BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

US, 1999, 118 minutes, Colour.
Bruce Willis, Nick Nolte, Glen Headley, Albert Finney, Barbara Hershey, Lukas Haas, Omar Epps, Will Patton, Owen Wilson.
Directed by Alan Rudolph.

Breakfast of Champions has a very strong cast. However, popular audiences felt they had been misled by very much an art house film.

The film was based on a novel by Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five) and was written by its director Alan Rudolph, director of a wide range of films, many of them also art house features. These including Choose Me, Trouble in Mind, The Moderns and at this time Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle, Afterglow and Equinox. The action has been updated to the consumerist 90s from the issues of 1970s and the Vietnam war. It is a kind of mad, mad world of consumerism and pretensions.

Bruce Willis acts against type as Dwayne Hoover, the proprietor of a used car showroom and a star of many commercials. Barbara Hershey is his harassed wife. Albert Finney appears as an eccentric novelist with strange theories about science. Nick Nolte offers the opportunity to see him wearing women’s clothes as Willis’s eccentric friend. Lucas Haas is Bruce Willis’s son.

The film is satiric in its characters/caricatures and in its strong dialogue. It is much more subtle than the usual American fare. It has a very strong supporting cast including Omar Epps, Owen Wilson, Will Patton.

1.The work of Kurt Vonnegut? His satiric perspective on the United States? From the '70s into the '90s? Interpreter by Alan Rudolph?

2.The original setting of the film in the '70s? Vietnam War, the emergence of American freedoms and American consumerism? The transition to the '90s and the validity of the critique?

3.The strength of the cast, acting against type, their credibility? As characters? As caricatures?

4.The title and the advertisements? The American expression in advertising and slogans, cliches? The theme of consumerism? American adulations of the consumer icons? The role of the media, the range of media advertising? Competitions and prizes, consumers wanting bargains and winning? The hype and its meaning?

5.The focus on Dwayne Hoover and the billboards and the ads? The television commercials? Bruce Willis and his choosing this role, playing against type, satiric? His appearance, hair, glasses, clothes? The advertisements and the comic style? The creation of the salesman image? Selling cars? The hoardings on the highways? The smile, truth and artificiality, pep etc? Audience reaction to the character and the advertisements? The characters in the film and their adulatory reaction, "we love you"? Autographs, "as seen on TV"? The effect of the parody?

6.Dwayne in himself, at his market, the hype for the competition and Hawaiian week? His relationship with his wife, her attempted suicide, the pills? Non-communication at home? Her languid presence? Her appearance in his hallucinations? His love for her, loss of love? Conscience? His breakdown and attempted suicides, the build-up to him shooting himself, the gun in his mouth, being interrupted? The pace of his day, driving and the police picking him up, Harry watching him? The relationship with Francine as secretary, meals together, sexual relationship, going to the motel? His relationship with Harry, the friendship, condemning Harry as conservatively dressed for Hawaiian week? His relationship with the staff, the over-reacting wife at the diner? His relationship with his son, his living underground, his musical career?

7.Dwayne as the American success - but the irony of his ownership of property, the pollution in the property and his being summonsed? The reasons for his breakdown? His search for himself, his hallucination? His misreading people - especially Harry and his nerves? The mood changes and his treatment of Francine? The build-up to the awards and his missing them? The encounter with Kilgour Trout and his impact? Looking for signs, interpreting signs, the literature celebration, Dwayne and his wanting freedom? Kilgour Trout and seeing all the people as machines, Dwayne interpreting everyone as a machine and his reaction to them? His encounter with his wife, having to cross the sludge and the pollution to his wife? The ending - out of this world? Salvation? Cop-out?

8.The issues of the meaning of life, the conversations about God, the nature of the afterlife, human freedom, God's will, sin and responsibility, human beings as robots illustrating God's power, their destructive potential? The visual and verbal parodies of issues of God and free will?

9.Albert Finney as Kilgour Trout? His bird and talking to it, the invitation (and the dollar bill signs for the invitation)? His reaction? His lifestyle, his home, alone? The books and his science fiction perspectives and interpretation of the world, freedom, humans and machines, God? Their being taken up by the pornographers? His going to the shops to re-buy his books? The decision to go, the various stages of his journey, being picked up, on the road, the various conversations he had with the drivers? The polluted city where he lived? His being robbed and losing everything? His self-image, his voice, the arrival, the unctuous welcome? Wading through the pollution? The encounter with Dwayne's wife? His being received, the celebrity at the celebration, looking in the mirror and the importance of the mirror image sequence and his entering into it, into the dream? The discussions with Dwayne and their effect? His theories about freedom, human robots and God?

10.The portrait of Harry and Gracie? Seeing them at home, Harry's neurosis about Dwayne driving past and knowing the truth? In therapy? The friendship with Dwayne, buddies and the background of the war - but Harry never having been there? His wanting to go to Hawaii? The relationship with Grace, love, his cross-dressing and the styles of his dresses? His fears of being found out? Suspicions about Harry, at the office, his conversations, his fears becoming paranoia? His misinterpreting, especially Wayne Hoobler? Thinking he had to sell him the car, friends with Dwayne? The interview with Dwayne and his fear of exposure, discovering that Dwayne thought he was too conservative? The reaction and the relief? His being present at the award, the compulsion to come out and self-revelation? The frantic speech, his madness, the dresses? His being straitjacketed? The relationship with Gracie, his dependence on her, her support of him?

11.Dwayne's wife, her suicide attempts, on pills? The languid appearance, her dreaming and her appearances in hallucinations? Her leaving home, watching Kilgour Trout, her persuading Dwayne to come across the pollution to her? The possibility of a happy ending?

12.Dwayne's son, living in the bunker, its decor, his clothes and hair? Love for music? The friendship with Bill and Bill's unrequited love? The contract, his singing, the welcome of the guests at the celebration? His response to the final chaos and violence in the reception? The reconciliation with his father?

13.Francine, at work, the typical secretary, loyalty? The meals, the sexual relationship? Dwayne's moods and her reaction? His seeing her as a sex machine? Her final response to Dwayne?

14.Wayne Hoover in prison, the background of his sentence, the other prisoners, his looking at the ads, the similarity in names being a sign, his enthusiasm, going to work for Dwayne? The interviews with Harry, the discussions about buying the car? The adulation? His home, the relationship with Dwayne?

15.The Middle American city, the authorities, the types, having the literary celebration and its irony? The patron and his love for Kilgour Trout's work, tracking him down, welcoming him to the convention? The wealthy of the city, the patronage of the celebration, their reactions to Kilgour Trout?

16.A variation of a Mad Mad Mad American World, the quality of the parody, the caricature, the dramatisation of the bizarre and the effect of this kind of film on American audiences? World audiences?