crackdown, Caboblanco, St Ives). Watchable results for this outlandish Western.

I've found that Charles Bronson's portrayal of Wild Bill Hickok in the White Buffalo to be the best and most realistic one I've seen on film or television. He certainly looks the most like Hickok and is properly attired with both pistols in a sash as Hickok was known to favor.

The novel and film are set in 1874 as Hickok has returned to the west after several years of play acting as his good friend Buffalo Bill Cody talked him into doing. Whereas Cody was a natural for show business Hickok hated the whole business and went west again when gold was reported in the Dakota territory. It's there where he met his death in 1876.

But according to this novel Hickok went on a hunt for a legendary white buffalo which has been plaguing him in dreams. Hickok also suffered from glaucoma and had to wear dark glasses because his eyes couldn't deal with bright light. Clearly not the man he was when he was the legendary marshal of Abilene.

He was however the man who carried out what was essentially a contract hit on a legendary, charismatic Indian leader called the Whistler who back in the previous decade was trying to unite various Indian tribes to forget their own differences and wage a united war against the whites. The Indians, especially the Sioux hated Hickok for that though he was at the time carrying out Army orders, he was scouting for them at the time.

On his odyssey to the Dakotas Hickok meets up with Crazy Horse two years before he became legendary leading the Sioux to victory at the Little Big Horn. The white buffalo is real and stampeding through the Sioux village killed Crazy Horse's toddler. Because Crazy Horse, played by Will Sampson, did not show proper Indian stoicism on the death of the little guy, he's been banished from the tribe and can only redeem himself according to their religion by killing the white buffalo himself and not with the white man's guns.

Of course Crazy Horse and Hickok meet up in the Dakota territory each pursuing the albino bison. Whether they ever really met, they were in the same area at the same time. No record of it, but they could have met.

Bronson and Sampson are a fine pair of leads and are ably assisted by a veteran cast of players that include, Slim Pickens, John Carradine, Kim Novak, Stuart Whitman, Cara Williams, Ed Lauter, Clint Walker and Douglas Fowley. Standing out however is Jack Warden playing Hickok's sidekick on the hunt.

If you want to see the best portrayal of Wild Bill Hickok done on big screen or small catch The White Buffalo by all means.

Although the story had a number of ideas that didn't ring true for me, I still found it largely entertaining and interesting. Of course, having Wild Bill Hickok cross paths with Crazy Horse was one of the more creative elements in the picture, and that they didn't recognize each other was probably something of a stretch. In fact, having very few people recognize Hickok on his return from Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was probably darn near impossible. I'm going by Hickok's reputation and the fact that his image would have been one of the more prominent ones featured in newspapers and dime novels of the day. But as far as fiction goes, this one gets points for the idea of a mythical white buffalo that haunts Hickok's nightmares and has caused Crazy Horse disgrace following the death of his daughter. Both have their reasons for revenge on the 'buff', and the events leading to their team up is handled skillfully.

You know, if I hadn't seen Clint Walker's name in the opening credits and been looking for him, I probably would have entirely overlooked his presence as Whistling Jack Kileen. He's one guy who never seemed to age following that successful run as Cheyenne Bodie in the 1950's. He's a bad guy here though, virtually unrecognizable under a beard and a brogue, but I don't think he ever did whistle.

If you listen closely, you might be shocked to hear Charlie Zane's (Jack Warden) comment the first time he and Wild Bill get a look at Crazy Horse before they know who he is. Under attack by a band of Crow Indians, Charlie says - "Look at that red nig-er take on". The only other time I've heard that reference in a movie before was in 1960's "The Unforgiven" in a similar context. Interesting but disconcerting to hear a racist remark like that regarding Native Americans.

For Western movie fans, the picture offers quite a notable cast heading off into their own personal career sunset, folks like Slim Pickens as a stage driver and John Carradine as a busy undertaker. Both have rather brief roles, along with Kim Novak as a former Hickok flame, Poker Jenny. Speaking for myself, it's always a treat to catch Will Sampson in any kind of role; my favorite has to be his portrayal of Chief Bromden in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest".

Fans of Charles Bronson should be pleased with his effort here, about mid-way between his "Death Wish" appearances. Somewhat less charismatic is the white buffalo itself, a rather modest special effects effort even by 1970's standards. At times it looks more comical than fearsome, and I had to ask myself why they couldn't come up with something a bit more realistic looking, especially considering it had the power to wipe out Indian villages and knock down mountains.