There is so much more going on in the film than that.  The Brown Bunny calls to mind the minimalist films of the 1970’s, particularly Two-Lane Blacktop and Vanishing Point.  The story concerns motorcycle racer Bud Clay (Gallo), who, after his latest race, is on his way from New Hampshire to Los Angeles.  Along the way he meets Violet, Lilly, and Rose, women who are all sharing space with Bud on the highway to nowhere.  Not only do their names call Daisy to Bud’s mind, but each of the women also bares some resemblance to her.  It is as if Bud is really running into three incarnations of Daisy at each of his stops.  (The first girl, Violet, who he meets at a gas station, even bares a striking physical resemblance to her.)  It is probably a good thing that we know there will be a graphic sex scene at the end of the film.  It adds a layer of suspense to everything that is going on.  The scene where Bud pays a visit to Daisy’s elderly parents is immediately intriguing.  The three of them sit awkwardly in the kitchen, Daisy’s mother unable to remember anything about Bud, even though he grew up in the house next door and frequented their house.  She barely remembers a trip she took to California to visit them.  It is sad enough when she babbles, “I haven't heard from her, she hasn't called. I don't know why she hasn't called,” but knowing what is coming makes it all the more heartbreaking.  Scenes such as this make one think that the film almost works better on a second viewing.

Gallo perfectly captures the road, the feeling of being alone on the road for long stretches of time, and how all that time alone can play tricks on the mind.  As his trip progresses, as Bud becomes more and more out of touch with reality, we go from the lush greens of New England and the Midwest, to the stark, barren browns of the deserts of the west.  Through it all we are drenched in the mind numbing sameness that permeates the trip, that permeates every long road trip.  By the time Bud arrives in Los Angeles, we may have decided that he is clinically insane.  He leaves a note on the door of Daisy’s house and tells the front desk at his hotel that she might be coming by and to send her up.  Of course, we know that she is not going to come by, that this is impossible, but Bud is convinced.

To try and talk about The Brown Bunny with talking about the film’s climactic sex scene is like trying to talk about The Birth of a Nation without bringing up the Ku Klux Klan.  In the context of the film, the scene is wholly necessary, and is in fact a bit disturbing, knowing that this graphic scene – graphic not only in sexual terms, but also in terms of the demeaning way in which he talks to Daisy – is going on entirely inside Bud’s head.  The final flashback, where we see how Bud ran away scared when Daisy needed him the most, is strikingly poignant.