Buffalo 66 - Definition and Overview

Film poster for Buffalo ’66

Buffalo ’66 (1998) is writer/director Vincent Gallo's semi-autobiographical full-length motion picture debut. Vincent Gallo and Christina Ricci star in the lead roles and a distinguished supporting cast includes Mickey Rourke, Rosanna Arquette and Anjelica Huston. Gallo also composed and performed much of the music for the film.

After serving a jail term for a crime he did not commit, Billy Brown (Gallo), is determined to have his revenge on those he deems responsible. Whilst desperately searching for somewhere to relieve himself, he kidnaps a dance class student called Layla (Ricci) and forces her to pretend to be his wife.

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, almost black, humour. Buffalo '66 is an indie feature with a dirty, minimalist look and boasts a rather 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 "bullet time" effect, where the action stops abruptly and the camera view then rotates around the frozen scene, a technique that was popularised a year later in The Matrix.