The Missouri Breaks

TCM ran a spotlight some months back on revisionist westerns. Among the titles that I hadn't seen before is The Missouri Breaks, so I recorded it to be able to watch at a later date and do a post on it here.

The title refers to an area in Montana, in the upper headwaters of the Missouri River, where the waters have flowed in such a way such that the landscape is full of "breaks" cut out by the erosion of the river. It's some time after the Civil War but before statehood in 1890, which means Montana is still a federal territory and the law is not always present. Cattlemen like David Braxton (John McLiam) hold a lot of sway, and they're none too happy with rustlers. Indeed, in the opening scene of the movie, we see Braxton carrying out an extrajudicial execution of one alleged rustler.

Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson) is another rustler, leader of a gang of rustlers. He too is none too happy with what's going on, but obviously for opposite reasons. He wants to be able to continue stealing cattle and horses, and doesn't want people like Braxton stopping him and killing his men. He vows to get revenge on Braxton for killing one of his men.

To that end, Logan goes into town and finds that there's some land bordering on Braxton's ranch that's available for purchase. Logan decides that he's going to rob a train to get the money to buy that land and start a ranch of his own, so that he'll be able to rustle more of Braxton's cattle. Meanwhile, Logan meets Braxton's daughter Jane (Kathleen Lloyd), and falls in love with her. The feeling is mutual, as Jane has been chafing at her father's authority and, being naturally rebellious, sees a good way to tick off her father.

Meanwhile, Braxton isn't about to take any of this lying down. He hires what is known as a "regulator", which is similar to a bounty hunter except that this is somebody who goes after rustlers and is in the employ of a rancher. The regular in question is Robert E. Lee Clayton (Marlon Brando), who is obviously different from the normal sort of person you'd meet in a Hollywood western. He serenades his horses and disrupts funerals, among other things, and underneath this odd exterior is a particularly brutal killer. He unsurprisingly figures out that Logan isn't much of a farmer, and sets out to find the men in Logan's gang, killing them one by one. Logan plans to stay alive, however....

The Missouri Breaks is an odd little movie. Well, perhaps it's not such a little movie, as it runs over two hours. It also runs at a fairly sedate pace, being the sort of movie that you feel could have been given a script to run a good 20 minutes shorter. The movie has a good premise, and I personally don't have an issue per se with "revisionist" westerns, so the fact that all of the characters have moral issues doesn't bother me. However, Marlon Brando's character is way over the top, and director Arthur Penn didn't bother to rein him in; as I understand it, directors at the time thought that letting Brando go off like a loose cannon was a good thing. I'm sorry to say I disagree. Also, as I said, there's a whole lot of nothing going on at times.

The Missouri Breaks got scathingly bad reviews at the time of its release. I think that's somewhat unfair, although I can certainly see why the reviews would be significantly less than positive. I would say that it's worth a watch if you know what you're getting into. (I'd guess the critics of the time didn't know what they were getting into.) Also, as always, judge for yourself.