Brilliant and touching

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

If you grew up wanting to become a cowboy, following the legendary adventures of Buffalo Bill Cody, you'll definitely want to check out one of the several biopics made in Hollywood and on television. I've only seen the 1944 version and his fictional portrayal in the musical Annie Get Your Gun. Buffalo Bill follows his friendship with Native Americans and shows his courtship and marriage to Louisa, played by Maureen O'Hara.Since this movie was made during the good ol' Hollywood era of racism, the Native American characters who were prominent enough to have dialogues with the leads were played by "ethnics" Anthony Quinn and Linda Darnell, who were subjugated to these types of roles throughout their careers. Maureen O'Hara's character is given a healthy dose of racism, but it's never really addressed, just accepted. As usual, she overacts every line, and contrasted with Joel McCrea's wooden, monotone delivery, both actors come across as incredibly mismatched. He's so incredibly boring, and the rest of the production values are pretty cheap. Unless you absolutely love Joel McCrea, check out another version.

The real life Bill Cody must have been quite the conflicted character. While revering the Indian way of life, he took part in the Indian Wars and led buffalo hunts that wound up decimating the country's massive herds of the animal, helping destroy the lives of many tribes. The dichotomy in Cody's (Joel McCrae) character is given resonance following the Battle of War Bonnet Gorge, when he comments on the terrible loss of life - "They were all my friends".For a while, I thought the introduction of Linda Darnell's character was intended as a romantic tease vying for Cody's affection for Miss Frederici (Maureen O'Hara), but that plot line wound up going nowhere. If Darnell's character name was mentioned in the story I had to have missed it, she's called Dawn Starlight on the credits page here.Same thing with Edgar Buchanan's character, the Cavalry Sergeant Chips McGraw. He wound up not really having a lot to do in the story, eventually learning he was dismissed from the Army after serving for thirty years. Talk about your slow postal service. One thing you'll only catch in this picture though, it's the only time I've ever seen Buchanan with a white handlebar mustache! As with most of these Western films of the era, there's not much to go by that's historically accurate, so the best thing to do is just settle back and enjoy it for what it is. McCrea seems to be unusually laid back in his role as the frontier hero, his best moments perhaps while dealing with Cheyenne war chief Yellow Hand (Anthony Quinn). But once again, any story that introduces Ned Buntline (Thomas Mitchell) as a character has to be taken with a grain of salt. He always did his best to sell newspapers and magazines, even if it meant streeeeetching the truth.

Buffalo Bill Cody was portrayed in many movies by many actors, but none has ever captured the look and character as well as Joel McCrea in 20th Century Fox's 1944 Technicolor spectacle Buffalo Bill. Tall, arrow-straight, broad-shouldered, soft-spoken McCrea is simply the embodiment of the famous Indian scout and world renowned showman. Along with the under-rated actor, himself, credit Fox's casting department, tough action director William Wellman, and perhaps most to costumer Rene Hubert. There a many photos of Bill Cody, including a couple from when he was still an unknown Army scout, and Hubert's outfits match them right down to the Indian leggings. But most of all credit whomever -- Wellman, Hubert, or McCrea, himself, decided he had to have a large mustache, goatee and long hair, like the real-life character. This was a harder decision at the time than it may seem to the modern generation. The 1940's was a closely barbered, clean-shaved generation of men. To them, and their women, having a beard or even a mustache bigger than an eyebrow, made a man look like his grandpa. Anathema to a leading man, surely! But there was McCrea with the realistic Cody facial hair. No doubt the decision was heavily influenced by the fact that so many people living in the 1940's had actually seen the real Buffalo Bill, who lived until 1917.This is a lively and well-produced western with a top cast, including McCrea, gorgeous Maureen O'Hara as Mrs. Cody, Linda Darnell as the prettiest Indian squaw who ever existed, Thomas Mitchell as Ned Buntline, Anthony Quinn as Yellowhand, backed up by Edgar Buchanan, Moroni Olsen, and a gang of other solid character actors, such as seemed to grow on trees in that golden era of Old Hollywood. Sumptuous three-strip Technicolor photographed by Leon Shamroy under the sure guidance of Technicolor Corporation's Czarina Natalie Kalmus, exciting battle scenes, rousing David Buttolph score, rich characterization, intelligent if at times heavy-handed script. Cody is idealized, but then so are the Indians, who were in reality not nearly so noble as the present politically correct generation would like to think. Nevertheless, the basics and the spirit of the story are there, and presented in a highly entertaining manner. That's all that counts in a movie.Buffalo Bill is a good show, and that, no doubt, would have been good enough for the real-life Buffalo Bill Cody!

The most noticeable thing about this fairly routine Western is its sympathetic portrayal of the native American – something of a rarity for a Hollywood film of the 40s. The white man is the villain here – or, more specifically, the white man from the East who is unfamiliar with both the culture of the Indians and their needs. Coming from New York in their droves, they decimate the buffalo population as part of a fashion fad and uncaringly leave the starving Indian nation with no option but to go to war. Despite this sympathetic portrayal, stereotypes still abound. Anthony Quinn plays the legendary Yellow Hand, one-time friend of Cody, who has been educated by the White Man but still talks in that curious pigeon-English so beloved of Hollywood film-makers. And for all the Indian's nobility, whiteness is still something to which Indian squaw Linda Darnell still aspires. It's difficult to understand why she is included in the plot because she has little to do other than gaze longingly at an oblivious Cody. Even the writers don't seem to know what to do with her and end up having her bizarrely taking part in a pitched battle between Indians and cavalry.Joel McCrea plays Buffalo Bill and he is as reliable and unspectacular as you would expect McCrea to be. Cody himself is something of a paradox. Initially friendly with the Indian he sacrifices his position in order to save the father of the Eastern lass he has his eye on (a radiant Maureen O'Hara) and then helps organise guided hunting trips to give witless city types the opportunity to take part in the orchestrated massacre of the buffalo (perhaps, then, a better title for him would have been Buffalo-killer Bill?). Having helped drive his old friend Yellow Hand's tribe to the edge of extinction he then deliberately baits the Indian chief into a battle to the death to buy himself some time when out-numbered by the combined forces of the Sioux and Cheyenne. Despite later railing against the 'civilisation' that has claimed the life of his son, Cody then embraces that culture and finds a niche within it as an entertainer, recreating his exploits in a travelling sideshow before the titled heads of the world. When you think about it, this isn't exactly the most admirable of people we're learning about here, and you're left feeling that the writers really hadn't given much thought to the overall impression they were trying to give of the man.Although the film overall is something of a dull affair it's lifted by some good action sequences and early use of technicolor.