Breakfast of Champions (1999)

Director:

Alan Rudolph

Writers (WGA):

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (book)
Alan Rudolph (screenplay)

Release Date:

18 February 1999 (Germany)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

In a world gone mad, you can trust Dwayne Hoover.

Plot:

A portrait of a fictional town in the mid west that is home to a group of idiosyncratic and slightly neurotic characters...

Plot Keywords:

Black Comedy | Lounge Singer | Cross Dressing | Surrealism | Box Office Flop

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Bruce Willis	...	Dwayne Hoover
Albert Finney	...	Kilgore Trout
Nick Nolte	...	Harry Le Sabre
Barbara Hershey	...	Celia Hoover
Glenne Headly	...	Francine Pefko
Lukas Haas	...	George 'Bunny' Hoover
Omar Epps	...	Wayne Hoobler
Vicki Lewis	...	Grace Le Sabre
Buck Henry	...	Fred T. Barry
Ken Hudson Campbell	...	Eliot Rosewater / Gilbert (as Ken Campbell)
Jake Johannsen	...	Bill Bailey
Will Patton	...	Moe the Truck Driver
Chip Zien	...	Andy Wojeckowzski
Owen Wilson	...	Monte Rapid
Alison Eastwood	...	Maria Maritimo

MPAA:

Rated R for sexuality and some language.

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | Finland:S | Australia:M | South Korea:18 | Philippines:PG-13 | Argentina:18 | Chile:18 | France:U | Germany:12 | Italy:T | Portugal:M/16 (video premiere) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Twin Falls, Idaho, USA

Company:

Flying Heart Films

Trivia:

The illustrations in the opening credits and notes written by Celia appear as drawn/written by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. in his novel.

Quotes:

Dwayne Hoover: It's all life until your dead.

Movie Connections:

References Tugboat Annie (1933)

Soundtrack:

Similau

The Most Important Visual Meal of the Day

I do not pretend to "get" this adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s

novel, but I certainly enjoyed the ride. Vonnegut is almost

impossible to film, "Slaughterhouse Five" is the most successful,

while I have reserved a special place in my bowel tract for Jerry

Lewis in "Slapstick (of Another Kind)."

The plot, for what it is, goes a little something like this. Bruce Willis

is Dwayne Hoover, who runs a giant car dealership in Midland City.

His spaced out wife Barbara Hershey pops pills and watches

television all day. His son Lukas Haas is a lounge singer,

dropping his first name George in exchange for Bunny. Nick Nolte

is Willis' sales manager, a paranoid cross dresser. Glenne

Headly is Willis' receptionist and mistress. Willis does not seem

to be going through a midlife crisis so much as a nervous

breakdown. The people around him notice a change to his

behavior, as his sincere grin flashes on his commercials, which

play nonstop, he is in his own personal hell.

He is asking the question many of us ask: why are we here? As

his life crumbles around him, he sticks a gun in his mouth three

different times, never following through with a way out that would

not answer his ultimate question. Omar Epps is a released prison

inmate who wants to work for Dwayne Hoover just because their

names are similar. He probably gets the most mainstream

laughs, as he lives out of his new car on the car lot, turning it into

something nicer than a few of my former apartments.

Into this nightmarish fray comes writer Albert Finney. He has

written two hundred novels and two thousand short stories, but

they have all been published by porno mags and hardcore sex

novel publishers. He is invited to Midland City for an arts festival,

and the novel he has may contain the answer to life that Willis is

looking for.

The film lurches along through Willis and company's day.

Everyone has a quirk, and that may be a detriment, as the viewer

has trouble latching onto someone to help wade through all the

eye candy. Director Rudolph pulls out all the stops, throwing in

visual effects that dazzle. He also wrote the screenplay, and shows

a true affection for the source novel. Mark Isham's musical score is

perfect- Muzak on crack.

The performances in this over the top story are uniformally brilliant.

Willis has not been able to be this loose onscreen in a very long

time, and he seems to be having a ball. There are no bad actors

here, and look for Owen Wilson and Michael Clarke Duncan in

small roles.

The description of this film on the video box likens this to a

mainstream comedy, and that is a huge mistake. People renting

this and expecting "Airplane!" or some Adam Sandler drivel are

going to be supremely disappointed. This is weird, deep stuff that

a lot of people out there will not consider their cup of tea.

On the other hand, Rudolph pulls out all the stops, shows us the

weird and crazy, then tries to get us to care about the plot. In fact,

this film is not a plot driven film, it is character driven, but Rudolph

tries to keep this one convention in an otherwise unconventional

film.

This is truly one of the most bizarre films ever made, right on the

line with "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." Where drugs fueled

the mania in that impossible film, here the mania is caused by

something we deal with everyday- life. I recommend "Breakfast of

Champions."

This is rated (R) for physical violence, profanity, strong sexual

content, sexual references, drug abuse, and adult situations.