Brewster McCloud (1970) User Reviews

A time capsule and definitely not for everyone

[AlsExGal · 8/10 · 15 February 2023]

Bud Cort is the title character, an eccentric oddball secretly living in the Houston Astrodome who believes he has figured out how to fly like a bird. He is protected by a guardian angel (Sally Kellerman) with clipped wings. He then becomes a suspect in a series of murders of people who are found strangled and covered in bird droppings.

An aggressively quirky counterculture time capsule, many modern viewers will be turned off by the bizarre story and outre characters. I happen to like it, and rank it among Altman's best. I enjoy the cast of weirdos, from Shelley Duvall (in her debut) as a stock-car driving tour guide who falls for McCloud, to Michael Murphy playing a San Francisco "supercop" named Shaft who sports turtlenecks and piercing blue eyes, to Margaret Hamilton as one of the murder victims who is found wearing ruby slippers. Stacy Keach is unrecognizable under heavy old age make-up, playing a miserly parody of Howard Hughes.

Not for everybody

[preppy-3 · 8/10 · 22 September 2003]

Bud Cort plays Brewster McCloud. He's a very strange young man who lives in the Houston Astrodome and is building a huge set of wings so he can fly. The movie is about him and his VERY odd assortment of friends and family. And how about the killer running around Houston strangling people and leaving bird droppings on them?

As you can see this is a very strange film. It's unlike anything director Robert Altman has ever done. The film isn't perfect--it's too long, the weirdness wears you down at times, some of the humor is real sick and there are characters that are just disgusting (Stacy Keach) or too flat out weird, even for this movie (Jennifer Salt)! And what's with the circus ending (entertaining as it is)? Still I love this film.

The story rambles all over the place but I was able to keep track of it. Altman packs the movie with plenty of bird imagery and references. He also pays homage to other films also--most notably "The Wizard of Oz" (right up to having Margaret Hamilton in the cast and check out how Salt is dressed at times). This really doesn't pull together in any way but it IS fascinating to watch. Also the cast is great--with one exception--Michael Murphy. He's miscast and looks miserable. But everybody else is perfect. Particular standouts are Cort (very good in a difficult role), Shelley Duvall (who usually annoys me to no end) and Sally Kirkland (looking absolutely stunning). Also there's a very cute injoke--there's a quick shot of the poster for "MASH" in Duvall's apartment!

This film was overshadowed by Altman's "MASH" in 1970. Also, the studio hated it and threw it away. Now, however, it is rightfully considered one of the best films of its decade. I highly recommend this--but not for everybody. If you like a linear plot and easily defined characters, stay away.

Funny, absurd comedy

[jamesrupert2014 · 8/10 · 14 May 2020]

Brewster McCloud (Bud Cort), a young man with dreams of flying, lives in the fallout-shelter of the Houston Astrodome, where, with (perhaps) divine help, he is constructing a pair of wings. Meanwhile, a serial killer, whose victims are found strangled and covered in bird feces, stalks the city. The sometimes slapstick, sometimes subtle, comedy by Robert Altman has aged well (although it's now a showcase for the Texas city as it was in late-1960s). The cast, which is full of secondary players from Altman's breakthrough film MASH (1970) is excellent and there is a fun, self-referential cameo from Margret Hamilton (known to all as the Wicked Witch of the West). The film is dense with images (especially bird-themed) and dialogue as the strange, semi-mystical story plays out to an excellent ending. Probably not to everyone's taste (I was borderline for the first few particularly broad and crude minutes but then got caught up in the story and characters). An extra point is awarded for sexy Sally Kellerman's nude homage to her famously up-tight MASH character.

the odd-ball slice of life of Altman's career, but somehow it's a good deal of fun in its schizo-storytelling

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 3 October 2007]

Brewster McCloud was the kind of picture I could imagine having being written over many (count *many*) joints and after not getting a career going as an ornithologist (I might add, the screenwriter only had two or three other projects produced, and nowhere near as seen as this one is in comparison). It's as nutty as a Clark bar: a kid with the title name (Bud Cort, in an immediate precursor-type performance to his Harold in Harold and Maude as an awkward, shy outsider who has a some kind of desire behind his geeky exterior) is at the task of building wings so he can fly, and he builds it in the basement/boiler room of the Houstin Astrodome. Some mysterious woman played by Sally Kellerman is, I think, killing people that seem to end up really pestering Brewster, which include a craggy Mr. Burns figure (Stacy Keach, hilariously one-note), a narc, and a random dude with a chain. I'd guess she's the killer- there's a whole sub-plot, by the way, with a police investigation headed by Shaft (no, not talking about that one, Michael Murphy plays him here, that's right), who's more interested in the bird dung that keeps showing up on the deceased instead of regular police work.

Meanwhile, Jennifer Salt gets off on the vibes of a half-nude Brewster doing chin-ups, Shelly Duvall with over-extended eye-lashes falls for Brewster one moment and then rats on him the next, and then there's still Kellerman doing her thing thwarting off, and...did I mention there's a professor/narrator who seems like a mental patient with a lot of facts about fowl? So much of this is hard to take, and towards the end it becomes very frustrating trying to put *any* sense to it (how is Duvall so good at evading the police, how is that one cop such a buffoon to read Captain America while on a stake-out, why does Jennifer Salt keep popping up and giving Brewster food/orgasms, and how much symbolic "ah, I'm a blonde angel" can we take from Kellerman?) But then again, why bother? Altman is after the sly humor of the quirky as opposed to real common sense, and it's in his dedication and intelligence in following through with these characters, no matter how strange or subtle or inexplicably charming or demented they are, that makes the film work up to the point that it does.

And despite a sort of unsatisfying last twenty minutes with Brewster and some of the supporting characters (the whole sex angle is a little weak and too dated for me to buy), there's some experimentation for the director that would probably not come again. There's a car chase, for example, through the roads of Houston, and while it's not exciting on a Bullit type of level, it's fascinating to see when the sudden twists and turns pop up, unexpectedly (where did the little red car come from?), and there's even a remarkable slow-motion shot where, as part of a theme of the film, the cars fly above their intended plane. I also liked how Altman worked in an overly Felliniesque ending, as uncomfortable a catharsis it seems to be, with the Astrodome suddenly being flooded with carnival figures, and the main characters donned in costumes and wigs and such. Brewster McCloud is a funny bird, no pun intended, of a early 70s obscurity, a film that likely got a hundredth of the public attention that MASH got, but is probably just as strong in what it wants to deliver to its eclectic audience (albeit, personally, I think MASH is maybe Altman's most overrated). And it's probably the weirdest stoner movie that the director ever conceived, portentous cloud shots included!

Murder mystery, comedy, love story...

[JasparLamarCrabb · 6/10 · 20 July 2010]

Robert Altman's absurd satire is so over-the-top it will surely be an acquired taste. Bud Cort lives in the fallout shelter beneath the Houston Astrodome. He's making wings so he can fly. His bird-mentor is the enigmatic Sally Kellerman and his girlfriends include oddball Jennifer Salt and the even odder Shelley Duvall (in her film debut). They're all priceless as is most of the large cast, including John Schuck, Stacy Keach, Bert Remsen and William Windom. Rene Auberjonois appears as some sort of lecturer, informing the audience of various bird species. Michael Murphy is very funny as a San Francisco "super cop," who manages to speak all his lines without moving his lips. Altman pays tribute to a lot of other films, ranging from THE WIZARD OF OZ to BULLITT to his own M*A*S*H. It's part murder mystery, part romance, but mostly comic. There are some forgettable songs on the soundtrack courtesy of John Phillips. The screenplay is credited to Doran William Cannon, who also penned Otto Premingers equally bizarre SKIDOO.

Quite unlike anything you'll ever see!!!

[Freak-30 · 10/10 · 25 September 1999]

This oddball Altman film came out in the same year as M*A*S*H, but the two movies are stylistically very different. BC employs a conventional plot structure, whereas M*A*S*H featured an episodic style. Also, the latter film is best defined by its irreverent humor and hedonistic characters. Brewster McCloud, on the other hand, is more of a zany fantasy inhabited by bizarre characters who are not as sympathetic as the M*A*S*H characters.

Differences aside, the two films do have some traits in common. Many of the same players are in both films (Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, G. Wood, Michael Murphy, John Schuck, Rene Auberjonois, and Corey Fischer). Also of note, BC is the debut of Shelley Duvall and marks the first of her many projects with Robert Altman. Moreover, both films have a detached narrator-type device which creates a middle ground in between the viewer and the main characters. In M*A*S*H, it was the camp PA system; in BC, it's the eccentric ornithologist/lecturer character. Lastly, both films make subtle statements about certain flaws in modern America. In M*A*S*H, this can be seen in the incessant ridiculing of the US military and US foreign policy. In BC, use of civil rights era gospel music and pithy references to Spiro Agnew and Nixon poke fun at American hypocrisy and ignorant conservatism.

The Houston Astrodome is without question a major character in BC. The protagonist (played by Cort) has one ambition in life: to take flight with a pair of wings he himself constructs. He lives in the bowels of the dome and spends his time there designing and building the instrument of his dream. He's always in danger whenever he leaves his "home" and the protection of his guardian (Kellerman). Whether he goes to the zoo or to a dome tourguide's apartment, he is in danger of being harmed by bigoted, violent people. In a sense, Brewster is not a member of the human race, but rather a bird trapped in human form. He finds haven in the Astrodome, but this is temporary and confining. He ultimately wants the freedom that "real" flight will provide him.

The themes of freedom and temptation are important in this film. Brewster longs for freedom, but is hindered in his realization of his dream by various characters and personal mistakes. Brewster can potentially "fly away", but there is one important condition. He can never have sex with a woman. If he does, he won't be able to achieve flight because his female guardian (Kellerman) will no longer protect him. But in typical human fashion, he falls for a girl. This character (Duvall) is his eventual downfall - literally! In the end, the film conveys the message that humans are never truly free. We are always controlled or confined by something, be it other people or our own desires or even the roof of the Astrodome. The dream of achieving flight is a metaphor in this film for man's incessant but futile wish to be free.

If you have no interest in these plot or thematic elements, Brewster McCloud is still worth watching just because of its bizarre humor, recurring jokes, and odd characters. Listen carefully, for there are many subtle jokes and satirical remarks. The trademark Altman audio style is used consistently throughout and if you listen carefully, you're bound to hear something funny or witty. When watching this one on video, be sure to crank the volume up high so that you clearly hear all the layers of Altman's "thick" sound mix. The ending - the final ten minutes of the film - is very memorable and provides a great finish to all the previous events. Unlike so many films, this movie's ending is neither anticlimactic nor corny, but rather profound and dramatic. You won't forget it!

Robert Altman created an absorbing, humorous, zany, and profound film in BC. To succeed in all these areas is no small feat. This film is a breath of fresh air when compared to the tripe Hollywood churns out on a weekly basis in 1999. I praise the work of Robert Altman. He's one of the few American directors in the past thirty years who's made interesting, unconventional, challenging, and highly entertaining films on a consistent basis and with his own unique style. It's a shame that only a few of his films (invariably M*A*S*H, Nashville, The Player, and Short Cuts; very rarely McCabe and Mrs. Miller) can be found in video stores. The obscure gems like Brewster McCloud (Thieves Like Us and Three Women also fall into this category) are nearly impossible to see, unless you buy the videos off the internet. Considering all the garbage produced by Hollywood nowadays, I advocate a revival of all the Robert Altman films made between 1969 and 1977 ("A Wedding" (1978) marks the beginning of the decline of his work, some might say). Oh, well. It never hurts to dream. Every once in awhile, a great Altman flick is shown on premium cable. I guess that is as good as it will get.

Looking at Americana with a twinkle in the eye

[JuguAbraham · 6/10 · 15 November 2004]

Altman is very good at looking at Americana with a twinkle in the eye. He dished out black comedies and social satires of varying dimensions: "MASH" was a spoof on Americans at war, "Nashville" poked fun at both politics and music, "A wedding" was a mature yet comic perspective of marriage as a social event. "Brewster McCloud" belongs to this group but lacks the finesse of the other four.

Altman's "Brewster McCloud" alternates from the mature comedy to low comedy. 'Mature' is his portrayal of the character Abraham Wright (Stacy Keach), a wheelchair borne landlord who fleeces the poor. 'Low' is the behavior of Wright towards his nurses at his old-age home. Altman swings from looking at what is interesting--shoplifting--to the bizarre--a widow getting married to her husband's colleague--something that "Nashville" and "A wedding" rarely did.

Look at the film closely and little is real. The black comedy almost borders on satire--a lecturer who looks and behaves like the birds he describes, an exaggerated masturbation scene, a wheelchair moving faster than cars on the road, the "blue eyes" of the blue-eyed crack detective who analyses bird droppings, etc. The only thing real is that Altman was not at his best and seemed to be uncomfortable cobbling this story together--a far cry from the director of "McCabe and Mrs Miller," "Nashville" or "A wedding."

The best surrealist film about Houston Texas ever made

[success-9 · 9/10 · 23 September 2010]

The key to understanding this film is to realize it is unmistakably surrealist in the formal sense - directly comparable to the works of European Surrealists like for example Luis Buñuel. His film "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" came out in '72, that is after Brewster McCloud, and if you've seen both films, it is not a stretch at all to surmise that it may well have been Buñuel who was influenced by Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud (which after all came out two years before Buñuel's film.) And as in Buñuel's film, the surrealism in Brewster McCloud certainly has a humorous aspect, but is at its heart a vehicle for subversive but oblique social commentary: oblique because this movie in its ultra-hip cool sensibility would feel obliged to start mocking itself if it actually started preaching to anyone. But of course this film does actually mock itself, along with everything else in the known universe. That is what surrealism is: When you start literally mocking *everything* it ceases to be funny, and rather something much more fundamentally disturbing. And yet this film is easily one of the most accessible of the truly surrealist masterpieces. It is good-natured about everyone and everything it mocks.

One of the pleasant surprises I had upon discovering this film was how realistically it portrays Texans and Houstonians. There is no hackneyed accents or cowboy hats - it really does depict Texans (and specifically Houstonians) as they are - at least as they were in 1970. I'll give one example: The undercover cop is at the zoo with his wife and kid, and his wife says, "Johnny wants to go see the monkeys", and the dad responds, "Well, let him go to N*gger Town then." Now, as a matter of fact, I have scores of relatives from Houston, and I remember as a child how people from Houston talked around 1970, and I know that that was a common but offensive colloquialism for the black part of town in Houston back then. So the period detail is just spot on. And there's no judgment when the character says this. It could be he dies mysteriously later in the film with bird poop on him, but so do a dozen other characters - not all of them bad. And also, they must have had real Houston cops playing some of the cops in the film, or they might as well have. But beyond the negative attributes of the period, this film is in many ways a heartfelt homage to the city of Houston - there are plenty of just plain normal folks who must have been local extras plunked down into this phantasmagoria of a film.

When I say "surrealist" one big aspect of that is the disjointed, disengaged banal "conversations" between various characters, where they seem to be saying stuff at random, and not even paying attention to each other. And yet its still simply fascinating for some odd reason to listen to them - you are literally hanging on every meaningless word. Sally Kellerman is some sort of angel, but for no apparent reason decides to shop-lift a huge amount of film while at the camera store. When the employee who was previously lusting after her chases her down to confront her about the theft, she start pulling bottles of shampoo out of her purse and giving some convoluted explanation why she has so much shampoo, which has nothing to do with any action that has transpired previously in the film. But even banal bits of conversation that are superficially "normal" come off as highly ironic. Shelly Duvall throws up over the railing at the Astrodome, her boyfriend walks up right then and they passionately kiss right after she throws up. Then they notice his dad who is cop is dead nearby, And Shelly says, "What should we do". And her boyfriend says, "Call the cops." And he reaches down and starts pulling something out of the dead guy's shirt pocket, and Shelly Duvall says, "What are you doing?" And he responds, "Getting the phone number." Oh well, its interesting in the film for some reason.

And then there are an unending series of clever and surprising visual gags throughout the film that seem to have occurred by accident somehow. At other times there is visual lyricism and poetry. But this film never ever stops surprising you - by the end it is wowing us with technological wizardry because the depiction of the main character's flying machine is truly amazing. And as I indicated it is somehow, above all of this, a film about an actual real place -Houston Texas - and it has plenty of elements that would undeniably appeal to a lot of real good old boys from Texas - things like great sounding cars like Camaro Z28's and Roadrunners and car chases.

It is without question in the top five of Robert Altman's films and I never heard about it till last night. BIll Hader from Saturday Night Live was a guest on Turner Classic Movies and Brewster McCloud was one of four films he had selected as personal favorites of his that were shown. (The others were Rashomon, This is Spinal Tap, and something else. I had never seen all of Rashomon before either - its overrated.) But that old guy who is the standard host on TCM seemed mystified or something by Hader's choice of Brewster McCloud, but regardless, its a really, really memorable film.

The Birdman of Houston

[lee_eisenberg · 7/10 · 6 July 2005]

To follow up "MASH", Robert Altman made this quirky gem about a young man (Bud Cort) living in Houston's Astrodome, who is obsessed with flying to the point that he's building a set of wings. Louise (Sally Kellerman) is the only person in the world who really understands him. Simultaneously, a string of bizarre murders is plaguing the city: the victims are always covered with bird droppings. To solve it, the city hires Bullitt-esquire detective Shaft (Michael Murphy) to investigate. Then things really get weird. Rene Auberjonois plays the narrator, who gets more and more birdlike as the movie progresses.

I actually have a connection to "Brewster McCloud": when they were filming it, my mom and her sister went to audition for a part, but the line was too long, so they decided not to (the role eventually went to Shelley Duvall). But that's just a side note. It's a really neat movie.

Peculiar, small-cult misfire from Robert Altman...

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 12 March 2006]

Bird-brained comedy misfire from director Robert Altman, admirably odd (after a fashion) but peculiar and off-putting. Bud Cort plays a strange young man who hopes to fly like a bird through the Houston Astrodome. The film is so overloaded with eccentric characters that it starts to creak from the weight about halfway through. The cinematography by Lamar Boren and Jordan Cronenweth is evocative, Shelley Duvall is a stitch in her debut as a tour guide, and Sally Kellerman looks every inch the glamorpuss as Cort's vision of a "mother bird" (imagine Altman or producer Lou Adler explaining that role to her!). As for Cort, he's a true original for the movies; not unlike, say, Michael J. Pollard, Cort manages to be geeky, wacky and inoffensive, a tough act to pull off. Altman obviously has great love for these screwballs, but the picture runs roughshod over its audience with no sympathy. The filmmaker can put together an eclectic cast (including everyone from Michael Murphy to Margaret Hamilton) like nobody else, but let Altman get fired up with misguided inspiration and he quickly spirals downward. A very generous ** from ****

Bud Cort takes flight in "Brewster McCloud"

[tiwannae · 10/10 · 21 May 2005]

This is one of the most interesting films I have ever seen! I own a copy on VHS and had the pleasure of seeing it 4 times at the Film Forum in New York City a couple of years ago.

After having seen Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H," his next film about the story of a young man who is building a winged contraption in the basement of the Houston Astrodome intrigued me. I had to see how the cast came together in their varied segments in this film and I wasn't too disappointed.

Robert Altman saw something in Bud Cort after seeing him in a NYC comedy revue, and then gave him a role in "M*A*S*H*, and was so impressed with him in the scenes he had in that film that he gave him is first leading film role. Altman couldn't have found a better actor to portray the lead in this film! I am a huge fan of Bud Cort's, and he kept me interested throughout in what was happening to the quiet and introverted Brewster, who dreams of flying away in a marvelously-made, flying machine. He lives a sheltered, and somewhat lonely life, other than the company of his lovesick friend Hope, who brings him food, and Louise, a strange woman who is like a mother-figure to him. Brewster doesn't say much in the film, but after a certain door is opened in his life, he becomes very talkative, and that talkativeness leads to a situation that jeopardizes his flight plans.

I thought the opening with Margaret Hamilton was funny, as well as the scenes Bud Cort had with Stacy Keach, made up as old man Abraham Wright, Brewster's former racist and mean-spirited employer.

I loved Sally Kellerman as Brewster's enigmatic and protective mother-figure, Louise, and Michael Murphy as the 'Bullit-esque' Frank Shaft, in Houston, via San Francisco, to help the police solve some suspicious bird-related murders.

The rest of the cast is fine, with the Altman touch of fine ensemble acting from the likes of John Schuck, G. Wood, and Corey Fischer. However, I found Shelly Duvall, who I've liked in other films, very annoying in this one, her film debut. She plays Suzanne, a girl who works at the Astrodome and becomes Brewster's love interest. I had rather seen Brewster become involved with Hope (Jennifer Salt), than the shallow and chirpy Suzanne. I find that most of her scenes, except for the one where she seduces Brewster, slow down the film.

Look for a delightfully strange comic turn by Rene Auberjonois, as the "Narrator" of the film.

one of Altman's most original movies

[gegekko · 6/10 · 20 March 2001]

As I liked Altman (for me one of the most iconoclastic american directors),I chose this movie because I knew nothing about it.And the surprise was great:this movie is full of fantasy,and the character of Brewster is really original because he's as intelligent as he's innocent.I also don't know any other movie that made me dream and escape like this,with its kind of magic.But on the other side,I think the car pursuit and all the bird shits weren't necessary.And Altman could have done less evocations about sex,they waste the movie:I'm ok that Brewster discovers girls but not sex.But I've liked that humans and birds are compared and above all the philosophical end about Icarus's dream to fly.Finally a very original movie which has as many qualities as defects ....

Definitely for the Birds

[BaronBl00d · 5/10 · 27 December 2006]

A strange youth wants nothing more than to take wing in the Astrodome. He is hampered by a host of eccentric, weird characters that are avenged by his "real" guardian angel and her raven. While this film makes virtually no sense at all on a literal level, Brewster McCloud is a fairly inventive, wholly original, gigantic misfire from acclaimed director Robert Altman. Altman even said that of all his pictures this was his favorite. Why? I have to assume it is partly due to his complete control of the film. That, unfortunately, does not necessarily make for a good or even great film, and while I admire much of the inventiveness of this film - I do not crave to see the film over and over again. It made me laugh a few times, but subsequent viewings would lessen that laughter. Altman has a unique body of work to absorb, but he has never been one of my favorite directors. His stories always seem to blend to the point of mild confusion. His characters seem to be so unique as to be unrealistic. Brewster McCloud has all that. I rather enjoyed the narration by Rene Auberjonois as he intimated each character being akin to some species of bird. I also liked the formidable acting talents of Stacy Keach in a bizarre, hilarious role as a rich moneylender, Margaret Hamilton in an all too brief role(though Altman DOES cash in on her Wizard of Oz fame), Michael Murphy as a policeman, John Schuck as a beat cop, William Windom as some creepy political guy, and the beautiful talents of Sally Kellerman and Shelley Duvall. Bud Cort has a strange, almost fascinating screen presence. He also knows a bit about acting. Yet, with all this obvious talent in acting, directing, writing, etc..., Brewster McCloud for me was just too unique, too eccentric, too avant-garde if you like(or don't). It is Altman's movie all the way, and I resolutely commend him for making it his way and doing it his way, and being the only moving force - the will - of the film. Again, none of those things necessarily make this a great film.

Classic Cult Classic: For the Birds

[PorridgeBird · 15 September 2003]

This movie is a million things at once. Some may find that as a bit of a turn-off, but then that's what a cult classic film is really about, isn't it?

Brewster McCloud is a reclusive boy who lives in the basement of the Houston Astrodome. He has a short job as chauffeur for a miserly old man. He is looked down upon for his meek appearance and his quiet manner. He dreams of building himself a set of wings and using those to fly away from all this suffering.

That's how the film starts, anyway. There are three basic stories in the movie: (1) Brewster McCloud's coming-of-age story, (2) the parallel metaphor of Brewster McCloud's dream of flying away from worldly sorrow, and (3) the murders of people who mistreat Brewster and who all die with raven droppings on their faces.

The real irony of this film is how the character of the Lecturer keeps pointing out similarities between the characters and certain birds, and yet the ending comes around, and we learn how unlike birds we are. There is so much information about birds, you wonder if this was an adult remake of an after-school special.

Overall, I'll have to use the word most of the other reviewers have used: quirky. There are things which are very different. There is the Pythonesque beginning where, as a woman sings the National Anthem and the credits roll, she stops, tells the band to try again in the right key, and the credits restart as well as the singing. There are small bits such as when a police officer holds up a lighter when his partner says there's only one way to know for sure if there's marijuana in a cigarette. And there is my favorite character, the Lecturer, who lectures the audience about the behavior of birds while he himself starts making strange noises and begins pecking at seeds...

Altman Spoofs Some Other Films

[Jimmy_the_Gent4 · 6/10 · 21 November 2019]

Robert Altman's followup to "M*A*S*H". Bud Cort is the title character, a strange young man who believes he has figured out how to fly like a bird. He is protected by a guardian angel (Sally Kellerman) with clipped wings. He then becomes a suspect in a series of murders of people who are found strangled and covered in bird droppings. Shelley Duvall nearly steals the film as a kooky tour guide who falls for McCloud. It is her first film and she wears these huge false eyelashes, she later has a passionate kissing scene with a guy right after she vomits. One of the most fun things about the film are some funny references to other movies. Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch Of The West herself) plays a nasty old woman who becomes one of the murder victims. She is found dead wearing a pair of ruby slippers! There are few references to "Bullitt" as well. Michael Murphy plays a "super cop" investigating the murders, he is a direct parody of Steve McQueen's Lt. Frank Bullitt, complete with turtleneck sweaters and upside down shoulder holster. The famous chase scene is lampooned here as well, Shelley Duvall plays the crazy driver in this one, she even puts on gloves and clips on her seat belt before the chase, an exact copy of the original scene.

This is worth seeing, it loses a bit of steam toward the end, but the funniest parts are hilarious.

A 1970s Dark Comedy Fantasy

[torrascotia · 7/10 · 12 December 2018]

This is a very peculiar little film about a young man who is obsessed with flying and lives a spartan existence within a sports stadium. He has limited contact with other humans and the roles they play in his life only unfold as the story moves on. He has one constant companion who is an older woman who seems to offer advice and protection and seems supportive of his project to build a self powered flying machine. Add to this are a number of unsolved murders which all seem to follow the main protagonist but its not clear whether he has any role in their demise. The whole tone of the movie is quite bizarre and hilarious in equal measure and is certainly of its time, if you enjoyed Harold and Maude then this may be for you. Some of the dialogue is fantastic and the humour is quite dark but this has plenty of laughs throughout. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the college professor who gave narration about birds during the movie while making odd bird like noises throughout. That was a bit too much for me however overall its worth tracking down.

Ultimate "lunatic" comedy from Robert Altman

[IlyaMauter · 8/10 · 13 May 2003]

Brewster McCloud is a delightful early comic `trip' of one of the best living American directors – Robert Altman. It was made the same year as Altman's masterpiece MASH and got somehow overshadowed by it and probably deservedly so, though Brewster McCloud undoubtedly is one of the most `lunatic' or weird, but at the same time most original Altman's films.

The film's story is centred on a very peculiar young boy Brewster McCloud (Bud Cort) who lives in a fallout shelter of a Huston's Astrodome and whose main passion in life are birds, an obsession that came so far that Brewster dedicates most of his time to developing of wings that will allow him to fly like a bird. He is regularly visited by a pretty young girl, who is in love with him, but because of Brewster's obsession with his dream project, she gets much less attention from him than she deserves, the fact that makes her go on her own sticking to imaginary sexual intercourse every time she visits him.

Meanwhile a chain of strange murders occurs in the city with all victims found with birds' droppings on them. In order to investigate it a police officer (Michael Murphy) who seems to be very obsessed with his looks, arrives from San Francisco, joining the group of peculiars that is already there. The scene is set for the most bizarre, hilarious and very entertaining black comedy. 8/10

weird movie

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 2 May 2020]

Bird-obsessed Brewster McCloud (Bud Cort) lives in a secret bunker under the Houston Astrodome. Louise (Sally Kellerman) may be his guardian angel. There are a series of bird-related murders and legendary police detective Frank Shaft (Michael Murphy) arrives from San Francisco to solve it.

The plot meanders but its weirdness is fascinating. It's a strange little movie from Robert Altman. While it's rarely thrilling or funny, it's oddly compelling. Bud is a weird little actor. Kellerman is fine but it would be more compelling if she spends much more time with Bud. It would be funnier if she's definitively invisible to other people and hanging around him day and night. It would also be more powerful to see her brutally murder those people. She could have been an iconic character and contrast perfectly with the meek Brewster. Overall, this is a fascinating weird little movie.

Bird-Boy trapped with Duvall and Altman!

[shepardjessica · 9/10 · 8 July 2004]

Released in December of 1970, after M.A.S.H. came out in January, this off-beat (for then even), unpretentious, little film flew in from nowhere. Get the soundtrack if you like the film! Black comedy about nothingness! Perfect 11 months AFTER M.A.S.H. (a better film). This was the part Bud Cort was born for, not Harold and Maude (another wonderful black comedy), Stacy Keach is unbelievably TOO real as Mr. Wright (at the age of 28), Sally Kellerman as Brewster's mentor is graceful and anguished, Jennifer Salt is the all-American girlfriend (just like she was in Midnight Cowboy), Michael Murphy was born to play Frank Shaft, Bert Remsen steals the show as the narc-agent, and it goes on and on as a SPOOF about a lot of American things that nobody used to lose their mind about (politically and otherwise).

This flick is an easy 8 out of 10, with gems that keep popping up, for fun. Don't write off seeing this one (even if you're anti-Altman). You'd be wasting your own time doing that. It's dark, it's fun, it's easy, and most people I've met since 1970 never even saw it! Check it out. I forgot to mention Shelley Duvall in her first film walks with the second half (Great eyes, Great Shirt, Great hair, Great car, Great attitude; mostly).

Nashville on Rajaiah juice

[ivycamellia · 7/10 · 10 March 2023]

Robert Altman's Brewster McCloud is a 1970 avant-garde black-comedy fantasy film starring Bud Cort and Sally Kellerman. This movie is one of Altman's lesser known works but it's famous for being the feature debut of character actress Shelley Duvall.

Brewster McCloud is a very strange film. The plot is random, the characters aren't too deep, the humor's flat-out weird (and sometimes digusting), and it's weirdly sexual. Despite that it's a rather clever satire on two-faced people (even though it takes place in a past era). All of the characters in this movie (including the protagonist himself) are jackasses who think that they are good people when they are actually not (I personally loved that one marijuana-smoking police officer character who accused the protagonist for possessing illegal marijuana!). Also the soundtrack's quite nice.

The biggest drawback to this movie is that, you have to watch this movie at least two or three times in order to understand the movie's plot and subject matter. If you're okay with that then I recommend this to anyone who loves surreal movies.

This ain't no Maltese Falcon. It's the stuff stinking nightmares are made of.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 24 October 2017]

It's obvious that director Robert Altman was out to make something different, but the mystery of the bird poop killer is an odd experience. Bud Cort, of "Harold and Maude" fame, plays an eccentric young man desperate to grow wings like a bird, being stalked by the sultry Sally Kellerman (barely saying a word) and all of a sudden involved with the zany Shelley Duvall as evil people all over Houston are mysteriously killed after getting a faceful of bird doo doo. There's stupid cops, car chases and an assortment of weird characters including Rene Auberjonois as a creepy bird expert.

Don't expect a knee slapper here. The comic moments are more ironic than funny. John Schuck, preparing to play Rock Hudson's sidekick on "McMillan and Wife", puts on his cops uniform for the first time, and veteran character actress Margaret Hamilton sings a delightfully off-key rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner" with a particularly amusing wardrobe reference to a famous prop from her most famous movie. In fact, this film has several references to that classic, references that may be funny to some but forced to others. I did get a few laughs out of this, but overall, it's way too forced to completely work, even as a black comedy.

a wacky one from Robert Altman

[ksf-2 · 8/10 · 20 May 2018]

Good gawd, that's Margaret Hamilton, trying to sing the Star Spangled Banner at the opening... she keeps stopping and starting, and changing octave, and key. doesn't end well for her here, but they do give her a Wizard of Oz salute. Brewster (Bud Cort, from Harold and Maude) lives under the Astrodome, and just wants to fly. He had been a driver for a wacky old crazy rich guy. its silly, its fun. so irreverant. Sally Kellerman driving a red Gremlin. Rene Auberjonois, Shelley Duvall, John Schuck, probably best known for MacMillan and Wife. Michael Murphy is Detective Shaft, but he doesn't really play much of a part in this. The story is all over the place, but we follow Brewster around when he meets up with Suzanne (Duvall). and Louise (Kellerman). Zany. Fun. a caper. will Brewster ever get to fly? and what an ending. took a minute to figure out what was going on. Directed by Robert Altman (M*A*S*H). If you like zany, offbeat films, then this one is for you!

Altman on Cloud 9, Figuratively and Literally! 📕

[mohnomachado · 6/10 · 17 July 2023]

I forgot the opening line 🦁...

What an odd movie about a serial killer who leaves bird poop on his victims as his calling card. This is one of the strangest Hollywood produced movies I have ever seen, yet I can't deny that some of the commentary was effective. You can think of this movie as Altman's 8 1/2 with a dash of American absurdist humor. Sequences happen without explanation, plot lines remain open, random characters come into play for, well, just because they are random and are served to entertain. If that doesn't sound appealing to you, take a hard pass on this. If you'd like to see Bud Cort and Shelly Duvall have one of the strangest, yet effective on screen romances you'll have seen in a minute, then I'd give it a try. Ari Aster definitely took some influence from this film as well, especially with the ending of this film.

Again, this movie is absurdist to the max, but I would be dishonest if I didn't say that some of the commentary of American racism, greed, and power lust was interesting due to the cultural climate of the country following the Nixon administration. I respect Altman for having the confidence to deliver such a unique film that I'm sure will go down as one of the weirdest I've seen from him.

Back Then This Was Bad...Today It Is WORST!

[artbreyfogle · 3/10 · 10 May 2020]

Altman was a genius? I don't see it. This film had good actors, interesting locales, and NO script. The direction was from another planet. What can you say, but yeah, you gotta watch it because it is that dumb!