Alan Rudolph’s “Breakfast of Champions” (1999) is messy, dated and infrequently good.
Following a high-profile premiere and a damaging response from the Berlin Worldwide Movie Pageant, Rudolph’s movie, a constantly surreal adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s hilarious, satirical and way more grounded 1973 novel, was dumped into theaters in 2000.
Actually, I caught it throughout a one-week run on the now-closed Esquire Theater in Denver, Colo. I didn’t just like the movie as a lot because the e book and acknowledged how daft and off-putting the movie was however, nonetheless, favored it and defended it in print.
Over time, it’s grow to be a punching bag for Rudolph and a go-to instance of an amazing Vonnegut novel executed soiled on the large display. In fact, when the top-tier instance remains to be George Roy Hill’s incredible “Slaughterhouse 5” (1972) and few even keep in mind this barely-released oddity, it’s no surprise Rudolph’s movie was not solely rejected however, far worse, forgotten.
Now, “Breakfast of Champions” returns in an exquisite, 4K improve and is again in theaters for a restricted launch.
Bruce Willis stars as Dwayne Hoover, a automotive salesman who’s, by far, essentially the most well-known particular person in Midland Metropolis. Hoover’s frantic, ubiquitous commercials made him an area superstar.
Regardless of Hoover’s leering, energetic presence on TV, he’s depressing and coming aside in actual life. His mornings start with bouts of placing a gun in his mouth and admitting to himself that he has no concept who he actually is. His lounge singer son (Lukas Haas) and spacey spouse (Barbara Hershey) are disconnected from him.
Hoover’s employees features a paranoid quantity two (Nick Nolte), a crazed former prisoner (Omar Epps) who sports activities the same identify to Hoover’s, and Hoover’s secretary (Glenn Headley), who he’s having an affair with throughout enterprise hours. Hoover immediately believes that the arrival in Midland Metropolis of writer/weirdo Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney) will lastly deliver some which means to his life and that Trout could have the solutions he seeks.
Much less a correct, exacting Vonnegut adaptation than a thematic response to it, the good, centered satire of Vonnegut’s novel has been changed by broad, Looney Tunes-like satire. Typically this works however typically the viewer will really feel like they’re being pummeled by an overzealous celebration clown.
The film is commonly an excessive amount of.
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Issues get off on the proper foot, with the titles exploding onscreen, sporting Vonnegut’s hand-drawn artwork and title font from the e book (certainly one of Vonnegut’s funniest illustrations is paired with Rudolph’s identify). Accompanied by Mark Isham’s great rating, the sensation is akin to being in a automotive journey that’s exhilarating however uneasy, as the motive force goes too quick.
The type is straight away brisk, hallucinatory and lots for some viewers members to adapt to.
Hoover is the sort of beloved native superstar who is predicted to smile and entertain the second he walks right into a room. Willis might possible have associated to this sort of stress, being a star who first gained adoration on TV.
A scene the place Hoover is horrified when his employees surprises him by carrying masks of his mug at work is an ideal embodiment of this stage of unease at being so accessible to your followers. Hoover seemingly has all of it however feels the partitions closing in round him. Willis, in maybe his most under-estimated efficiency, is superb right here.
The remainder of the spectacular ensemble isn’t completely properly matched, as Finney appears miscast. The Trout of the novel (who Vonnegut followers acknowledge as an alter ego) is witty and chic. Finney’s take is all bluster, seems off placing and journeys over the witty dialogue.
The pathos is there, and Finney appears as nuts as everybody else onscreen, however I missed the novel’s musings on Trout’s fantastic-sounding tales. Finney and Haas’ scenes ramble on too lengthy.
25 years later, certainly one of Bruce Willis’ finest films will get the discharge it deserves. The 4K restoration of BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS opens in theaters on Friday, November 1. https://t.co/SOOy7nVRjl
— Shout! Studios (@Shout_Studios) October 30, 2024
Nolte’s scenes, involving a “secret” and his spiritualist spouse (a standout Vicki Lewis), are essentially the most dated, very Sixties touches right here. Epps’ wild flip is not like the rest he’s ever executed (at one level, Hoover understandably asks somebody if Epps’ character is admittedly standing there) and Shawnee Smith has an amazing bit as Hoover’s waitress.
Hershey is unusually wasted in a task that acts as a plot perform.
Hoover’s fame is akin to “Loopy Eddie” Antar, the wildly standard Nineteen Seventies-80s TV pitchman (performed by Jerry Carroll) who fronted the East Coast chain of digital shops, which wound up fronting an enormous rip-off. Danny DeVito has been circling a movie model of the “Loopy Eddie” story, although Willis’ tackle Hoover suggests Loopy Eddie’s genial insanity.
One other movie depicting a automotive salesman as a star and public determine that performs like a good darker model of Rudolph’s movie is Larry Cohen’s little-seen, however wonderful, surprising “Bone” (1972).
Filmed in Twin Falls, Idaho (coincidentally, an amazing movie sporting that identify from Michael and Mark Polish appeared in 1999) however, like a lot of Rudolph’s prior movies, seemingly disconnected from his physique of labor.
Rudolph grew to become an acclaimed filmmaker for his eclectic temper items, like “Select Me” (1984) and “Bother in Thoughts” (1986), however his finest movies are amongst his most experimental, just like the dream-like “Equinox” (1992), the excellent literary world interval drama “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” (1994) and, his very best, the movie noir-infused home comedy, “The Secret Lives of Dentists” (2003).
Rudolph beforehand collaborated with Willis on “Mortal Ideas” (1991), the place the star was extraordinary enjoying a doomed, abusive husband. Solid alongside his then-wife Demi Moore, each Moore and Willis have cited in print that the movie represented their finest work.
Willis clearly trusted Rudolph, and the director supplied him with an amazing showcase for his comedian and dramatic capabilities in his tackle Dwayne Hoover.
As a spoof on the American dream going askew and the misplaced looking for to be redeemed, we see how a Maui trip turns into the embodiment of salvation for the movie’s characters. It was a mistake on Rudolph’s half to not date this: if that is then-contemporary America, the imaginative and prescient is a swirling miasma of hysteria, but when a title card instructed us this was 1973 or set within the Nineteen Seventies, we’d acknowledge the character’s turmoil, residing in a Watergate/still-in-Vietnam existence.
Some scenes play like overly caffeinated “SNL” sketches however one of the best moments, of which there are various, take middle, at the same time as a lot of the movie is juiced up on Rudolph’s experimental touches. The wonderful components of “Breakfast of Champions” hook up with Vonnegut’s central battle, of mere mortals making an attempt and failing to understand the which means of life.
“That is the primary interview I’ve ever executed for Breakfast of Champions. When the movie got here out, nobody wished to speak about it besides me.”
Alan Rudolph talks with @ethanves about restoring his Kurt Vonnegut adaptation, Bruce Willis, and Robert Altman: https://t.co/NxGtvxZxOh pic.twitter.com/gFCwntu2tD
— The Movie Stage 📽 (@TheFilmStage) October 30, 2024
There’s a fantastically acted scene between Willis and Nolte, the place the 2 salesmen share deep confessions however neither is admittedly listening to the opposite. The climax is emotional and satisfying, in its personal peculiar manner, however what all of it means is very debatable (I’d say the conclusion of this and “Combat Membership” attain the identical thematic finish).
The movie’s all-out rejection in theaters was particularly odd when you think about that Willis was coming off “The Sixth Sense.” You’d determine curious filmgoers would a minimum of give it a sturdy opening weekend. Even lesser autos like “The Story of Us” (1999) and “Disney’s The Child” (2000) have been way more profitable for Willis.
The stench of failure in direction of Rudolph’s movie lingered for years till it fell to a bottom-of-the-discount-DVD-bin purgatory.
When individuals inform me they hate Rudolph’s “Breakfast of Champions,” it’s often as a result of they understandably favor Vonnegut’s way more centered novel or just “didn’t get” what Rudolph and his forged have been aiming for.
There are flaws in Rudolph’s movie, largely in his tendency to squeeze in too many subplots and characters into an already busy swirl of mania. But, given a recent look (no joke – the 4K improve makes the colours richer and the Mad Hatter imaginative and prescient fuller) and brought as a companion piece to Vonnegut’s novel, in addition to a forgotten showcase for Willis’ under-appreciated skills as an actor, the return of “Breakfast of Champions” is an overdue occasion.