Alan Rudolph’s “Breakfast of Champions” (1999) is messy, dated and occasionally brilliant.
Following a high-profile premiere and a negative reaction from the Berlin International Film Festival, Rudolph’s film, a consistently surreal adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s hilarious, satirical and far more grounded 1973 novel, was dumped into theaters in 2000.
In fact, I caught it during a one-week run at the now-closed Esquire Theater in Denver, Colo. I didn’t like the film as much as the book and recognized how daft and off-putting the film was but, nevertheless, liked it and defended it in print.
Over the years, it’s become a punching bag for Rudolph and a go-to example of a great Vonnegut novel done dirty on the big screen. Of course, when the top-tier example is still George Roy Hill’s fantastic “Slaughterhouse Five” (1972) and few even remember this barely-released oddity, it’s no wonder Rudolph’s film was not only rejected but, far worse, forgotten.
Now, “Breakfast of Champions” returns in a beautiful, 4K upgrade and is back in theaters for a limited release.
Bruce Willis stars as Dwayne Hoover, a car salesman who is, by far, the most famous person in Midland City. Hoover’s frantic, ubiquitous commercials made him a local celebrity.
Despite Hoover’s leering, energetic presence on TV, he’s miserable and coming apart in real life. His mornings begin with bouts of putting a gun in his mouth and admitting to himself that he has no idea who he really is. His lounge singer son (Lukas Haas) and spacey wife (Barbara Hershey) are disconnected from him.
Hoover’s staff includes a paranoid number two (Nick Nolte), a crazed former prisoner (Omar Epps) who sports a similar name to Hoover’s, and Hoover’s secretary (Glenn Headley), who he’s having an affair with during business hours. Hoover suddenly believes that the arrival in Midland City of author/weirdo Kilgore Trout (Albert Finney) will finally bring some meaning to his life and that Trout may have the answers he seeks.
Less a proper, exacting Vonnegut adaptation than a thematic reaction to it, the smart, focused satire of Vonnegut’s novel has been replaced by broad, Looney Tunes-like satire. Sometimes this works but often the viewer will feel like they’re being pummeled by an overzealous birthday party clown.
The movie is often too much.
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Things get off on the right foot, with the titles exploding onscreen, sporting Vonnegut’s hand-drawn art and title font from the book (one of Vonnegut’s funniest illustrations is paired with Rudolph’s name). Accompanied by Mark Isham’s wonderful score, the feeling is akin to being in a car ride that is exhilarating but uneasy, as the driver is going too fast.
The style is immediately brisk, hallucinatory and a lot for some audience members to adapt to.
Hoover is the kind of beloved local celebrity who is expected to smile and entertain the moment he walks into a room. Willis could likely have related to this kind of stress, being a celebrity who first gained adoration on TV.
A scene where Hoover is horrified when his staff surprises him by wearing masks of his mug at work is a perfect embodiment of this level of unease at being so accessible to your fans. Hoover seemingly has it all but feels the walls closing in around him. Willis, in perhaps his most under-estimated performance, is excellent here.
The rest of the impressive ensemble isn’t entirely well matched, as Finney seems miscast. The Trout of the novel (who Vonnegut fans recognize as an alter ego) is witty and elegant. Finney’s take is all bluster, appears off putting and trips over the witty dialogue.
The pathos is there, and Finney seems as nuts as everyone else onscreen, but I missed the novel’s musings on Trout’s fantastic-sounding stories. Finney and Haas’ scenes ramble on too long.
Nolte’s scenes, involving a “secret” and his spiritualist wife (a standout Vicki Lewis), are the most dated, very 1960s touches here. Epps’ wild turn is unlike anything else he’s ever done (at one point, Hoover understandably asks someone if Epps’ character is really standing there) and Shawnee Smith has a great bit as Hoover’s waitress.
Hershey is strangely wasted in a role that acts as a plot function.
Hoover’s fame is akin to “Crazy Eddie” Antar, the wildly popular 1970s-80s TV pitchman (played by Jerry Carroll) who fronted the East Coast chain of electronic stores, which wound up fronting a massive scam. Danny DeVito has been circling a film version of the “Crazy Eddie” story, though Willis’ take on Hoover suggests Crazy Eddie’s genial madness.
Another film depicting a car salesman as a celebrity and public figure that plays like an even darker version of Rudolph’s film is Larry Cohen’s little-seen, but excellent, shocking “Bone” (1972).
Filmed in Twin Falls, Idaho (coincidentally, a great film sporting that name from Michael and Mark Polish appeared in 1999) but, like many of Rudolph’s prior films, seemingly disconnected from his body of work.
Rudolph became an acclaimed filmmaker for his eclectic mood pieces, like “Choose Me” (1984) and “Trouble in Mind” (1986), but his best films are among his most experimental, like the dream-like “Equinox” (1992), the superb literary world period drama “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle” (1994) and, his absolute best, the film noir-infused domestic comedy, “The Secret Lives of Dentists” (2003).
Rudolph previously collaborated with Willis on “Mortal Thoughts” (1991), where the star was extraordinary playing a doomed, abusive husband. Cast alongside his then-wife Demi Moore, both Moore and Willis have cited in print that the film represented their best work.
Willis clearly trusted Rudolph, and the director provided him with a great showcase for his comic and dramatic capabilities in his take on Dwayne Hoover.
As a spoof on the American dream going askew and the lost seeking to be redeemed, we see how a Maui vacation becomes the embodiment of salvation for the film’s characters. It was a mistake on Rudolph’s part not to date this: if this is then-contemporary America, the vision is a swirling miasma of anxiety, but if a title card told us this was 1973 or set in the 1970s, we’d recognize the character’s turmoil, living in a Watergate/still-in-Vietnam existence.
Some scenes play like overly caffeinated “SNL” sketches but the best moments, of which there are many, take center, even as much of the film is juiced up on Rudolph’s experimental touches. The excellent parts of “Breakfast of Champions” connect to Vonnegut’s central conflict, of mere mortals trying and failing to grasp the meaning of life.
There’s a beautifully acted scene between Willis and Nolte, where the two salesmen share deep confessions but neither is really hearing the other. The climax is emotional and satisfying, in its own peculiar way, but what it all means is highly debatable (I’d say the conclusion of this and “Fight Club” reach the same thematic end).
The film’s all-out rejection in theaters was especially odd when you consider that Willis was coming off “The Sixth Sense.” You’d figure curious filmgoers would at least give it a robust opening weekend. Even lesser vehicles like “The Story of Us” (1999) and “Disney’s The Kid” (2000) were much more successful for Willis.
The stench of failure towards Rudolph’s film lingered for years until it fell to a bottom-of-the-discount-DVD-bin purgatory.
When people tell me they hate Rudolph’s “Breakfast of Champions,” it’s usually because they understandably prefer Vonnegut’s far more focused novel or simply “didn’t get” what Rudolph and his cast were aiming for.
There are flaws in Rudolph’s film, mostly in his tendency to squeeze in too many subplots and characters into an already busy swirl of mania. Yet, given a fresh look (no joke – the 4K upgrade makes the colors richer and the Mad Hatter vision fuller) and taken as a companion piece to Vonnegut’s novel, as well as a forgotten showcase for Willis’ under-appreciated abilities as an actor, the return of “Breakfast of Champions” is an overdue event.
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