Main Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Dennis Franz, Sean Nelson
Release Year: 1996
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
David Mamet's play about three losers planning a robbery is brought to the screen in an admirably simple, straightforward manner. Don (Dennis Franz) is the owner of an "antique store" (read: junk shop) who discovers that the buffalo head nickel he recently sold to a coin collector was a lot more valuable than he imagined. Don hatches a scheme in which he and Bobby (Sean Nelson), a teenage kid who works at the shop, will steal the nickel back and sell it for a much higher price. Teach (Dustin Hoffman), Don's down-on-his-luck buddy, insists on coming in on the job, but Don isn't sure he wants Teach's help -- or that the robbery is a good idea at all. While director Michael Corrente occasionally moves the action out of the shop (unlike the original play), American Buffalo maintains nearly all the dialogue of the original play and its three-man cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
For audiences unaccustomed to playwright David Mamet's claustrophobic, language-dense style, American Buffalo may be a hard film to watch. Primarily a three-character play with one main set -- a junk shop where two men and a teenaged assistant plot a robbery -- the film is more a character piece than a real story. As such, it is a marvelous study in language and personality, rolling along on the performances of Dustin Hoffman and Dennis Franz and Mamet's uniquely cadenced, blisteringly profane dialogue. The actors are all terrific, and young Sean Nelson (Fresh) more than holds his own with the veterans, but this is likely to appeal to theater fans more than casual viewers. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
Kerry Barden - Casting, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Sarah Green - Co-producer, Michael Corrente - Director, Kate Sanford - Editor, John Sloss - Executive Producer, Thomas Newman - Composer (Music Score), Daniel Talpers - Production Designer, Richard Crudo - Cinematographer, Ronald Judkins - Sound/Sound Designer, Robert C. Jackson - Sound/Sound Designer, David Mamet - Screenwriter, David Mamet - Play Author
