You’ve probably already read several reviews of the DVD release of “The Brown Bunny”, or at least the original theatrical release. If you have, you already know about the laundry list of controversy surrounding it. Everything from film critic Roger Ebert’s scathing review of the original cut shown at Cannes, director/writer/actor Vincent Gallo’s reply that Ebert should get cancer, then Ebert’s re-review of the re-edited version of the film, for which he gave a much, much better critique. Then of course, there’s the much touted sequence near the end of the film where actress Chloe Sevigny performs a non-simulated act of fellatio on Gallo (all in the name of art, I’m sure). Admittedly, “The Brown Bunny” interested me for all of the above reasons, yet somehow I had feeling that I would be let down on all counts. And, to be fair… I was. Just for the record, “The Brown Bunny” is not (as the title suggests) a cute cuddly little film made for toddlers.

In the film, Gallo stars as Bud Clay, a motorcycle racer who decides to travel across the U.S. to find his ex-girlfriend Daisy (Sevigny). While on this ‘journey of self discovery”, Clay meets up with Daisy’s mom as well as a collection of women. Once he reaches his destination, he goes to Daisy’s house and leaves a note to tell her where to find him.

That’s pretty much it. No really… that’s about all there is to the film. Throughout the movie we see a lot of footage of Clay driving, then he drives some more, and when he gets tired of driving… he tries driving for a while. A lot of the time we are treated to point-of-view shots of the road, mixed in with the chance encounters with strange women. I was almost expecting some big deeper meaning to “The Brown Bunny”, as I am usually attuned to such things, but I’m still a bit perplexed by the point. There is a fairly shocking twist to the (and I hesitate to use the term) plot, but that is really the only saving grace to the whole piece.

Most of the time spent watching the film, I was mostly bored, waiting for something to ‘happen.’ Then when those few interesting sequences popped up, my boredom kept me from really feeling anything, even my shock was somewhat subdued.

Sony / Columbia Tristar is releasing “The Brown Bunny” this week on DVD. My understanding is that this is the re-edited cut that Ebert praised. If this is the case, I’d hate to see what the original cut was like. I cannot comment too much on the overall transfer as the camera work is rather stilted and the grain that is present is more likely a product of the film as it was shot.

What I did miss from this release were any special features. I wouldn’t have wanted much, but a commentary would have been nice. It might have given me some insight into what Gallo was going for with this project. I imagine there might be a Special Edition down the road, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

Directed by: Vincent Gallo
Starring: Vincent Gallo, Chloe Sevigny
Extras: None
Specifications: Widescreen, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Studio: Sony / Columbia Tristar
Release Date: 9/16/2005
Region 1
MPAA Rating: NR
Website

We'll give The Brown Bunny a C.