The White Buffalo

by Richard B. Sale

extremely rare,very good condition

Genres: Fiction, Westerns

253 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 1975

About the author

Richard B. Sale (1911-1993) an American screenwriter, film director, and pulp fiction writer.

Reviews

[Taylor Hensel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In 1975, Steven Spielberg's "Jaws," based on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel, became the first big Hollywood blockbuster, grossing hundreds of millions of dollars and revitalizing an industry concerned primarily with gritty reality and politically preachy "message" movies. Naturally, due to the success of "Jaws," Hollywood studios went into scramble-mode, trying to find the next book about a giant rampaging killer animal that could become the next tent-pole sensation.

Enter Italian uber-producer Dino De Laurentiis.

Before he spent the '80s buying the rights to nearly every book Stephen King published during that decade, De Laurentiis was as concerned with being the exec who greenlighted the next "Jaws" as anybody else. In his search to find the Peter Benchley to his Richard Zanuck and Dick Brown, he produced film adaptations of two novels about nature-gone-mad by Arthur Herzog, entitled "The Swarm," about a, well, swarm of African killer bees terrorizing a small Texas town, and "Orca," an eerie revenge tale about a grief-stricken bull orca whale obsessively pursuing the professional hunter who accidentally killed his mate and unborn calf. Although "Orca" has a certain gravitas to it and "The Swarm" starred hot-right-then Katharine Ross and Michael Caine, neither film garnered the praise or renown of "Jaws." Finally, in 1977, De Laurentiis purchased the rights to Richard Sale's "Jaws"/"Moby Dick" homage historical Western thriller, "The White Buffalo," and....I wish I could say things changed.

Keep in mind, "The White Buffalo" was a critical and commercial flop, and the novel was derided by none other than Larry McMurtry, but because I think it's the most interesting of the '70s "Jaws" apes, I had to mention those to finally get here.

*By the way, to those who read this review, I highly encourage you to, every time you read the words white buffalo, to very quickly whisper under your breath "Great White Buffalo", a la "Hot Tub Time Machine."

"The White Buffalo," both the Richard Sale novel and J. Lee Thompson's subsequent 1977 adaptation starring Charles Bronson as Wild Bill Hickok and Will Sampson as Oglala Lakota war chief Crazy Horse, can only be described as bat-shit insane. The entire plot is contrived and based solely on an attempt to recreate "Jaws" but on land and using historical figures. Why is Bill Hickok suddenly having dreams about a rampaging white bison that gores him to death? Because he is. Why is Crazy Horse convinced that if he wraps his dead daughter in the pelt of the white buffalo (did you do it? C'mon guys, this is a master's level course) this will improve her chances of going to Heaven, as if being a three year old innocent who died of whooping cough would somehow prevent that. It's all just eyewash to get these two Old West badasses who, as far as we know, never met each other in real life to join forces for a brutal showdown with the white buffalo that is part-"Jaws," part-"Moby Dick," and part-"True Grit."

Which is not to say that this novel (and the film) is not a fucking blasty-blast to read (or watch). The pace is fast, the details actually pretty authentic--Sale was fascinated by 19th century frontier vernacular, and that shines through in the dialogue--and unlike a lot of "Jaws" rip-offs, there's actually a great deal of heart here. Sale is trying to say something about the tragedy of Westward Expansion in the relationship between Wild Bill and Crazy Horse. It's very confused, and isn't given enough room to really breath and develop, but at least he gave enough of a shit to try. And I truly appreciate how Sale attempts to present a sympathetic portrayal of Lakota culture almost a decade and a half before "Dances With Wolves," even going so far as to include a glossary of Lakota words and phrases at the end of his quick-and-dirty Western thriller about two guys trying to kill a giant white bovine. He's not as successful as, say, Thomas Berger when he wrote "Little Big Man," but sometimes it truly is the thought that counts.

This is a book that you can knock out in a few sittings, max. If you love westerns and you love nature-monster movies like "Jaws" or "Orca" or, hell, even Joe Dante's 1979 "Piranha," then give this a read if you can track down a copy. It's out of print, but Abebooks and Amazon should be able to help you if you're interested. The movie's even easier to get a hold of, and was even recently given a Blue-Ray remastering and release.

In the meantime, good luck on the search for your own white buffalo.

[Sherrill Watson · Rating 4 out of 5]

James Butler Otis (not his real name) and "Worm" (not his subsequent or previous name) encounter each other in their hunt for a crazed(?) white buffalo. This was in 1874.

The book is filled with tidbit sayings of the times, like: 'slick as a salamander in a bucket of axel grease.' Some sayings are more obscure: 'Eagle Beak has found a mark he likes. Come to the ball, Cap. It's jiggers.' It's somewhat explained in the following paragraph, but not necessarily.

Worm is acutely suffering from his little daughter dying, the need to avenge her and send her on to the next world in the best way possible, which means to wrap her bones in a white buffalo skin. Otis is having precognitive dreams of being killed by the white buffalo, and needs to kill it to get rid of the dreams.

DON'T READ THE ENDING FIRST! It'll spoil it.

[Garick Cooke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Sale made his living primarily as a screenwriter, but the biography at the end of this novel states that he had over 400 short stories and 10 novels to his name, as well. I saw the movie before reading the novel; it's a mediocre Charles Bronson vehicle. (Sale wrote the screenplay, as well, deriving much of the dialogue directly from the novel). The novel is something else. Sale's prose is lively, and liberally peppered with unfamiliar words and expressions. Is this how folks in the 1870s really spoke to each other? I have no idea, but Sale makes it seem plausible. He includes at the end of the book a Sioux glossary, a bibliography (3 full pages' worth of reference materials which he apparently used in writing this brief novel), and some historical notes of interest. A surprisingly good read, especially for one such as myself who does not read Westerns. Allow me to rate it five stars.

[John Peel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richard Sale created and wrote one of my favorite TV Western series, "Yancy Derringer", so I had to read this later novel of his. It concerns a fictitious meeting of Wild Bill Hickok and a native American called Worm. Both are hunting (and haunted by) the last white buffalo, and each man has his reasons for wanting it. In Hickok's case, he needs the money he'd make from selling the very rare pelt; for Worm, he wants the hide to bury his dead daughter in, so she can rest well in the afterlife. The book is a character study of the two men, their interactions and the effects of all of this on the people about them. A gripping, well-told tale that's absolutely riveting. (It also reads like an episode of "Deadwood"!)

[Garie Chrismer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth reading, but leaves you hanging too 🤦🏻‍♂️

[Fay Risner]

A true to life look at the way it was for men in the west when it was a territory.