Brewster McCloud (1970)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Don't Believe the Hype

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

I saw this movie while I was in college and loved it then, and having seen it again recently can say that it has held up well. It is funny; weird; has a terrific cast; and is one of my favorite Robert Altman films. Bud Cort is rightly known for his work in "Harold and Maude" but I actually think he's better in this. His character, to me, was a lot tougher to "sell" than his character of Harold in "Harold and Maude." The entire cast is great, but another favorite in this film is Stacy Keach. His scene with Brewster as his limo driver, and the sudden soiling of the car, is so funny. I've never understood why this film isn't more highly regarded among Altman's work, but recommend it to anyone.

Bookish virgin Brewster lives in the fallout shelter of the Houston Astrodome and dreams of flying one day with the mechanical wings of his own creation. Every time he leaves his sanctuary he's affronted by some manner of uptight goon who seeks to hinder Brewster for one reason or another. These antagonists all end up dead and covered in bird poop -- is it Brewster? His guardian angel (with two scars where wings would've been) Abraham? Does it matter? Not really.Like most great art films, this will take some reading and reflection to truly get the most out of. The theme is freedom, obviously, and how our attachments and desires and fears keep us from reaching it. Brewster is told he needs to stay a virgin or he won't be able to fly, but in typical human fashion, temptation takes over as he falls for the beautiful Suzanne in Shelley Duvall's first role as an actress. The bulbous-shaped Astrodome is a metaphor for the birdcage in which Brewster lives. The ending is tragic and even silly and absurd at the same time. It is a strange, funny and poignant movie, and probably Altman's best.

Brewster McCloud (1970), set in Houston in the late 1960s, is a Robert Altman comedy. One reference source describes it as a quirky comedy, which may be the best adjective to attach. The movie is about birds, and things bird-like, in three ways: First, Rene Auberjonois appears intermittently as a gawking professor of ornithology, to lecture the audience on matters avian. As the film progresses, he comes more and more to resemble his subject. Second, Bud Cort lives surreptitiously in a cubbyhole of the Astrodome, where he has fashioned a set of wings and is attempting to learn to fly, as in human-powered flight in something of a throwback to before the Wright brothers. Third, there occurs in Houston an inexplicable series of deaths, possibly murders. A common element is that the deceased are found with....well, let's stop there, tiptoeing toward the edge without risking falling off the cliff into a spoiler.Sally Kellerman plays a quasi-angelic character who watches over Cort's welfare. We have also the young Shelley Duvall, ten years before her appearance as Jack Nicholson's wife in The Shining (1980), in the role of an Astrodome tour guide. Michael Murphy plays the San Francisco detective who is summoned to Texas to investigate what is going on. His big decision each morning is to decide on the color de jour for his trademark gun holster and matching turtleneck.As was said, quirky.

Having read many tributes to the late Robert Altman, I was fascinated by one that mentioned Brewster McCloud was on YouTube. So I clicked the movie there and marveled at seeing Rene Auberjonois (whom I loved in the TV series "Benson") talking about birds and humans and then Margeret Hamilton singing the National Anthem as the credits roll but stopping to correct the key before she sings again with the credits starting again! Bud Cort is mesmerizing in the title role and Sally Kellerman is luminous as his guardian. Newcomer Shelley Duvall is appealing as Cort's sometime girlfriend but I'm really fascinated by Jennifer Salt's performance as a health store worker who delivers goods to Cort's place in the Astrodome and gets off just thinking of him while he does pull-ups in his underwear! Perhaps the funniest and sexiest performance in the movie. She and Auberjonois are the best parts in the film. So by all means, if you love Altman, watch Brewster McCloud and be stunned by the tragicomic ending!