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A new sports doc from the people behind ESPN’s celebrated 30 for 30 series is now streaming on Netflix. For sports fans, and non sports fan alike, The Four Falls of Buffalo is an emotional look at a city that can never quite win the big one.
From 1990-1994 the Buffalo Bills made it to four consecutive Super Bowls, and lost them all. Since then, the team and the city as a whole have gained a reputation of being losers. The heart breaking events of the Buffalo Bills Superbowl runs have been the butt of countless jokes. B.I.L.L.S. stands for Boy I Love Losing Superbowls. Ray Fienkel from Ace Ventura is a thinly veiled parody of real life Bills kicker, Scott Norwood. And Scott Wood from Buffalo 66 is an even thinner veiled Norwood.
Despite all of this, The Four Falls of Buffalo doesn’t paint Buffalo as losers. It is a celebration of their success, an honest look at the emotional effect sports can have on a city, and an examination of the unending pride the city has, despite constantly being the butt of everyone else’s jokes. It’s an emotional roller coaster, filled with empathetic characters pouring their heart out.
I haven’t cried this much during a movie where a dog doesn’t die in years. I highly recommend a double feature of Four Falls of Buffalo and Buffalo 66. It will surely give you an entirely new context for Vincent Gallo’s masterpiece. And maybe show non-sports fan why sports mean so much to so many people.
