Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8907 in VHS
• Released on: 1993-12-06
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Color, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.com
Robert Altman: You've just been nominated for an Oscar (for M*A*S*H) and given the keys to Hollywood--what are you going to do next? Leave it to eternal maverick Altman to turn around and make this wickedly loony, esoteric (and little-seen) comedy, about an odd loner (Bud Cort as the title character) whose dream is to build a pair of wings in his aerie in the Houston Astrodome that can really fly. Altman spoofs both The Wizard of Oz (look for Margaret Hamilton in a cameo) and Bullitt as he fuses a strange serial murder plot to his story of young Brewster and his strange adventures. His cast includes such Altman regulars as John Schuck, Michael Murphy, and Rene Auberjonois, as well as a wild cameo by Stacy Keach. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

bizarre movie, but not depressing at all.
BREWSTER MCCLOUD concerns a young man (Bud Cort; he was Harold, in HAROLD AND MAUDE) who lives in a room inside the Houston Astrodome, and dreams of flight. He spends his time photographing birds and designing wings, in the hopes that he can take to the air as a bird does.

A second plotline involves a serial killer, a performer of strangulation murders, loose in Houston. The HPD have called in Shaft, a hotshot San Francisco detective, to help solve the case. Each of the victims is found with bird excrement on his face.

Of course, our naive and physically slight Brewster is the killer.

A film of bizarre plot and presumptively a satire, BREWSTER MCCLOUD does not approach the mastery of Robert Altman's other films of the period, particularly MASH and MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER. Occasionally the dialogue is very funny, but too often the director chose to impress the viewer with a skewed sensibility which leaves much to be desired. Inconsistent shots and the lack of a consistent structure probably leaves many viewers reeling.

Similarities to other Altman films abound, but most easily spotted are the terrific ensemble cast, the familiar players from other Altman films, such as Rene Auberjonois, G. Wood, Kellerman, and Duvall, and the use of voice-over throughout the movie. The police radio, in this case, takes the job of the intercom announcer in MASH, and provides a useful way of moving the plot along.

Not quite for Altman completists only, I'd recommend this to all Robert Altman fans, fans of Harold and Maude, and fans of bizarre movies. In a sense this is a black comedy. Not depressing in the least, it represents a rare, brave attempt to make a unique motion picture. While it doesn't work on a number of levels, various strange elements stand out to make BREWSTER MCCLOUD a movie worth seeing.

ken32

Full Of Yearning Myself...
This is an oddly touching film despite its ostensibly disjointed plot, which is replete with a send-up of the coldest of the "cool" Steve McQueen personas (in "Bullett"), plus a teasing parody of Altman's own "M*A*S*H" sequence in which Sally Kellerman is humiliated in the shower. (This time she is revealed bathing in a public fountain!) The film posits a definite yearning for innocence and escape from the gross cruelties and disappointments of the Vietnam War era through the young Brewster McCloud's attempt to fly as a bird -- of sorts. However, he can only do this if he maintains his own sexual innocence (a very traditional religious concept, by the way), and he doesn't, of course, and so is betrayed by a callow (and callous) "Eve" -- portrayed by one of Altman's favorite performers, Shelley Duvall, in her debut.

Sally Kellerman, by the way, is a really beautiful, touching "bird-woman," who is Brewster's personal "angel"; Bud Cort is a gentle but naive hero (despite being a mass murderer!), and the film only seems to run along without care for the plot, for it is actually a well-crafted story of a futile attempt to "regain Paradise" by "flying away" from our cruelly competitive and facile culture. It finishes very enigmatically, yet tragically, for it is also a symbolic account of the failure of the 1960s "youth rebellion." Not among the "best" of Altman -- "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" is the better depiction of American decay, and "Nashville" is Altman's quirky yet perceptive study of U. S. politics -- but I can't get it out of my head: it makes me sad and full of yearning myself....

For those who like weird...
Robert Altman made Brewster McCloud around the same time as his acclaimed MASH was released, but for some reason this has been forgotten over time. Revealing any of the story would be useless because the film is so utterly absurd it wouldn't make sense. The comedy ranges from bird poop on dead bodies to a supporting character who's a direct spoof of Steve McQueen's 'Bullitt.' Weird, silly, oddly sexual, and hilarious. Not for all tastes, but worth a look if you're up for something very, very different. A DVD release would be terrific, especially if Altman gave a commentary.

*** out of ****