The Missouri Breaks

In the 1970s westerns started to come a little weird, and this one was downright eccentric, although Brando, as a nutty gunfighter, and Nicholson, as a leader of rustlers, are fascinating to watch, if not believable in their disjointed roles. The film opens as a rustler, on ranch baron McLiam's orders, is hanged, no little example for Nicholson, who heads a gang of vicious horse thieves. The hanged man, Hunter Von Leer, was Nicholson's friend, and Nicholson intends to avenge the death; but he falls for Lloyd, daughter of the cattle baron, and somehow is persuaded to settle down to the mundane chores of farming, much to the disgust of his gang. The rustlers carry on...