Tonight on TV: This unique western brings together two movie monsters

Tonight on TV: This unique western brings together two movie monsters



When one legend chases another

In 1976, the director of Bonnie and Clyde AND Little Big Man Arthur Penn directs an ambitious western: Missouri breaks. This film, highly anticipated at the time, tells the following story.

1880, central Montana. Tom Logan and his four henchmen are cattle rustlers. Thanks to the stoppage of a train, they purchase a small ranch next to the immense property of a large rancher, David Braxton, who arrived in the region thirty years earlier and who perpetuates the tradition of quick judgments for horse and cattle thieves.

A cat and mouse game then begins between Braxton and Logan: the bandit plays the peaceful farmer but steals the notable’s animals, hangs his foreman and sleeps with his only daughter… So Braxton turns to a famous ” regulator”, Robert Lee Clayton. , sadistic madman but skilled tracker, to eliminate all the annoyances, including Tom.

A failure despite its star couple

If the release of the film Missouri breaks is particularly anticipated, because there is talent behind and in front of the camera. In fact, after several acclaimed films that brought him to the forefront of New Hollywood filmmakers, Arthur Penn directs a duo made up of two big Hollywood names: Marlon Brando AND Jack Nicholson.

Both, in different registers, are celebrated by the entire profession. In 1973, Marlon Brando received his second Oscar for best actor for his performance in The Godfathereighteen years after the one received for On the docks. Jack Nicholson just got his first Oscar for best actor for his unforgettable role as Randall Patrick McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Missouri breaks
Missouri Breaks ©United Artists

But when it came out, Missouri Breaks didn’t convince anyone, receiving negative reviews and collecting very modest box office receipts on North American soil. $14 million with a budget of 10 million.

Arthur Penn’s casting idea for Missouri breaks, that is, inviting two great actors to whom you offer the opportunity for performances far from those that made them famous, doesn’t work. Jack Nicholson, in the role of the bandit Tom Loganplays with moderation, when Marlon Brando gives him an almost parodic performance, disguised as a grandmother, and judged at the time “out of control” and largely off-topic by the New York Timesfor his sadistic vigilante character Robert Lee Clayton.

A cult status acquired over time

Failure upon release, Missouri breaks he stands out for the “intellectual” and second-rate vision that Arthur Penn gives him. A filmmaker famous first for his European sensibility, inspired by the New Wave, here he is criticized for his artistic choices and the imbalance of his film.

But as journalist Xan Brooks says The Guardian in 2023, the retrospective perception of Missouri breaks, and Marlon Brando’s performances, have improved over time. Today shows a critical note to 79% ON Rotten tomatoesi.e. 1% less The ruthless searchreleased in 1966 and the first collaboration between Marlon Brando and Arthur Penn.

Source: Cine Serie

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