‘‘American Buffalo’ is a great classic, and as great classics do, it builds bridges between the reality it recounts and the possible visionsit is able to generate-Reports Marco D’Amore-I, lost in the journey of reading, saw one of these bridges slowly build before my eyes… It started from Chicago (Mamet’s hometown) and, passing through the cramped dive bar of Don (the text’s protagonist), arrived in Naples,in an alley where the ‘puteche’ (stores in Neapolitan dialect) still exist. Where it is possible to meet the ‘types’ described in the text, to listen to their stories in a language reminiscent of the famous sound the author refers to when telling about his characters, a language of the people that comes straight from the belly and explodes without filters, the Neapolitan language. ‘American Buffalo’ is the story of failure. Announced, almost willed, inescapable fate from which one cannot escape. It is a lowbrow tale of slang and bad words, of smelly stores and frayed clothes. It is apologia for drift: three human beings and an improbable plan destined for ruin that you cling to by your fingernails without giving up! It is a desire for revenge, for life even at the cost of others’ lives. The American Buffalo is an old half-dollar coin, probably worth something or maybe not. It makes one think of the uncertainty of our time, of the contemplated possibility of gambling everything, life and death, on a single roll — heads or tails?
