Considering its place in the timeline of Robert Altman’s
career, Brewster McCloud is a comparatively overlooked film. It was his
next movie after MASH and similarly underperformed initially though its
curiously vague publicity (“a different kind of film”) and odd poster probably
didn’t help. Its not an easily pigeonholed movie and so little talked about
that I only discovered it when I was writing about Harold and Maude, checking
on Bud Cort’s other credits. The film has never really enjoyed a re-assessed
critical appreciation while Altman’s subsequent illustrious career left Brewster
McCloud as grounded as its protagonist ends up. While it never quite rises
to the heights of the director’s best -known work it is interesting to view it
from the considerable distance of fifty -six years as a bold endeavour that
never quite fits any category. In some
ways its hard to see how it got made as it refuses to be confined. Is it a murder mystery? Is it a comedy? Is it
a fantastical allegory? Watching the movie does not necessarily answer these
questions but I’m sure it created much post cinema debate in 1970. It’s not
that it’s difficult to understand, more that the narrative chooses to be obtuse
and vague, leaving it to the viewer to make up their mind.
