Duelo de Gigantes

Just watched it again. Fantastic movie…. time has done wonders for Missouri Breaks! Several scenes appear to be 'natural' (Like when a horse shakes for no reason, mid dialogue – but the acting keeps rolling) The film is also quite dramatic and eery. Really off beat and also quite art- house. Love it. great music score, and funnily enough, very realistic. Plus sides …. Movie Poster (Bob Peak art) wonderful poster. Lovely sparse film score by John Williams. Brando's eccentricity keeps you captivated. Jane Braxton character….very loyal. So many good things about this movie, things that you never see in to-days modern movie making. Missouri Breaks sure packs a punch, even today. A hidden masterpiece worth revisiting indeed.

'The Missouri Breaks' was filmed from a screenplay by National Book Award-winner Thomas McGuane, whose novels are often characterized as 'revisionist westerns', a sort of sub genre in which the romantic conventions of the western--the noble, idealized hero in the white hat taking on swarthy outlaws or bloodthirsty Indians, occasionally aided by a lone, sage, 'noble savage'-type Indian sidekick--are upended for the sake of a muddier, morally ambiguous, more historically truthful account of 'how the west was won.'

Suffice it to say that there are no heroes in 'The Missouri Breaks.' Our protagonist, Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson), is the de facto leader of a gang of fun-loving outlaws in post-Civil War Montana, pistoleros who make their living stealing horses from wealthy ranchers, laughing all the way, a bit like Robin Hood's Merry Men, only Logan and his boys keep the money and spend it on whiskey and whores. Egomaniacal rancher David Braxton (John McLiam) captures and hangs one of Logan's gang, which retaliates by returning the favor to Braxton's ranch foreman on the same noose. Intent on ridding the country of horse thieves and avenging his friend's murder, Braxton sends for Robert E. Lee Clayton (Marlon Brando), the most feared of the Regulators, mercenary frontier detectives famous for their ruthlessness and their ability to kill suddenly and without warning from long distances with their trademark Creekmore long-rifles.

Posing as an aspiring cattle-rancher, Logan buys an abandoned ranch next to Braxton's property to serve as a relay station for moving stolen horses across the plains. He is left to mind the ranch while his buddies move the latest take of horses, and while busying himself reviving the ranch's garden and orchard, Logan begins a relationship with Braxton's daughter Jane (Kathleen Lloyd). Jane suspects that Logan is an outlaw, which makes him only more appealing to her, as she has grown to resent her father's tyranny, particularly after witnessing the slow death of the young horse thief from Logan's gang.

Enter Robert E. Lee Clayton, one of the strangest and most curious of Marlon Brando's acting creations. 'The Missouri Breaks' was Brando's last starring role before 'Apocalypse Now!' (1979), and was preceded by 'The Godfather' (1972) and 'Last Tango in Paris (1972). Like Coppola and Bertolucci, director Arthur Penn (Bonnie and Clyde) clearly sensed that the best thing to do with Brando the Mad Genius was to sit back and watch. From the moment Brando's Clayton appears--bursting in on the funeral of the murdered foreman dressed like a western dandy in fringed leather coat and scarf, bellowing and yanking the corpse up out of the open casket to borrow a few of the ice cubes used to keep the body from decomposing as a compress for a tooth-ache--we know we are in for some vintage Brando.

Nicholson is typically likable, but he isn't given much to work with; 'The Missouri Breaks' is clearly Brando's show, as he systematically works his way through Logan's gang, farting, spritzing himself with perfume, dressing in drag as a frontier granny, singing love songs to his horse, and delivering odd soliloquy's while constantly munching on carrots. Lee Clayton is comic, but he is also sadistic and perverse. Brando seems to be having the time of his life, and it's a genuine pleasure to watch one of the most brilliant and magnetic screen actors of all time given free reign to fashion the lunatic Clayton.

Like much of McGuane's fiction, 'The Missouri Breaks' has a muted, understated tone disturbed only by acts of brutal, unsentimental violence. The scenes and dialogue are meant to reflect the stark beauty of the Montana plains along the fall line of the great Missouri River (the title of the film refers to the long stretch of the river between the plains and the mountains, the corridor by which Lewis and Clark made their way to the Pacific). The plot is fairly predictable once Lee Clayton arrives and starts hunting the horse rustlers, and so the film's main pleasure is in the acting performances, of which only Brando's is truly exceptional. Nicholson can do no wrong, but Tom Logan is a relatively bland, inarticulate character, and, hidden behind an unruly beard, Nicholson's facial expressions can't compensate for the minimalistic dialogue to create a more distinct character. There is little apparent chemistry between Nicholson and Kathleen Lloyd, who followed this film up with winners like 'Deathmobile' and 'Skateboard: The Movie' before settling into a long string of guest shots on TV. Given all the fun Brando seems to be having, Jack must have felt gypped.

'The Missouri Breaks' is all about Brando, and is well-worth watching just for his scenes. It also features an excellent soundtrack by John Williams ('The Missouri Breaks', interestingly, was Williams' project between 'Jaws' and 'Star Wars') and fine supporting performances by Frederic Forrest ('Chef' in 'Apocalypse Now!'), Randy Quaid (a very much underrated dramatic actor in his younger, pre-'Vacation' days), and cult-favorite Harry Dean Stanton ('Wise Blood,' 'Repo Man,' 'Paris Texas') as Logan's fellow horse-thieves. Jack is Jack--one of the greats, with a career that easily stacks up to Brando's--but here, unfortunately, he's stuck playing the straight man to Brando's nut-case, making the movie a disappointment for viewers hoping to see two of film's finest actors at their best.

Good western set in Montana with the only ever on-screen pairing of Jack Nicholson and Marlon Brando. Nicholson was beginning his acting career, and Brando was winding down. Wonderful part played by Harry Dean Stanton. He looks and sounds like an old horse thief.

Lots of good humor in the dialog.

Brando plays the strangest hit man ever seen. He is a professional killer who is gay, speaks with a lispy Scottish accent, and does inexplicably odd things. He wears a granny dress in one scene, a Chinese coolie hat in another, but he is deadly from very long range. Brando seemed to enjoy himself in this one. In his last scene he talks to his horse as if she is a coy mistress.

A young Randy Quaid plays a dopey cowhand very well.

There was only one part I think was miscast - John Ryan was too New York for a Wild West film.

Beautiful cinematography. Lots of cowboy action - train robbery, stealing horses, shoot-outs, and wide open spaces.

Funny scene in a bar where a man is tried for his crimes. It is different in tone from the rest of the movie because it is a parody of the old west played by people from the era who are in on the joke. It stands out because it's not really part of the same movie.

As others have hinted, this film is beyond most people's idea of merely quirky. In fact, it's slightly unbalanced and in parts borders on insane... yet somehow what emerges is a film that is just about believable, as are the various colourful characters who act it out. The film is great fun, and its two hours go by quickly.

Being a huge fan of Brando, and an admirer of Nicholson, I end up thinking this film in no way detracts from their illustrious careers and what they've done elsewhere. Having said that, Brando does ham it up in a grand, thoroughly camp style: outlandish costume, inexplicable changes of costume, florid gestures and - as other reviewers have pointed out - weird accents. The accents he uses shift around inconsistently and theatrically (especially the more sustained efforts to sound Irish in his early scenes). But he obviously had fun when making the film. Nicholson's performance is a model of seriousness and sobriety by comparison.

The cinematography is superb, with great use of light and shade in shooting a wonderful landscape. The action is generally slow-paced, but with a heavy sense of impending menace through most of the film. The score is not among the film's stronger points. Dialogue is mostly fresh and original for a 70s era western, and cliché avoided. It is well acted, despite the quirkiness of the script and screenplay.

Perhaps a little odd that the critics slated this film so ferociously at the time it was released. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, made just a few years earlier was (rightly) lauded to the skies, precisely for giving originality, humour and a modern twist to the old western format. That film now seems in some ways more dated than The Missouri Breaks. The latter is not as good a film as Sundance, by a distance, but, for any true fan of cinema, well worth giving it a try.

If you're looking for a Howard Hawks/John Wayne-style western, the Missouri Breaks may not be for you. It is, in my opinion, the most sadly underrated western ever.

This film didn't get the treatment it deserved when it came out in the 70s in part because its two stars, coming off movies like the Godfather and Chinatown, were box office powerhouses in their prime when uniquely paired together. I don't know what film could have matched the expectations of the critics, especially a western that was probably more low key and off-beat than anticipated.

I will never forget the first time I watched this movie and how pleasantly shocked I was at how good it actually is.

Brando's portrayal is so wonderfully eccentric it gets more and more enjoyable with repeated viewings. Nicholson's, meanwhile, exemplifies the charisma that we associate with him being at the top of his craft during the Chinatown/Cuckoo's Nest era in his career.

While the two big name stars don't disappoint, the rest of the cast is stellar. Kathleen Lloyd gives the kind of performance from a lesser known actress that has me scrambling for the video guide wondering what other films she might be seen in. Randy Quaid's role is fascinating for being so early in his career. But Harry Dean Stanton delivers an especially understated, yet weighty performance as Nicholson's closest partner.

The dialog is often humorous, especially one scene between Lloyd and Nicholson where he drawls: "Keep the dang thing, I don't want it!"

The Missouri Breaks has extremely interesting, individual characterizations with authentic settings that take you back to a credible old West that is not Hollywood back-lot. The story is funny at times, but extremely tense as it approaches its climax.

Nothing irks me more than a movie that is wonderful in all aspects expect for the score, but that is not an issue here. John Williams' music, with occasional emphasis on the harmonica, fits well with the style of the movie.

If you appreciate the genre, this is entertaining and worth owning. It's the kind of western that should be watched several times to appreciate some of the more subtle nuances and details.