Directed by Robert Altman
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)
Robert Altman exposes the myth of the American west. Paul Newman plays Buffalo Bill, the stereotypical showman who doesn't mind changing history if it makes him a few bucks. His "Wild West" show is a big hit, but when he hires the real Sitting Bull as a costar things start falling apart. Sitting Bull says relatively little but his actions wreak havoc on Bill's conscience and expose his lies. For example, when Bull and his tribe go to the mountains one night to celebrate the full moon, Bill's posse fails to round them up, and this from the greatest Indian hunter in American history. Later, the President visits the show, providing Altman with more opportunities to expose American hypocrisy. A failure at the box office, the American public was, and probably still is, reluctant to look at itself in the mirror, much like Buffalo Bill himself in one scene of the film.
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