The Missouri Breaks (1976)

To me, this movie is perfection.

Fresh and Exciting

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Mr. Arthur Penn has directed some of the best films ever made - his instinct of a great story is unmistaken. His love for the best literature is again proved here. Thomas McGuane wrote a wild west Hamlet version that maintains the original theme plus lots of humor. But the original story is cruel and so this post 60s western should be eventually.

"Bonnie & Clyde" director Arthur Penn helmed some classic movies, and he directed two movies with Marlon Brando. The first movie they made together "The Chase" was a long-winded murderous tale with Brando as a sheriff after a fugitive. "The Chase" was coherent, but their second collaboration—which is less of collaboration—"The Missouri Breaks" is a complete mess done on a big budget. The saga about horse rustlers wears out its welcome and what might have been a grand western is reduced to mediocrity by an eccentric performance by Marlon Brando that goes haywire. He dresses in a variety of wardrobe as Lee Clayton, a 'regulator' who is hunting down Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson) and his gang of horse rustlers. The only thing interesting about this mishmash is the idea that the outlaws win. Thomas McGuane's screenplay is like rustled horses stampeding all over the place with Brando improvising his scenes and dialogue. The supporting cast with Randy Quaid, Frederic Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton, and John Ryan is sturdy enough, and the scenery is rugged and thorny. Brando's regulator wields revolvers, rifles, and an object that looks like the plus sign in an arithmetic equation to kill both animals and men. John Williams of "Star Wars" fame wrote the orchestral score before he scored "Star Wars" and it is low-key. "The Missouri Breaks" is an odd, mean-spirited, shoot'em up with little to recommend it aside it being a western for western completists to say that they have watched. The drama is mitigated by the screenplay's incoherence. Jack Nicholson gives a good performance. As for Brando, he doesn't steal the show so much as sabotage it.

I remember this Movie well; Mostly filmed in Billings, Mt.,Brando and Nicholson one afternoon while off set went to a well known local Beer Bar called "GRAMMA'S".After about an hour of drinking Both Brando and Nicholson were fairly intoxicated and thought throwing their Beer Glasses up in the air and having them crash on the floor was OK, after all we are Movie Stars, Wrong! The Bar owner Mr. Staley literally threw them out into the Parking Lot;Saying I don't care how big of hotshots they think they are,Their not going to disrespect my Bar or Me. It was classic to say the least.The Movie was alright but never close to "LITTLE BIG MAN" shot here in 1969.Sometimes even High Profile Celebrities make forgettable Films.,,S.M.

Missouri Breaks, The (1976) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Somewhat notorious Western about a group of horse thieves (led by Jack Nicholson) who are stalking a rich owner who grows tired of them so he hires a "regulator" (Marlon Brando) to track them down and kill them. THE MISSOURI BREAKS was released to some incredibly negative reviews and even today many people consider this one of the worst movies ever made. I certainly wouldn't go that far as there are many entertaining moments to be had here but when you consider Brando was coming off THE GODFATHER and LAST TANGO IN Paris and Nicholson was coming off ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, one can't help but wish that the film had been much better. At its core this is just another film with the message that the "bad" guys usually aren't nearly as cruel or evil as the so-called "good" guys that are paid to go after them. This film really is a complete mess because it's never quite clear what director Arthur Penn is wanting to go for. At times this seems just like a comedy. At other times it features some graphic violence and dark tones. It's never quite clear what to make of the character played by Brando because he's just so weird that it's hard to be scared of him and he's too campy to really take too serious. As for Brando, God love him because we get the type of over-the-top and outrageous performance that only a genius could deliver. I wouldn't dare say the performance was great but you really have to give the actor credit for delivery a "performance" unlike anything you've ever seen before. The "free" natured style that Brando brings to the character works fine but if you read anything about the film's production you will learn that the director pretty much gave up on the actor and just let him do whatever he wanted. This will account for the strange clothes, the strange weapons and other strange things that are constantly going on with the performance. It's so outrageous and strange that you can't help but be entertained by it but at the same time it's tone is certainly going against everything else in the film. Nicholson is pretty much by-the-numbers but he's at least entertaining and it's fun seeing the two actors working together even if it's obvious that many of their scenes together were shot at different times. Kathleen Lloyd makes for a good love interest and we get good performances by Frederic Forrest, Randy Quaid and Harry Dean Stanton. The "story" itself really isn't anything we haven't already seen countless times and one of the biggest problems is that the film simply goes on for way too long and it's clear at times that it doesn't seem to know where it wants to go. With that said, if you've heard that the film is among one of the worst ever made that's just simply not true. With Brando and Nicholson together you'd hope for a masterpiece but we didn't get that. Instead we just got a rather strange Western with a really strange and unique performance by Brando.