O Senhor das Águias

After declaring myself not a Philippe Mora fan, mostly based on "According to Occams Razor", which is a mockery of a movie, and 'Pterodactyl Woman From Beverly Hills", which is just pathetic, I was totally surprised as to how much I enjoyed "A Breed Apart" . The North Carolina location photography is very good, and the acting by Rutger Hauer is especially intriguing. He is a mystery man, protecting the animals on his Blue Ridge Mountain island. His hermit like tranquility is threatened by poacher Brion James, and another intruder, Powers Boothe, helps Hauer run off Brion and his gang. Kathleen Turner being romantically rejected by Hauer, decides to play the jealousy card, with decidedly mixed results. Meanwhile Boothe is using both Turner and Hauer to try and complete his mission of stealing two Bald Eagle eggs for $250,000 promised by egg collector, Donald Pleasance. Well worth a look. - MERK

In my opinion, this movie is much better than you'd expect for the low ratings it has received. All the starring actors do a great job here and the casting fits the characters easily.

This is a tale of a of vietnam veteran living as a hermit (Rutger Hauer) in his own private island, taking care of the wildlife and protecting the animals. He confronts some nasty scoundrels (Brion James acting one of them, good old Gaff from Blade Runner!), shooting birds just for the fun of it, scares them away, though they keep coming back for more. There's a rich old bird-egg collector (Donald Pleasance) who hires for a grand price a slick mountaineer (Powers Boothe) to collect eggs for a from an endangered eagle species living on the island. A single mother, working as a shopkeeper in nearby village (Kathleen Turner) feels strongly for the hermit veteran and is always turned down by him, though he cares for her boy and spends time with him in the woods, saving some animals etc.. There are some quite strong emotional scenes for Hauer and Turner and I think it's exactly the unrequited love between their characters that's one major motor here keeping the film interesting.

The pace of this is film probably rather slow for younger audience, but there are plenty of good elements to make this movie worth watching. For instance, the cinematography: it's shot mostly in open air enviroments, and it's also a very bright movie, as it is filmed mostly in sunny daylight. Good character evolution: the characters really contemplate on their actions and their consequences. The plot is simple, quite naive actually, but works fairly good in a certain, innocent mood. There's some mild violence to give a bit of tension and mild nudity for the erotica but nothing too nasty to kill the overall positive vibe of the film.

Rutger Hauer does a typically fine job as Jim Malden, a nature-loving recluse who lives on a privately owned island. Taking care of the animals there is everything to him. A local store keeper, Stella Clayton (a radiant Kathleen Turner), is obviously sweet on him, but he has a knack for pushing people away. (He's one of those movie characters who has turned his back on society after tragedy in his past.) Into their lives comes Mike (Powers Boothe), an expert mountain climber. Mike needs a lot of money for his latest ambitious venture, and hooks up with a creepy collector (Donald Pleasence), who's offered him six figures to steal some bald eagle eggs; these eggs belong to a new (fictional) subspecies that are bigger than ordinary bald eagles.

Directed by cult favourite Philippe Mora ("Mad Dog Morgan", "The Beast Within", "Howling" II and III), "A Breed Apart" is the kind of film more noteworthy for its good intentions than for whatever it actually accomplishes. However, while the script seems to be full of unresolved subplots, this is supposedly because one full reel disappeared while en route from North Carolina to California. The human stories have some appeal, but are trite compared to some of the films' bigger messages and majestic outdoors scenery. One cliched plot point has a pair of braindead, yahoo hunters played by Brion James and John Dennis Johnston seeking revenge against Malden. This leads to predictable developments.

The biggest question that Paul Wheelers' script poses is whether or not Mike will exit the somewhat grey moral area that he currently occupies. The man is something of an enigma, and delights in wasting the time of a sexy reporter (Jayne Bentzen) looking for her big breakthrough story.

The actors are entertaining to watch. Hauer is playing a cliched character (a "noble savage" as Mike calls him), and the charismatic Boothe and the lovely Turner have more interesting roles to play. Pleasence is effective in his select few scenes; James and Johnston are standard-issue but amusing redneck antagonists. (The latter is a semi-regular in the films of Mora.)

Notable for an atmospheric electronic score composed by Maurice Gibb of the Bee-Gees, and its exquisite photography by Geoffrey Stephenson.

In real life, the bald eagle WAS at risk of becoming extinct in 1984, but fortunately its numbers subsequently improved.

Seven out of 10.

Hotshot mountaineer Booth ventures onto private nature reserve owned by nutty Vietnam vet Hauer, with the intention of stealing some priceless eagle eggs. Good story is bolstered by a memorable turn by Hauer and some lovely scenery, but it's a shame that Turner is wasted in a thankless role as Hauer's love interest. Music score by Maurice Gibb of Bee Gees fame.

Director Philippe Mora (Howling 2, Pteridophyte Woman from Beverly Hills) helms this curious little film that has Vietnam vet Jim (Rutger Hauer) living on a secluded island up against egg poachers and the mountain climber that Whitier (Donald Pleasence) hires to steal bald-eagle eggs. Kathleen Turner also stars as Stella their love interest. And no 80's movie would be complete without Brion James as a bad guy.

A missing film reel was lost to time, but rather than trash the whole movie, the editors choose to cut around it. This explains why the film seems so scatter-shot, characters motivations are not always clear, the plot is muddled. However what remained is still watchable enough,

Eye Candy: Jayne Bentzen gets fully nude; Kathleen Turners shows T&A