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Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, William Windom, Shelley Duvall ... see more see more... , Rene Auberjonois , Stacy Keach , John Schuck , Margaret Hamilton , Jennifer Salt , Corey John Fischer , G. Wood , Bert Remsen , Angeline Johnson , Bill Baldwin , David Welch

A boy yearns to fly in Robert Altman's whimsical youthquake parable. With the aid of seraphic Louise (Sally Kellerman), owlish Brewster (Bud Cort) constructs a pair of human-size wings in his Houston ... read more read more...Astrodome nest to realize his dream. Meanwhile, conservative creeps, including a witchy "Star-Spangled Banner"-belting crone (Margaret Hamilton) and Brewster's skinflint boss (Stacy Keach), keep turning up dead covered with bird droppings; the Houston Establishment calls in blue-eyed, turtleneck-wearing "San Francisco super cop" Frank Shaft (Michael Murphy) to investigate. Brewster cooks his own goose, however, when he defies Louise's edict against sex and hooks up with Astrodome usher Suzanne (Shelley Duvall) after she impresses him (and saves him) by out-driving Shaft in her Road Runner. Despite her apparent sweetness, Suzanne ultimately will not compromise her comfortable home for flight with Brewster. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Flixster Users

79% liked it

1,520 ratings

Critics

88% liked it

16 critics

R, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Robert Altman

Release Date: June 1, 1971

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Stats: 119 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (119)

  • fb1664868775
    October 27, 2011
    fb1664868775
    Altman's most experimental work.
  • rubystevens
    September 23, 2010
    rubystevens
    i don't get how the studio ever released this. no way could that happen today. and how much of this was improv? was there a script beyond the basic idea of a strange boy who wants to fly in the houston astrodome? anyway it's a chaotic mess that i'm not sure even makes sens... read moree but somehow works, a sort of altman trademark. the device of the lecturer helps tie it all together. many hilarious bits and sally kellerman and shelley duvall are adorable here. god bless the 70's and copious amounts of weed.
  • harrycaul
    March 10, 2008
    harrycaul
    "Brewster McCloud" is usually dismissed as a fairly disastrous follow-up to Altman's breakthrough success, "M*A*S*H", but it's actually a charming little movie, well worth a look. Bud Cort plays a latter-day Icarus, building a sophisticated winged apparatus which will enable him ... read moreto fly under his own power. As well as being guided by a mysterious guardian angel (Sally Kellerman), whose scarred back evidences the surgical removal of her own set of wings(!), Brewster is also protected by a serial strangler, who promptly dispatches any obstructive meddlers in his path. In other hands, this could have been a nauseating slice of hippie whimsicality, but Altman's approach is refreshingly unsentimental and his comedy is often startlingly cruel. The loudspeaker announcements of "M*A*S*H" have been replaced with radio news bulletins, charting the progress of the police's strangler investigation, and a college professor's lecture on birds is cleverly intercut with the action, to illustrate the bird-like foibles of the human race. The standout performances are G. Wood's cynical police captain, Michael Murphy's narcissistic West-Coast super-cop, Stacy Keach's old shylock and Rene Auberjonois' lecturer. Fans of "The Wizard of Oz" will enjoy a reference featuring Margaret Hamilton, the Wicked Witch of the West.
  • lesleyanorton
    April 7, 2011
    lesleyanorton
    1970's Altman drama about a boy building a pair of wings in a fallout shelter.
    A grown-up fairy tale with a surreal murder story and a wild cast including the lead from HAROLD AND MAUDE and a very odd bird lecturer. Mermerizing and utterly fantastic in every sense of the word.. ... read more



    Footnote : The film was released after MASH, which might account for its poor box-office as its a very different animal, promoted by a zany action trailer that was definitely made by a blind man with a very large pair of scissors.
  • cacutshaw
    February 20, 2007
    cacutshaw
    The most bizarre Robert Altman film, and therefore, one of my favourites. A great, almost, anti-film.
  • dwbdcy1
    March 30, 2008
    dwbdcy1
    Robert Altman....another psychophantasmagoria of the early 70's I have seen this movie numerous times over the the last 38 yeaqrs and still haven't seen the last 20 minutes.

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Critic Reviews

Variety Staff
June 9, 2008
Variety Staff, Variety

A sardonic fairy tale for the times, extremely well cast and directed. Full Review

Vincent Canby
May 9, 2005
Vincent Canby, New York Times

It's imitation hip. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

We get the sense of a live intelligence, rushing things ahead on the screen, not worrying whether we'll understand. Full Review

Dave Kehr
January 1, 2000
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

One of Robert Altman's most charming exercises in cabaret humor and off-the-cuff modernism. Full Review

Ryan Cracknell
August 24, 2010
Ryan Cracknell, Movie Views

There is something delightful in the absurdity and chaos of the movie that kept my interest even as I struggled to pinpoint exactly what it was that I was watching. Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson
July 23, 2010
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid

The film is so odd and freewheeling that it probably should have become a cult classic, if not for the fact that it has been so hard to find on video. Full Review

Mike McGranaghan
July 14, 2010
Mike McGranaghan, Aisle Seat

Anyone who cherishes Robert Altman's work definitely needs to see this defiantly kooky comedy. Full Review

February 9, 2006
Time Out

Altman's unexpected follow-up to MASH is pitched fairly successfully between escapist fantasy and satirical comment on the same. Full Review

Eric Lurio
December 12, 2003
Eric Lurio, Greenwich Village Gazette

Altman's best movie. No s---.

May 24, 2003
Film4

30 years on, the swipes at materialism seem mild, and the narrative -- if it can be called that -- introduces ideas and actions which go unexplained. Full Review

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