Rent Buffalo Girls (1995)

Sugar coated look at Calamity Jane. - Buffalo Girls review by CP Customer

I'm a big fan of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and had high hopes that Buffalo Girls would be equally good, though I have to say I was really disappointed. The four part mini series centers around the characters of cowgirl Calamity Jane and her long time friend Dora DuFran, a madame who worked in the saloons and hotels of Dakota. The film also follows a few other characters all trying to find their way after the end of the Indian wars and what was considered the wild west. While you have to give the series some credit for being fairly historically accurate and taking you on a journey in these peoples lives, what lets it down is the sugar coated way in which the characters are portrayed. Anjelica Huston is a fine actress and does a fair job in playing Jane, though the character is portrayed as a sweet good hearted woman who's a little rough around the edges, when the real Jane was far more butch, a raging alcoholic who often sold her body to make money. The same can be said for the character of Dora, who is played by Melanie Griffith and is portrayed as a rather meek gentle woman stuck in a rut of prostitution, when the real life Dora was a big woman, loud and who went on to run a string of successful brothels across the Dakotas. Overall, this was a bit too sweet for my taste, if you're looking for a more accurate account of the west check out 'Broken Trail' or the HBO series 'Deadwood'.