Buffalo '66.

Review #2341: Buffalo '66.

Cast: 

Vincent Gallo (Billy Brown; John Sansone as young Billy Brown), Christina Ricci (Layla), Ben Gazzara (Jimmy Brown), Mickey Rourke (The Bookie), Rosanna Arquette (Wendy Balsam), Jan-Michael Vincent (Sonny), Anjelica Huston (Jan Brown), John Rummel (Don Shanks), with Kevin Pollak and Alex Karras (TV sportcasters), Kevin Corrigan (Goon/Rocky), and Bob Wahl (Scott Wood) Directed by Vincent Gallo.

Review: 

"I’m really a controlling person. I don’t want somebody else to do the cinematography, I don’t want somebody else to do the poster - I did the poster. I don’t want somebody else to do the trailer - I did the trailer. I don’t want somebody else to do the casting - I did the casting. I don’t want somebody else to produce the movie - I produced the movie. I did the music, I designed the shoes, I controlled everything. Even if you look at the credits where it says costume person - I did the costumes. No one made any decisions on Buffalo 66, no one physically did anything unless it was my concept, my plan, my idea. That felt really good. Am I a filmmaker? No. A control freak and a hustler is what I really am."

Sure, it might be a bit strange to have curiosity for a film mostly because of its title, but it probably isn't as strange as the winding road of Vincent Gallo as a director. Honestly, the reason I became aware of Gallo was, um, his appearance in an ESPN piece about his hometown Buffalo Bills that I stumbled onto a few years ago. Anyway, Gallo was born in Buffalo, New York in 1961 to a family with parents he once described as "dishonest people" (food for thought: his mother, a noted superfan of the Bills is credited as a producer while a song his father Vincent Sr. sung is featured in the movie). He apparently worked for the local mafia in the city at the age of 12 in jacking cars and shoplifting but was eventually convinced to After graduating high school, he ran away to New York City. From there you might bat an eye at his pursuits: hi-fi guitar shop worker, Formula II motorbike racer, painter, model for Calvin Klein and above all else, musician and actor .He acted in a wide variety of shorts and films, ranging from his debut in the "No Wave" film The Way It Is or Eurydice in the Avenues (1985) to a small part in Goodfellas (1990) and lead roles in Palookaville (1995) and Truth or Consequences, N.M. (1997). Gallo has released two films as a director since the release of Buffalo '66 while basically doing whatever he felt like doing, ranging from stoking controversy with his film The Brown Bunny (which premiered in 2003 to furor before an edit was released in 2004) to making a film in Promises Written in Water (2010) that was shown in two festival screenings and has not been available for anyone to see since to go along with occasionally acting such as Tetro (2009) and composing music (to take what he says on his website completely seriously, specifically selling himself to women aside from shilling his music, would be a joke unto itself).

According to Gallo, he wrote the first version of Buffalo '66 in 1989 that dealt with a character trying to win a big part in a film. Of course, the loss of the Bills in Super Bowl XXV in 1991 played a part in the idea to re-think the script. He re-wrote the film with Alison Bagnall, who obtained a co-credit on the screenplay while Gallo claimed she "really was my typist for a couple of weeks" (she has since wrote or directed three films on her own). Monte Hellman had originally set it up for himself to direct, but the apparent desire by the producers to wait for snow (well, the film was shot in Buffalo) to go along with Gallo's desire to shoot it right away (on reversal stock, no less) led to Gallo deciding to do it himself, which was done for roughly $1.5 million in the city of Buffalo (the house Gallo grew up in is the one you see in the film). Whatever one thinks of Gallo (provocateur, hustler, psychopath, genius, take your pick), I will say Buffalo '66 is a curious experience, one that defies you to call it "self-indulgent" (the director-writer-actor-musician Gallo once claimed that he designed most of the film's cinematography rather than Lance Acord, who he said had "no aesthetic point of view"), particularly for a film with basically an emotional hustler for a lead (his look apparently served as the basis for the 2011 video game Catherine, which clearly makes this a weird world indeed). It is a movie for the strange one in all of our hearts: compulsive, foolish, insecure, vulnerable, but most of all: being a creature of nature (whether as part of it or as bystander). In short: sincerity is a long hard road to actually reach, no matter how one calls themselves. It is a disorientating type of movie that rolls along with a nail-line belief in things that would make Blast of Silence (1961) blush in all of its hang-ups (real or imagined) that I can't help but appreciate in its twisted vision. It is the kind of honesty you could only find when coming back home to the old neighborhood, where a sight of the pavement could remind you of nightmares long past, or, for some, nightmares that pervade on anyways.

Ricci (for probably obvious reasons) did not particularly enjoy her time on the film with Gallo, but she does quite well here, managing to balance the tight rope that comes with basically being a puppet or circumstance. Puppet or whatever you call it, there is something about the way she approaches a scene with her mannerisms (call it "the time when Gallo isn't running his mouth") that is endearing in the strangest sense of the word. Consider the photobooth sequence in just looking at these people when it comes to "take photo" mixed with "spanning time". Far from kindred spirits, they just happen to be creatures of varying ideas of what love sounds like (I'm reminded that some people do take what they see on TV and implant that as an expectation). The funny thing is that the supporting presences are each fascinating in selling moments on the timing of a noir. You've got Rourke having two minutes in a chair that is strangely amusing more than just being a bit. Huston (and a wig) and her lunacy practically hits the movie with the commitment level of a 2x4 that goes hand in hand with the slimyness of Gazzara, who in one scene lip synthesis to a song to Ricci (consider that the song was one originally sung by "Vincent Gallo Sr."). Corrigan didn't want to be credited at the time, but his wallowing disposition is immediately effective. The movie builds in curiosity despite all odds that seem against it (murky, strange and building to a climax that could only come from immaturity in motivation) because it just...goes for it all in transgressive energy. What one sees in the scene that ends the film (as compared to the one that starts it) leaves the viewers with the idea that maybe, just maybe, one can exorcise at least one hang-up in their mind. Call it unflattering, call it a strange city movie, call it whatver, but you can't call Buffalo '66 a wasted effort on anyone's time or place, and I'd say that is the ultimate victory possible for the acerbic person responsible for it.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

Yes, at last I finally get to this one. Honestly, I had this movie in mind for a number of years if the Buffalo Bills were in striking distance of a Super Bowl. Four years ago [the last January before I started New Directors Month, point in fact], in the leadup to the AFC Championship, I reviewed movies from 1990, 1991, 1992, and 1993 to match, well, Buffalo winning the AFC in those seasons.

Movie Night, and by that, I mean myself, have an affinity for teams like the Bills in wanting to see them (and the city) happy as New York's only pro football team. With that in mind: Go Bills!

Inchon.

Review #1763: Inchon.

Cast: 

Laurence Olivier (General Douglas MacArthur), Jacqueline Bisset (Barbara Hallsworth), Ben Gazzara (Major Frank Hallsworth), Toshiro Mifune (Saito), Richard Roundtree (Sergeant Augustus Henderson), David Janssen (David Feld), Namkoong Won (Park), Karen Kahn (Lim), and Rex Reed (Longfellow) Directed by Terence Young (#150 - Dr. No, #278 - From Russia with Love, and #335 - Thunderball)

Review: 

In a way, sometimes a movie gets a reputation because of production troubles or bad word-of-mouth (traditional movies, anyway, although ones outside the mainstream can get through that regardless). Inchon was a perfect storm that has never managed to live down its infamy in the four decades that have passed since it was released. The movie is based on the events that occurred during the Battle of Inchon in South Korea, which occurred from September 10-19, 1950 (the city is referred to today as Incheon, as the country changed their Romanization system for names in 2000), with the amphibious assault being led by Douglas MacArthur, Commander in Chief of United Nations Forces; the battle is considered a key point of the Korean War. MacArthur had been the subject of one previous feature with a biopic that was released four years prior that was directed by Joseph Sargent that had Gregory Peck as the general; the next film to detail the battle wouldn't occur for three decades in Operation Chromite (2016). Of course, the sticking point for a film like this is one that doesn't tie to its international cast or its noted director. Instead, it ties down to five words: Special advisor Sun Myung Moon. Well, since this is a movie review, we can't exactly talk about Moon beyond a few short sentences: For one, he was an anti-communist Korean that formed the Unification Church in 1954, and he later proclaimed himself as a Messiah that stoked plenty of followers and just as many critics (he also was a businessman that dealt in news media, such as with The Washington Times), particularly with his conviction for filling false federal income tax returns and conspiracy in 1984. Perhaps it was an act of God that brought all of these circumstances together to make a uniquely amusing time, since the press kit for the film actually claimed that McArthur approved of his portrayal...from the spirit world, as he had died a decade prior. Of course, the other choices that Moon thought about making a movie about involved Jesus and Elvis Presley (all of this is actually correct, I am not joking). Of course, one can't forget about Terence Young in all of this. Sure, this was the second-to-last film in his forty year career, but Young was at the very least a director who in theory could have executed a well done war film, at least since he could handle three James Bond features to worthy reputation, particularly since he was familiar with international co-productions such as Red Sun (1971). Of course, he also stated that Moon putting his name on the credits of the film would be a mistake (along with the Church's idea to actually distribute the film itself, and they settled with fronting the promotional material), and the film ended up having to be shot in both Korea and Rome. The movie was written by Robin Moore and Laird Koenig, while the story was done by Moore and Paul Savage. Moore was known for his writings such as The Green Berets and The French Connection, but he chafed at the demands for a war story that also had to have numerous narratives within a story that probably was too much to handle in a two hour feature.

Technically speaking, this might be a prescient feature in terms of church-funded mega-failures in the vein of Battlefield Earth (2000), but there is a quick distinction between those films: One can actually see that movie on home video. Inchon has never been released on DVD, and the only reason that anyone can even find footage of the film to view (in dubious quality) is because the movie was shown on the Church's former television network (GoodLife Television Network), for which people transferred it onto VHS for bootleg recordings. The original cut of the film was 140 minutes, and this is the version that was shown on television, albeit with certain swear words edited out, but it should be mentioned that the film shown in theaters was only 106 minutes long, which cut out scenes with David Janssen (best known for The Fugitive, who took the movie to work with Olivier), who had died before release.  I'm sure you don't need to know that this is a dramatization of the battle and not actually based entirely in reality, since lighthouses generally do not serve as the be-all end-all to war victories. Besides, the movie can't even have one consistent narrative, since it also has to balance out its parts with MacArthur for scenes spent with Gazzara & Bisset, which manages to mangle any attempt at perspective beyond boredom (at least when it isn't spending time with a barely hearable Janssen and a "no, I'm not joking" Reed for exposition). Somehow, having Roundtree and Mifune as supporting members doesn't help. Gazzara and Bisset seem more bored than anything when it comes to some spiel about romance or rescuing others from danger. At least one can say Olivier tried. At this point in his life, he was taking film roles for money, and this was certainly one of those roles, since he described himself as like a vintage wine that needs to be drank quickly before becoming sour (he wanted to leave enough money for his family); while he was ill for the last decade of his life, he still marched on as an actor without complaint. He did his research when it came to visiting the MacArthur Museum and even visiting a prominent member that had served under the general during the war while also trying to imitate his voice (which apparently sounded like W. C. Fields) and go through plenty of makeup, although he stated that he didn't think he looked like MacArthur or even himself. The clip at the end of the real MacArthur speaking does not exactly help matters; in the end, he moves like a pale ghost and yet manages to be the only presence worth trying to watch, and it isn't even a good performance. The movie has the attitude of trying to be a spectacle epic with dramatic weight, but it has the striking power of a B-movie, pure and simple. It plods along for way too long with narratives far too boring for anybody to care about while having the spiritual depth of a two-inch fountain. If one is going to watch a war movie that borders on propaganda, by God could they do better than this feature when it comes to actual relevance for showing a useful story. You might as well spend an hor looking for articles on the Internet about Incheon than spend two hours with this dramatization. It is an obvious turkey that is best suited for testing if hearing explosions will interrupt two hours of snoozing; it might not be the worst war film or worst of anything (since the Church aspect probably makes this an easy target), but it sure is one for the ages in terms of turkey-dom.

Overall, I give it 2 out of 10 stars.

Next Time: Sometimes, the best way to look at an action star is to look at what happens when they are put into the director's chair. So it's time for On Deadly Ground.