The Missouri Breaks

     Montana scenery is on beautiful display in this western from 1976, directed by Arthur Penn.
     A wealthy landowner, David Braxton (John McLiam), extrajudicially hangs a cattle rustler who's the associate and friend of Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson), Calvin (Harry Dean Stanton), Little Tod (Randy Quaid), Si (John P. Ryan), and Cary (Frederic Forrest).  Stunned at first by this, the friends of the dead rustler hatch a plan to buy a farm next to Braxton's land.  They begin stealing his horses, and then they hang, tit for tat, one of Braxton's most valued men.
     Braxton's daughter, Jane (Kathleen Lloyd), takes a fancy to Tom Logan, who spends much of his time on the farm while the others maintain their hideout where they keep their stolen horses and other animals.
     David Braxton, meanwhile, hires Robert E. Lee Clayton (Marlon Brando), a regulator, a hit man, expert at long range killing.  Clayton's brashness, peculiar personality (as for instance when he puts the end of a carrot in his mouth, going for a kiss from his horse who has the carrot's other end in his mouth), and unconcealed sadism, cause the Braxtons to look askance at him; still, he comes highly recommended.
     After a failed horse-thieving attempt against a Royal Canadian Mounted Police outpost, Calvin, Little Tod, and Si split up, with Little Tod running into Clayton, who first scares him but puts him at ease because he's wearing a minister's white collar.  Clayton often wears disguises, even dresses as an old woman at one point.  Clayton, like Brando, is an actor.
     Clayton shares his rabbit dinner with Little Tod, treats him generously, teaches him the next day how to successfully ford the Missouri River; shows him when to dismount and when to get back on the swimming horse.  He nevertheless yanks Little Tod from his horse, knowing the man can't swim.  After the drowning, Clayton attaches one of his telltale cartridge casings to Little Tod's horse's bridle and slaps the animal away.  The horse instinctually goes home to the hideout.  Calvin, recognizing the caliber of the spent cartridge, knows that Little Tod has run afoul of Clayton.
     Calvin wants to join with Tom Logan to kill David Braxton, but comes across Logan kissing Braxton's daughter.  Logan, nonetheless, goes to Braxton's house, intent on killing Clayton, who's taking a bubble bath.  Because of the slick soapy naked skin of his adversary, perhaps, Logan can't bring himself to shoot a defenseless man, so he shoots the tub, causing water damage in Braxton's home.  This act of mercy leads to a great deal of trouble for Logan and his remaining friends.
     The horse rustlers then rip off most of Braxton's horses.  They split up with several horses each to sell elsewhere.  Clayton tracks them, shoots them one by one, except for Logan, who catches up to the regulator, slicing his throat while he sleeps.
     Logan wraps things up with David Braxton, too, in this story of cause and effect.  It's a humorous movie at times, imbued with a wild spirit, not least in the character of Jane Braxton.  Kathleen Lloyd, then a TV actress starring in her first movie, reminds me of Katharine Ross in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid--a lovely, smart, and charming young brunette with a lot of independence in her spirits.  Her scenes with Jack Nicholson are touching, providing the movie's lightest moments.
     Nicholson is good as usual.  Harry Dean Stanton is excellent, his mustache and hangdog look making him resemble someone in a Charles Russell painting of the Old West.  The interpersonal dynamics of the rustling gang show a closely knit group of male companions engaged in criminal behavior, but living by an ethical bond of friendship, in contrast to Clayton, the individual beholden just to himself.
     Less sympathetic than the rustlers is Braxton, typifying a greedy, land-accumulating baron, filled with slow-burning hatred for anyone who violates his sense of law and order in a land that doesn't quite yet have laws.  That he hires an amoral sniper to handle his problems for him indicates the content of his character, as he's willing to allow a murderer free rein on his land to take care of a problem he could've avoided if he hadn't ordered the noose for someone who didn't get a fair trial.
     Marlon Brando had starred in The Godfather four years before this film, but The Missouri Breaks isn't nearly as famous.  Here, outdoors and eccentric, living as one with the landscapes, his role as Clayton presents a striking contrast to the dark, somber interiors and moods of The Godfather.  The differences between the two performances help illuminate for us the range of this great actor.

                                                                              Vic Neptune

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