Buffalo ’66

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Buffalo '66

Directed by	Vincent Gallo
Produced by	Chris Hanley
Written by	Vincent Gallo
Starring	Vincent Gallo Christina Ricci Mickey Rourke Rosanna Arquette Ben Gazzara Anjelica Huston
Cinematography	Lance Acord
Editing by	Curtiss Clayton
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	1998
Running time	110 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Buffalo ’66 is a 1998 film, and is writer/director Vincent Gallo's semi-autobiographical full-length motion picture debut. The retro look, do it yourself sensibility and the comic mixture of irony and sentimentality, as well as the casting and music, have caused the film to be strongly identifiable with late-1990s hipster culture. Gallo and Christina Ricci star in the lead roles and the supporting cast includes Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette, Ben Gazzara and Anjelica Huston. Gallo also composed and performed much of the music for the film.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Having just served 5 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Billy Brown (Gallo)'s first desperate post-incarceration action is to desperately search for somewhere to relieve himself. Then, to impress his dunceish, thoroughly neglectful parents, Gallo kidnaps a dance class student called Layla (Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his wife. Layla allows herself to be kidnapped and it is very clear she is romantically attracted to Billy from the start, but Billy all the while is compelled to deal with his own demons, his loneliness and his depression, and it is only at the very end that he allows Layla to give him the love and comfort he has been needing all his life.

The subplot of Billy seeking revenge on the man indirectly responsible for his imprisonment, Scott Wood, is a near-certain reference to a former Buffalo Bills kicker, Scott Norwood, who missed the game-winning field goal in Super Bowl XXV against the New York Giants in 1991.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Themes

This film is as much comedy as it is drama; Billy's scornful attitude and his contemptuous memories are often offset by amusing dialogue and ironic black humor. Buffalo '66 is an indie film with a dirty, minimalist look; it boasts a faded and discoloured visual style thanks to the use of 35mm and (for the flashback scenes) 16mm reversal film stock. One particular scene features the use of a tableu set to the song "Heart Of The Sunrise" by the band Yes, where the action stops abruptly and the camera view rotates around the frozen scene.