How did Robert Altman challenge the legend of Buffalo Bill Cody in Buffalo Bill and the Indians?

In the 1976 film Buffalo Bill and the Indians; or, Sitting Bull’s History Lesson, director Robert Altman challenged the established legend of Buffalo Bill Cody by presenting him as a figure who was a far cry from the mythic frontiersman popularized in dime-novel fame.1

Rather than portraying the heroic scout and showman celebrated in historical accounts, the film deconstructs the persona of the Wild West show impresario, revealing the discrepancy between the manufactured public image and the reality of the man. By adapting Arthur Kopit’s play Indians, Altman focused on the artifice behind the legend, stripping away the romanticized veneer of the American West to offer a more critical, revisionist perspective on the character.21