Breakfast of Champions (1999)

User Rating:

4.2/10   

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:

Kalua (Love Song of)

Y2K NBK

Though it's bound for negative comparison with the sober, Joe Pro, Oscar-friendly AMERICAN BEAUTY, I vastly preferred Alan Rudolph's vision of suburban life gone bonkers. His adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's best (and most scabrous) novel starts with one genius style choice: Rudolph mates the Pop Art Expressionism of Oliver Stone with the group-hug ensemble of his mentor, Robert Altman. Beneath the blizzard of smily-face pins, digital-display Colonel Sanders, and chain-diner Muzak lies a Tiffany cast. Bruce Willis is the face of desperation under a stick-on grin as the car-salesman hero, Dwayne Hoover, a small-town hero who doesn't know why he's a few cards short of a full deck. As his second banana, Nick Nolte is a dream as a hard-working joe who's so guilty about his sexual kinks they seem to leak out of him like flopsweat. And as the movie's resident seer and soothsayer--a derelict sci-fi genius named Kilgore Trout--Albert Finney is so perfect Rudolph seems to have plucked him from out of an Iowa City dumpster.

Rudolph's attempts at stars-and-stripes Expressionism don't all work; some uncharitable folks will be reminded of late-sixties I-hate-America bashes like END OF THE ROAD. But I have always had a soft spot for those pictures, and I feel protective toward BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS as well. Blessings are showered upon Bruce Willis for scratching this dark-horse project out of thin air, and upon Rudolph too. He must have known that propelling himself out of his usual world of downbeat, canoodling romanticism would pull out of him the best work of his career.