There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Partners W.K.L. Dickson and William Heise filmed this seventeen-second short for Edison Laboratories. They filmed three Native-American dancers recreating what the title call "the Buffalo Dance".Not much to recommend here as a film, other than its dubious value as a cultural artifact. These Native-Americans are obviously performers, so it is hard to determine the authenticity of their wardrobe and movements. This film may be more of how the white filmmakers Heise and Dickson viewed Native-Americans. I do like how one of the dancers never takes his eyes off of the camera, staring it down as he dances.I rate it a 2 out of 10.

It's basically 15 seconds of Indians (one of them quite a porker) dancing to another Indian playing the drums. This one was released in 1894, just like the Dickson Experimental Sound Film, even pretty much at the same time month-wise. Sadly we have no sound in here. Otherwise it might have been easier to go back in time in our minds and feel the vibe the Indians were getting during the production of this little short film.What I find most interesting about it is how one of the three dancers is clearly interacting with the camera and the viewer. He seems to have understood this new medium much more than the other two who are basically just doing their show as if nobody else was in the room.

I have been to many pow wows in real life, but I have never seen a Native American dancer with a giant set of black tail feathers sticking up from his butt a mile high like the chunky dancer in this short Edison film. The other two dancers have more recognizable feather gear, in the form of about two head feathers each. The dancer in the forefront most often takes a lower, almost snakish approach to his performance, which put me in mind of some of the old Warners Brothers cartoons portraying Native Americans as savages who could slither like eels to sneak up on the white folk that we used to watch in the trailer growing up when the babysitter was over. Ten generations of kids have been exposed to those cartoons, which you still can buy sets of in the dollar stores for a buck, so it stands to reason that the original animators of these films may have been drawn from the preceding five generations of kids who were exposed to these Edison Kinetographs growing up. I guess therez a saying that what goes around comes around.P.S.--Drummers never get any respect. I know from my pow wow experience that Native Americans do not dance without drumming, but from the information on this site you would have no idea that there are 2 NI drummers behind the 3 dancers in this flick!

Buffalo Dance (1894) *** (out of 4) Another interesting piece of history, this Edison short runs just fifteen-seconds but it's very entertaining. We see three Indians doing a "buffalo dance", which was a ritual they'd do as part of the "Buffalo Bill Wild West Show". I'm sure fans back in the day got a great kick (and laughter) out of seeing this but the movie remains interesting today just as a part of history. It's great seeing an actual show of what people back in the day were watching and with that in mind, this is the main reason why I love watching these older films. Those expecting some ground breaking action will be disappointed but silent film buffs will be entertained.