BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson, as told by director Robert Altman, co-writing with his wannabe mimic Alan Rudolph, released in 1976, the year of the United States Bicentennial. For all the hoopla about the 200th birthday, there wasn’t much in the way of Americana on screen that year, though some would claim Rocky, the year’s surprise and biggest hit, cheering the underdog idea with a new fictional hero who—better or worse—turned essentially mythic. The rather more thoughtful All The President’s Men stood vigil saluting Freedom Of The Press. And the Sensurround-blasting Midway (quite popular if markedly disappointing) recalled collective WW2 heroism. Altman’s, on the other left foot, pretty much hawked and spat in the country’s face with 123 minutes of achingly self-bemused tedium, revisiting by way of revision the already sharp-shot fame of folk legend William F. Cody. The windbag writing, patented (and patently done-to-death) focus fiddling and sound synching make his blunt point from frame one and that twee title then repeat clobber it for two hours—Cody was a fake, therefore It’s All a Fraud, we’re a tribe of phonies. Except of course, Altman & acolytes, cosseted in Malibu-barbequed “truth”. Maybe not his worst movie (a pinata-splattered selection to snuffle thru), or that of beloved star Paul Newman: but not for lack of trying. *

1885, out West. Famed scout, hunter and soldier William F. Cody (Newman) introduces legendary Sioux medicine man Sitting Bull as a new addition to his traveling Wild West show, which includes among its cast sharpshooter supreme Annie Oakley (Geraldine Chaplin). Cody’s success as a showman owes a great deal to pulp writer Ned Buntline (Burt Lancaster) who turns up for sage-brushed commentary from the sidelines.

You gotta love (not) the crummiest of the revisionist westerns of the period: not satisfied with poking at the character flaws of or the myths built up around long-deified frontier figures, the more scurrilous entrees rolled in the post-Nam mud by making them worse by far than they actually were, and this darkwash of Cody falls into that saddle bag of bull puckey. Pick up a book or three, parse fact v. fiction, drop preconceived notions, be surprised. Having sat thru this noxious example of “setting the record straight” twice, its casual dishonesty royally rankles me enough to break the vaunted Movies Ala Mark Fairness Doctrine and not even bother giving credit to a few good points.

Budgeted at $7,100,000, registering in 91st place as a well-deserved flop with a gross of $3,900,000. With Joel Grey, Kevin McCarthy (blustering), John Considine, Harvey Keitel (direly out of place), Will Sampson, Frank Kaquitts (as Sitting Bull), Pat McCormick (as Grover Cleveland, who also gets unjustly smeared), Robert DoQui, Evelyn Lear, Shelley Duvall, Bert Remsen and—as a token to western movie casting, Denver Pyle. Shot in Canada, in Alberta on the Stoney Indian Reserve.

Best line, delivered by Burt: “Yes, he was certainly born to entertain. No ordinary man would have the foresight to take credit for acts of bravery and heroism that he couldn’t have done. And no ordinary man could realize what tremendous profits could be made by telling a pack of lies, in front of witnesses, like it was the truth.”  Remind you of anyone?

* Who doesn’t like Paul Newman? Yet, like many durable stars, along with triumphs he had his share of duds, too—The Silver Chalice, A New Kind Of Love, The Outrage, The Secret War Of Harry Frigg, WUSA, Quintet (Altman again), When Time Ran Out… Some are so bad they’re fun, others just snorefests, but Buffalo Bill And The Indians rates as actually hateful.

Altman devotees do inverted somersaults to pry auteur genius out of his lamest smug jobs. We’ll take McCabe & Mrs. Miller, The Player, Nashville and Gosford Park. That just leaves the other twenty-nine.

Actors as Cody, a sampling : James Ellison (The Plainsman), Roy Rogers, Joel McCrea (Buffalo Bill ),Louis Calhern (Annie Get Your Gun), Charlton Heston (Pony Express), Guy Stockwell, Keith Carradine (Wild Bill), J.K. Simmons.