THE MISSOURI BREAKS

US, 1976, 126 minutes, Colour.
Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Kathleen Lloyd, Frederic Forrest, Harry Dean Stanton.
Directed by Arthur Penn.

The Missouri Breaks is a very good film about the West and what it was like to be there. But it is not a Western for the action fans. Beautifully photographed in the clear, sunlit air or the mellow, lamplit interiors, the film shows people in a primitive pioneering way of life - the lawlessness, the arrogance, violence, loneliness, starved emotionality and madness. The Western conventions are used to explore this. Marlon Brando gives a showily demented performance, leaving Jack Nicholson to carry the film with another of his seemingly effortless performances. A supporting cast of rustlers, land-barons, farm-hands are directed tellingly by Arthur Penn. A western for savouring.

1. Audience expectation of this western: Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Arthur Penn? A Western? How were audience expectations fulfilled?

2. The emphasis and meaning of the title: place, the words, the west, an atmosphere of place and time? The visual presentation of the Breaks and the land lying around them? What happened there in the 19th century?

3. What conventions of a western were used in this film? How? Ironical use? The presentation of history with a sense of realism, criticism? The heritage of good and evil of the American West?

4. The film seen as a moral Western: the world of the pioneers, the town builders, the landowners and the settlers? The world of the rustlers? The kingdoms made by various enterprising men, contrasting with the world of the little men? A world of ultimate destruction? A world of mad men? Their interaction?

5. Response to the beauty of the opening, the landscapes, the casual riding, the serious discussions about heritage and civilisation? The introduction to Brackston and his authority? The pioneer, the transition to the picnic, the transition to the hanging? The administration of justice, Brackston playing God? The victim's friends standing by helpless? (The later reprisal of Pete's handing?)

6. The presentation of Brackston and his type? The various pioneers he worked with, the frontiers he lived in, his love for the Missouri Breaks, his house and his books, his style of life? His arrogance and aristocracy? The effect on his daughter, her rebellion? The wife who deserted him? The sequences of his administering justice, especially to the Lonesome Kid? His hiring of the regulator? His control and yet becoming a victim of Lee Clayton's madness? The physical effect of the stroke? His violence and his death? The theme of the proud man overreaching himself?

7. The portrayal of Jane within this context? As a young growing woman, rebelling and reacting, her fascination with Tom Logan, her loving him, hating her father? The confrontation at the end and her father's death? The decisions about the future? The next generation in the West?

8. The characterisation of Tom Logan by Jack Nicholson? As a leader of a band, serious yet joking, small men trying to make an easy living? The carefree attitude towards rustling? The way of life and conversation in their hideout? Their comradeship? The sudden impact of the death? Their helplessness? What did the hanging force them to do? The scene of the robbery and its farcical aspects? Their watching Brackston administer justice in the town? Logan's decision to buy property, to play up to Brackston? His plan for the rustling etc.? What kind of character, man of the West?

9. His work on the ranch, his staying behind, the encounter with Jane and its effect on him? The focus of the plot on Tom Logan?

10. Comment on the group, the varying personalities within the group? The young men, young Todd, the older man and his wariness, the older man and his memories and hatred of the past? The reason for being outlaws? Their skill in rustling, their being pictured at work, the various types? The importance of the long rustling sequence and the failure with the Mounties?

11. How well was the rustling visualised, the terrain., Canada, the Breaks and the river. the pursuit by the Mounties, the sequences of the horses running? The intrusion of Lee Clayton into this world? The irony of his first appearance, his Irish brogue and manner, his arrogant style. his authority and wielding of power? When did it appear that he was mad? His skill in manipulating people? His hold on Brackston. confrontation with Jane, confrontation with Tom and the shooting at the ranch? The qualities of Marlon Brando's performance and interpretation? The picturing of Clayton as a regulator? His wild riding? His intricate deception of young Todd and killing him? Audience response to this madness of Clayton?

14. Clayton as a person consumed by the desire of pursuit and vengeance? His toying with Logan as a preparation for the killing?

15. Comment on the succession of violent deaths, the satisfaction that Clayton got from killing these men, his motivation and attitude towards justice, the prelude to each death: the shooting in the house. the visit to the mining town and the shooting in the lavatory, the burning of the house. the piercing of the man's eye etc? Old Granny? What effect did it have on him?

16. The effect on Tom Logan? The souring of the West? Motivations of vengeance?

17. The portrayal of Clayton's death? His going to sleep and the darkening of the screen. his waking with his throat cut? Audience response to his death? Logan's reaction?

18. The climax with Brackston and his death and the wounding of Tom Logan? Earl? Jane's decision?

19. How realistic was the ending? The prospect of a future for Tom and Jane?

20. How were the traditional western themes explored? Themes of American justice. law and order. heroism. good and evil?