The two hours' duration [of Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's History Lesson] achieves nothing that could not have been done just as well in 90 minutes, and what sustains us much of the time is not so much lack of boredom as the assumption that so much artful quaintness must have something up its tasseled sleeve. In vain; this film makes me think that the center of Altman is made not of ideas, insights, visions, but of attitudes. And attitudes are not quite good enough. (p. 70)

There are two sides to almost everything: William F. Cody was also a Pony Express rider, Indian scout, hunter, and entrepreneur of remarkable skill, however little you and I may value these talents…. Altman's sitting duck of a Buffalo Bill, this all black-and-white—or, rather, all red-and-black—history lesson with its consistently noble Indians and dependably ignoble whites will not...