Rent The Missouri Breaks (1976)

The Good, The Bad & The Muddled - The Missouri Breaks review by Count Otto Black

The synopsis on the General Info page makes this sound like a thoroughly conventional action-packed revenge western starring Jack Nicholson as a ruthless desperado. In other words, exactly what a DVD manufacturer would put on the box if they wanted to sell a lot of DVDs. The truth is that it's a slow-moving character-based drama that lurches uneasily between comedy and infrequent but jarring moments of sadistic nastiness. A couple of years later Jack Nicholson directed and starred in "Goin' South", which is almost a remake of this film with all the serious content excised and replaced by more comedy, and all Marlon Brando's scenes cut so we get twice as much of Jack Nicholson. In many ways it's a more successful film (though you never hear it mentioned nowadays because it's been damned to Movie Hell for the ultimate crime against Political Correctness - a comedy rape scene), so I guess Jack learned a few things from being in this schizoid mongrel of a movie.

It opens superbly, with what seems to be an idyllic scene of men on horseback just enjoying a ride through the beautiful countryside on a lovely day, but then shocks us by turning out to be something else entirely. Unfortunately it takes these peculiar tonal shifts too far, by introducing us to a gang of exceptionally un-ruthless and mostly incredibly stupid outlaws whose ham-fisted attempts at train robbery get them into slapstick predicaments straight out of a daft spaghetti western like "They Call Me Trinity", and then showing us what you'd realistically expect to happen if these nitwits fell foul of a terrifyingly competent psychopathic assassin.

Which brings me to Marlon Brando. At one point somebody tells him in character that he's out of control, and never was a truer word spoken! Overacting wildly every time he's on camera, Brando constantly talks absolute rubbish in an incongruous Irish accent even when there's nobody else there. His costumes have to be seen to be believed, especially the scene where he's in drag for no discernible reason. And then there's that love scene with his horse... Apparently Brando really was out of control, and the director just had to try and lampshade it by having the other characters comment on his weird clothes and bizarre behaviour.

Which is a pity, because it's nearly a very good film. Jack Nicholson is splendid as the incorrigible rogue who realises he'd rather be a happily married farmer than a third-rate outlaw just when he's up against one of those things a man can't ride around. But Brando's performance is so over the top that he doesn't so much steal the movie as torpedo it from under everyone, including himself. And the balance between comedy and tragedy is so uneven that it comes across as mean-spirited when these quirky characters actually die, often in very ugly ways. United Artists never did get the hang of making high-concept westerns. They tried it again in 1980 with a modest little film called "Heaven's Gate"; and that was the end of United Artists.

A Curate's Egg - The Missouri Breaks review by CP Customer

This is a very odd western that begins in a slapstick vein, before tightening the tension for the last half hour. Nicholson gives a vintage performance, whilst Brando hams it up eventually declaring love to his favourite horse. It might be worth viewing once to watch Brando on the slide, and Nicholson before his, but it doesn't have the dark edge vital to maintain tension in all that wide-open space.

Great scenery and some sinister characters - The Missouri Breaks review by CD

I have seen this film 3 times now over the past 20 years and enjoyed it each time.  Marlon Brando gives life to one of the most sinister “regulators” in any of the films I have seen.  While Jack Nicholson seems a little out of normal character he does a good job and brings some extra humour to the role.  The other leads are all good and there is enough action to make this an enjoyable and visually well presented film.