Cool News
A Look At BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS
Hey there everyone. All you Vonnegut fans gather round. Here's a looksee at the film adaptation of BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS. Vonnegut's novels are not what one traditionly thinks of as being cinematic, but... I really like SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5 and MOTHER NIGHT. So it is with a bit of trepidation that I look forward to seeing BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, but for now... let 'privateidaho' fill you in...
Long time reader, first time reviewer here. I just went and saw the u.s.
premiere of Alan Rudolph's Breakfast of Champions. It premiered as part
of the Seattle International Film Festival (the other film festival going
on right now) and it was a packed house down at the Cinerama. They
actually had to ask people to leave. Anyways, the show was held up a good
twenty minutes because Alan Rudolph, Nick Nolte, and Bruce Willis hadn't
arrived yet. When they finally did, Rudolph took the microphone,
introduced us to the film and the lights went down...
I really don't know how to compare this film to anything I've ever seen
before. I've been struggling with that for the past 24 hours, trying to
process all I'd seen. I'll try and break it down for you, but it's best
to keep in mind what Mr. Rudolph told all of us before the screening: "The
best audience for this film is an audience who's never seen a film
before...in order to enjoy this movie, I need all of you to de-program for
a bit."
The story basically stays true to Vonnegut's novel. We have Dwayne
Hoover (Bruce Willis), a car salesman who fears he's going crazy. The
film goes out of its way to capture the inner workings of Hoover's mind,
and Bruce Willis actually does a great job of portraying this crazy
Vonnegut creation. We also have Dwayne's wife, a total nutcase played by
Barbara Hershey, and his son Bunny (played perfectly by Luke Haas!). But
by far the best role goes to Nick Nolte, hamming it up as the paranoid
cross-dressing car salesman, Harry LaSabre. The movie is actually really
well-cast, and almost always well-acted, but the problem it runs into is
not having a straight character for us to identify with, or any downtime
to let us catch our breath. And for any worried Vonnegut fans out there,
Albert Finney IS Kilgore Trout, he's fantastic. And Vonnegut does all the
drawings, lifted from his book, that are used throughout the film.
Breakfast of Champions is definitely an experience. It is chaotic and
messy in much the same way that "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas",
"Slaughterhouse Five" and "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" have been.
Basically, if you're not familar with Vonnegut's work at all, or if you're
not on a whole lot of drugs, you won't like this film all that much. If
you like the book, you'll probably make it through, glad you've seen it,
but wanting to re-read the book. It's a sometimes great, sometimes
unsettling film, often too surreal for its own good. But when it works,
it really works, and the audience I saw it with gave it many laughs and
many applause. Alan Rudolph and Bruce Willis have created something here,
I'm just still not sure whether it's brilliant or idiotic. And Bruce
Willis himself sent us home with the words: "We're not offering any
explanations, or any answers here." And I don't think they could even if
they wanted to. thanks harry,
privateidaho
-
+ Expand All
-
YAY,i'm first I'M FIIIIIRRST.tHIS IS LIKE A HUGE NOVELTY TO ME CAUSE THIS IS ONLY MY 2ND MESSAGE EVER,.ok erm the movie ,sounds interesting, but the only reason i talked back was because i was first.Hopefully Brucie will show there's some acting talent under his psuedo-wankerness.I swear lukas hass isn't as talented as people say he is though.
-
I thought Even Cowgirls was a complete and utter mess from a dificult to adapt book. What made it worse was that Van Sant didn't seem to understand the tone of Robbins' book, satirical humour with a twist of slapstick (IMHO). Yet I thought Leaving Las Vegas kept the tone of the book because both were amazingly funny and completely incomprehensible, kind of like Hunter himself. Let's hope for the best with Vonnegut's masterpiece, sound okay to me though!
-
so it goes...
I've been waiting for a kick ass screen version of Vonnegut's Slaugtherhouse Five for too damn long! I think there was a version that was made in the 70's, but the reviews I read stated that it couldn't hold a candle to the offbeat brilliance of the novel. Personally, I wish someone like Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton would take a stab at the material. Gilliam took Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (another one of my favorite literary works and a shoe in for most underrated and overbashed film of 98), which was once deemed unfilmable, and turned it into a faithful transistion of the cult novel. Gilliam made more sense of the muddled narrative in the last half of the book, and the end result was a mind boggling visual feast that showcased an oscar worthy performance by Johnny Depp. Imagine what Mr.G could do with Vonnegut's SH5. I honestly haven't read Breakfast of Champions, but I hope the creative team behind the film didn't buckle under studio pressure. I give Mr. Willis credit for having the balls to play against type repeatedly. He was cool in Pulp Fiction, hilarious in the underrated Death Becomes Her, and pitch perfect as the reclusive time traveler in 12 Monkeys (also helmed by Gilliam). I hope he does wonders with the BOC role. I haven't read or seen Mother Night, but I heard it's a damn good film. Anyhoo, I hope that someday I'll get to see a cool film version of SH5. I think Vince Vaughn would kick ass as Billy Pilgrim. -
Not to detract from this fine site, but we've posted Seattle Film Festival coverage of the US Premiere of Breakfast of Champions and the World Premiere of Pirates of Silicon Valley at http://fromscript2screen.com/filmfest/1999day1.html
We'll be posting more updates as we see more movies (coming soon: Keepers of the Frame, Hugo Weaving in The Interview), and we encourage other SIFF-goers to help out if they've seen stuff we haven't, or if they have a different opinion or perspective on the stuff we've already covered.
Overall, I liked Breakfast of Champions for breaking the mold of what can be considered an "adaptable" novel, and for pulling it off pretty well at that outside of the traditional studio system. As Bruce Willis said, "This is not a Hollywood movie, and thank God." Amen to that. -
Actually, the 1972 movie of Slaughterhouse Five by George Roy Hill (yes, the same guy who directed Butch & Sundance and The Sting) is pretty good. Give it a chance before you dismiss it on someone else's say-so. I've actually been rewatching recently, and it holds up pretty well. And Valerie Perrine rocks as Montana Wildhack.
-
YES. Burton and Gilliam really, really need to do KV novels. I'm obsessed with Vonnegut, needless to say, and I'm really looking forwards to Breakfast. I have to admit I've never been the biggest Nick Nolte fan though. Ah well. Mother Night was cool. A good book for Burton would be "Cat's Cradle," one of Vonnegut's best. I think Tim would be good for it cuz it's linear yet weird. But my favorite KV book by far, and the one I think Gilliam should do (I LOVE gilliam--f&l was an amazing, amazing movie) is Galapagos. What a book! Mmm. Um...two side notes: did anyone see the Harrison Bergeron movie? It was weird, but kinda good, in an odd way. Also, I finally heard the "Everyone's Free (to wear sunshine)" song today. Who in their right mind would think that was Vonnegut?!?! Sure, the opening line is weird, but the rest of it is half-assed "Family Circus" platitudes, not the cynical black humor that makes me love Kurt. Kurt's not so wistful about humanity's stupidity. It's just so blatantly collumnist-speak. Ick. Makes me ill.
-
..it's called PUSSY!
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- UPDATED!!! A Six-Pack Of New Character Posters For THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Forecast A Lot Of Gotham Rain And Snow!! -- 199 total posts 199 posts
- Tom Cruise Saddles Up For A Remake Of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN!! -- 133 total posts 131 posts
- Baz's THE GREAT GATSBY explodes with one helluva dazzling trailer! -- 142 total posts 128 posts
- Mark Millar Offers Some Interesting Insight Into The KICK-ASS Movie Sequel!! -- 108 total posts 108 posts
- Quint sees some DJANGO UNCHAINED footage at CANNES!!! -- 327 total posts 88 posts
- A Fire Definitely Rises In The New DARK KNIGHT RISES One Sheet!! -- 215 total posts 87 posts
- When there’s no more room in Hell The Behind the Scenes Pic of the Day will walk the earth. -- 70 total posts 70 posts
- SPOILER ALERT! AICN COMICS/POPTARDS PODCAST: JUSTICE LEAGUE! DANCER! INCREDIBLE HULK! HARDCORE! NEW CRUSADERS! INVINCIBLE IRON MAN! DANGER CLUB! -- 69 total posts 69 posts
- Stay Away From The Creepy Girl Alone In The Parking Lot For THE POSSESSION's Poster!! -- 43 total posts 41 posts
- Zach Galifianakis Is Ignatius J. Reilly? -- 41 total posts 41 posts