The Missouri Breaks

A rancher, a rustler, and a regulator face off in Arthur Penn's eccentric western. As a cover for their horse thievery, a gang of Montana rustlers, led by the laid-back Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson), buys a small farm adjacent to the ranch of their latest target/nemesis, Braxton (John McLiam). When the ...more

With a script by Thomas McGuane, the volatile presence of both Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson, and director Arthur Penn's penchant for breaking genre conventions and mixing moods, The Missouri Breaks veers from quiet poignancy to broad comedy to frontier action, and finally to abruptly shocking violence, in a story that poses the outlaw as the only viable hero. Even the outlaw cannot keep living as an outlaw, however; with its sense of an ending era and the need to move on, The Missouri Breaks ...more