The Missouri Breaks (1976, Arthur Penn)

The Missouri Breaks is a very peculiar western, it's both dark and funny and it has its moments of sheer brilliance and of abnormality. The film stars Jack Nicholson as Tom Logan (straight off from winning the Oscar in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest the year before) as the leader of a gang of cattle rustlers that are being hunted down one by one by a regulator (hired gunman) named Robert E. Lee Clayton played by Marlon Brando who is hired by the rich cattle baron who wants all cattle rustlers hanged or shot.

The quirkiness of the film is thanks to the odd and over the top performance (along with an Irish accent) by Marlon Brando who admittedly improvised a lot of his performance in the film. When the film came out it was a complete bomb amongst both critics and moviegoers who were probably put off by Brando’s eccentric (and in my opinion annoying) performance.

However asides from this, the film features a great performance from Jack Nicholson, a strong screenplay and great direction with some stunning scenery to boot. It is defiantly not your typical western yet it is a powerful western that unfortunately has been forgotten.

Arthur Penn also directed: Bonnie and Clyde, Little Big Man & Night Moves

Rating 3.5 / 4

Click here for the trailer