Buffalo Girls (1995)

Just what I expected

Best movie ever!

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Impressive script that gets the gist out of a big book and renders a lot of the main plot points with simple scenes. Favotites were the simple way they presented the gift of NoEars with his wax ears from Calamity. In the book I believe that was all NoEars initiative that made that happen. But this is a movie and Calamity giving that gift made it very touching. Jim Rag's love of beaver is also very simply portrayed. And I guess it is really ultimately smart to deviate completely from the main revelation of the book. Now this is really a spoiler for the book but I want you warned. Do not proceed if you haven't read the book because it is a great book. Calamity Jane in the movie is an actual mother with a child she will meet in heart wrenching scenes. In the book, most of the story is told with letters to "Janey". Letters to Janey are just a way for sad Calamity Jane to talk to someone that she feels would understand her. Janey never was. At the end, sad Calamity Jane has no one and we learn she has created this imaginary daughter and an imaginary romance with Wild Bill. A hard thing to put over with the same emotional depth the movie gets with an actual daughter. That bugged me a bit, but I got over it. It's no Lonesome Dove but it's a great film of characters that are shaped by their common love of the early American adventure.

I watched 'Buffalo Girls' because of the Larry McMurtry 'Lonesome Dove' connection. With a cast of the calibre of this offering this TV movie could have been remarkable, but this books' translation to the screen just kept making me wince. Everyone in this sadly average offering seemed to be working on auto pilot and I can only put it down to schmaltzy dialogue that followed the letter of the novel but not the spirit.I've seen Angelica Houston in a lot of things and enjoyed her in every one.... except this one. I wish I'd never seen it.Sorry

Here goes my passion for westerns :) I just watched "Buffalo Girls". To be honest, at the beginning I was reserved - western with women, huh... It's like prejudice. The one and only western with a woman main character I really love is "Cat Ballou" with Jane Fonda. Well, there are two such westerns now. You know, Buffalo Girls is one of those movies that come as a pleasant surprise. Anjelica Huston is Calamity Jane, Melanie Griffith is Dora DuFran. They both are doing very good job with their characters. And the support actors are just great. Jack Palance and Tracey Walter as two good old friends, simple people with simple naive dreams. Both actors I know since I was a kid and my dad took me to watch Tim Burton's "Batman". Jack Palance is one great actor, I enjoy his mere presence in movies. Tracey Walter's character is probably my favorite character in the movie. Peter Coyote, Keys from E.T. is also here. Charlayne Woodard makes a very good appearance. And of course Red Crow - this man just inspires. I've seen him in "Dances with Wolves", "Dreamkeeper" and "Hidalgo" (three great movies in my opinion), but I was really surprised to find out that he has done some voice acting for "Captain Planet and the Planeteers". "Buffalo Girls" is really good movie. After the end I felt that feeling that usually comes with western movies - pride, loneliness, nostalgia... Like I belong there in the praerie. Watching the sunset, listening to Willie Nelson and thinking "Those were the days..."

Excellent script, it would be good to see this kind of class transposed to very expensive movies, and sorry about this but has anyone considered setting Buffalo Girls in stardate 56/24/17? Will it work? It would be interesting.