BlazeLime
Strong and Moving!
SoTrumpBelieve
Must See Movie...
TaryBiggBall
It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.
AnhartLinkin
This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.
ksf-2
Good gawd, that's Margaret Hamilton, trying to sing the Star Spangled Banner at the opening... she keeps stopping and starting, and changing octave, and key. doesn't end well for her here, but they do give her a Wizard of Oz salute. Brewster (Bud Cort, from Harold and Maude) lives under the Astrodome, and just wants to fly. He had been a driver for a wacky old crazy rich guy. its silly, its fun. so irreverant. Sally Kellerman driving a red Gremlin. Rene Auberjonois, Shelley Duvall, John Schuck, probably best known for MacMillan and Wife. Michael Murphy is Detective Shaft, but he doesn't really play much of a part in this. The story is all over the place, but we follow Brewster around when he meets up with Suzanne (Duvall). and Louise (Kellerman). Zany. Fun. a caper. will Brewster ever get to fly? and what an ending. took a minute to figure out what was going on. Directed by Robert Altman (M*A*S*H). If you like zany, offbeat films, then this one is for you!
JasparLamarCrabb
Robert Altman's absurd satire is so over-the-top it will surely be an acquired taste. Bud Cort lives in the fallout shelter beneath the Houston Astrodome. He's making wings so he can fly. His bird-mentor is the enigmatic Sally Kellerman and his girlfriends include oddball Jennifer Salt and the even odder Shelley Duvall (in her film debut). They're all priceless as is most of the large cast, including John Schuck, Stacy Keach, Bert Remsen and William Windom. Rene Auberjonois appears as some sort of lecturer, informing the audience of various bird species. Michael Murphy is very funny as a San Francisco "super cop," who manages to speak all his lines without moving his lips. Altman pays tribute to a lot of other films, ranging from THE WIZARD OF OZ to BULLITT to his own M*A*S*H. It's part murder mystery, part romance, but mostly comic. There are some forgettable songs on the soundtrack courtesy of John Phillips. The screenplay is credited to Doran William Cannon, who also penned Otto Premingers equally bizarre SKIDOO.
MisterWhiplash
Brewster McCloud was the kind of picture I could imagine having being written over many (count *many*) joints and after not getting a career going as an ornithologist (I might add, the screenwriter only had two or three other projects produced, and nowhere near as seen as this one is in comparison). It's as nutty as a Clark bar: a kid with the title name (Bud Cort, in an immediate precursor-type performance to his Harold in Harold and Maude as an awkward, shy outsider who has a some kind of desire behind his geeky exterior) is at the task of building wings so he can fly, and he builds it in the basement/boiler room of the Houstin Astrodome. Some mysterious woman played by Sally Kellerman is, I think, killing people that seem to end up really pestering Brewster, which include a craggy Mr. Burns figure (Stacy Keach, hilariously one-note), a narc, and a random dude with a chain. I'd guess she's the killer- there's a whole sub-plot, by the way, with a police investigation headed by Shaft (no, not talking about that one, Michael Murphy plays him here, that's right), who's more interested in the bird dung that keeps showing up on the deceased instead of regular police work.Meanwhile, Jennifer Salt gets off on the vibes of a half-nude Brewster doing chin-ups, Shelly Duvall with over-extended eye-lashes falls for Brewster one moment and then rats on him the next, and then there's still Kellerman doing her thing thwarting off, and...did I mention there's a professor/narrator who seems like a mental patient with a lot of facts about fowl? So much of this is hard to take, and towards the end it becomes very frustrating trying to put *any* sense to it (how is Duvall so good at evading the police, how is that one cop such a buffoon to read Captain America while on a stake-out, why does Jennifer Salt keep popping up and giving Brewster food/orgasms, and how much symbolic "ah, I'm a blonde angel" can we take from Kellerman?) But then again, why bother? Altman is after the sly humor of the quirky as opposed to real common sense, and it's in his dedication and intelligence in following through with these characters, no matter how strange or subtle or inexplicably charming or demented they are, that makes the film work up to the point that it does.And despite a sort of unsatisfying last twenty minutes with Brewster and some of the supporting characters (the whole sex angle is a little weak and too dated for me to buy), there's some experimentation for the director that would probably not come again. There's a car chase, for example, through the roads of Houston, and while it's not exciting on a Bullit type of level, it's fascinating to see when the sudden twists and turns pop up, unexpectedly (where did the little red car come from?), and there's even a remarkable slow-motion shot where, as part of a theme of the film, the cars fly above their intended plane. I also liked how Altman worked in an overly Felliniesque ending, as uncomfortable a catharsis it seems to be, with the Astrodome suddenly being flooded with carnival figures, and the main characters donned in costumes and wigs and such. Brewster McCloud is a funny bird, no pun intended, of a early 70s obscurity, a film that likely got a hundredth of the public attention that MASH got, but is probably just as strong in what it wants to deliver to its eclectic audience (albeit, personally, I think MASH is maybe Altman's most overrated). And it's probably the weirdest stoner movie that the director ever conceived, portentous cloud shots included!
fedor8
You can tell this movie is from the early 70s from a mile away. Experimental, cynical, satirical, and overtly left-wing: cops are dumb, Capitalism stinks, and subtle preaching against anti-Communism and racism being scattered all over. Actually, to be fair, considering when it was made – and by whom (Altman is one of those deluded leftists) – it isn't even that political or critical of (Western) society.The movie has rather wild, quick editing, which aids the timing of the gags – of which quite a few are funny. The unpredictability and zaniness of the fast-paced and fun first half unfortunately is followed by a weaker second half, which gets bogged down in weak/unfunny resolutions (like Murphy committing suicide – what was that???). Even the very funny bird-dropping gags started to wear a bit thin. Toward the end, there is even a car-chase in which Duvall – for some strange reason – decides to have a cat-and-mouse game with the cops. This was stupid. Even dumber was Duvall suddenly informing the police of Cort. The obligatory (for this movie) end-of-movie flying sequence looks pretty good, but ultimately only the first half remains in good memory.I consider Altman to be one of the best directors of all time, in spite of him being a silly little hypocritical leftist. He has made a number of crappy movies, but there are also some that are terrific, like "3 Women", "Images", "M*A*S*H", "Vincent & Theo", and even "Short Cuts". "B.M." belongs to neither category. Overall, it's solid.
