Buffalo Rider (1978)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Absolutely the worst movie.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

BUFFALO RIDER is one of those rare 'local' films made outside of Hollywood in the 1970s. This one was shot in Oregon. I always like these films as you get a nice view of rural America missing in the big studio productions. This film tells the simple story of a guy who manages to tame a wild buffalo and then uses it as his steed. The two then travel around and are involved in various escapades with wolves, bears, hunters, and folk both good and bad. There's a cute raccoon called Bandit and lots of real outdoors footage, which makes this a godsend for wildlife lovers like myself. The film is also careful to show the brutality of the great outdoors without sugar-coating the experience.

This is one crazy film. Looks like it was some kind of Morman production because BYU is thanked at the end but there is alcohol involved so maybe not. Anyway for it being made in the modern age of 1976 it sure does have a lot of animal abuse in it. For starters there are many buffalo shot. If they are not being shot at close range thats a pretty good special effect because it sure looks like they are being shot in the spine and fall down immediately like a dead cow. Then there are animal pairings kind of like putting a cat in with a pit bull, except it's a cougar with a raccoon. I have to give this film some credit though because there is a man lying on the ground next to two grizzly bears fighting each other and those bear claws look real. This film has seen a revival because it's production values are so low (95% of the dialog is from a off screen narrator or two, very Beast Of Yucca Flat'ish), and because there is some very un-PC animal abuse moments that would never be tolerated in today's American cinema. In revival I mean that it has been riffed by Rifftrax (formerly actors from Mystery Science Theater 3000) and it seems also has a web TV parody going around with a new comedic soundtrack. That would be the best way to watch this, then no one can accuse you of being a supporter of animal cruelty, because you are watching it in a comedic way. I only watched the Rifftrax version and it was a solid 9, very very funny. If I were to rate the film on it's own I would score it a 5 although it probably deserves a 1 for all the animal cruelty. I am amazed at the main actor's toughness and picking up a porcupine by the tail, and all the other crazy stuff he did, he's a tough guy!

Buffalo rider tells the story of Jake Jones, a man who asks a question that most of us have probably already asked ourselves; what would happen if I attempted to ride a buffalo? The answer is, "It would make an incredibly terrible movie". Buffalo Rider appears to be made from two separate film crews who did not communicate with each other and then threw together all of their footage at the last minute and tried to form a movie out of it. It's part Western, part nature documentary, but ALL bad.There is no doubt in my mind that most of the plot was constructed after filming took place. The reason why people ride horses instead of buffalo is because buffalo do whatever the hell they want; there are plenty of scenes where the narrator says something like, "Well, Jake wanted to (insert thing or place Jake wanted to do or go), but Samson (the buffalo), decided that he wanted to (insert place or direction Samson was currently going)." Samson the buffalo just does whatever he wants; walking back and forth and going up and down hills with no direction or consistency to the movie's "plot". In once scene the narrator literally says, "Samson decided to try to scrape Jake off his back", to try to explain why the star of the movie just got slammed into a fir tree.Here's an interesting thought; at one point in time, either the writer of the directer of this film said, "I don't care how or why, but I want us to put a raccoon in the middle of a frozen river and then break open a dam upstream so we can watch the raccoon get swept away in the ensuing flood." You think I'm joking? What if I told you that this movie features not one, but THREE different raccoons struggling to not drown in three different scenes? There is SO much wrong with this movie. At one point it actually pulls a Beerfest, where a character in the film is killed (thus giving our "hero" motivation for revenge), and is replaced by the same actor playing a different character. Oh, and there is blatant animal abuse everywhere. You think an animal-struggling-to-survive-a-flood scene would be hard to watch? Well then get ready for the "Animal A Attempting to Drown Animal B by Holding Animal B's Head Underwater" scene! It's fun for the whole family! ESPECIALLY if the whole family loves watching buffalo being shot dead, because this movie has PLENTY of that! If you want to watch this movie, watch the Rifftrax version (google it), as that is the only version worth watching.

When I was 6 years old my grandfather took me to see this movie. The only scene I remember is a fight scene in a bar where the buffalo came in and kicked a bunch of people around. I assume that it probably stunk since I have never heard of it since, but it still holds a couple of good memories for me. The next year my grandfather died. This is a morbid comment huh? Does anyone know if it is possible to still see this move? I wouldn't think so, but who knows. Thanks for reading. I had read somewhere that this movie was based on a true story. I really can't imagine a real guy riding a buffalo around, but it was in Oregon so I quess they had "tree huggers" all the way back in the 1800's.