Blu-ray Review – Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson

After scoring a career highlight with 1975's "Nashville," director Robert Altman followed up one of his most famous efforts with a movie that perhaps only his die-hard fans have seen. 1976's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson" is far from Altman's most lauded work, but it's one of his better pictures, spotlighting a filmmaker working his gifts with conviction, bringing in major Hollywood heavyweights to help him realize his idiosyncratic vision. In this case, the star is Paul Newman, yellowing his teeth and wearing a cruddy wig to portray a Wild West icon coming to terms with the crumbling foundation of his mythological origins. While "Buffalo Bill and the Indians" teases a tone of revisionist western lecturing, it remains a semi-comedy with outstanding screen detail, electing to trust the audience when it comes to the deconstruction of a western legend by simply providing the uncomfortable particulars of these characters and their abrasive interaction during a time of premiere American storytelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com