Most of the actors are Irishmen,Great filmcannot be duplicated ever.

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Well there are some pompous folks here. I enjoyed Brando's portrayal.Was it his best? No,but it was a fun role for him.Some of you need to lighten-up!

Came over here because I've just finished watching 'Free Money' (1998), Brando's next to last movie, and his performance in that reminded of his in The Missouri Breaks.
If someone wants to call Brando's performance in Missouri Breaks 'brilliant' that's fine with me, no skin off my nose, but I see it as more an expression of contempt (ditto his work in Free Money.) This mucking around seems to be a pattern of his after Last Tango.

Meh.
This movie marks the beginning of Brando's 'take the money and run' final period. Soon they'd have to shoot him from the waist up because he didn't even bother to put on his pants.
Brando's last movie where he really became the character was 'Tango'.
A method actor becomes the character, if only for a brief time. Not once in this movie did I ever forget I was watching the real Brando as he really must have been in his decline, ordering fast food and ice cream at 3AM.
Absurdity: A Statement or belief inconsistent with my opinion.

So many people claim that Brando was the greatest actor, ever. They say that other actors consider him to be the greatest actor, ever.
I have never liked him; I don't think he was a good actor; I regard him as a pretentious blow-hard and a ham. I don't think that "On the Waterfront" shows us a genius Brando, I think it shows us what Brando was then and what he remained until he died a pretentious poseur. A good actor lets you forget that he is acting. Brando never, ever, managed that, at all. He was always posturing and acting the drama queen. I cannot think of one film I liked him in.
The only worse actor than Brando was his little supplicant, adoring, worshipful monkey, James Dean. When it came to being a pretentious, fake intellectual and a walking, talking exaggeration, Dean won the prize. The one thing he did that was really good was that he didn't bore film audiences for anywhere near the length of time that Brando did.

Looks like I'm one of the few here who wasn't Brando's best and most trusted confidants
little people

I would say that 95% of people who are now only seeing this film for the first time are doing so out interest in Brando's wonderfully eccentric, ostentatious performance as Robert E. Clayton.
Terrorism is the war of the poor, war the terrorism of the rich - Peter Ustinov

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Disagree. This is a key 70's Western. Brando and Nicholson both do some some great acting (as do all the cast), and certain scenes - Brando's death, and Nicholson confronting the rancher Braxton, are both moving and unsettling,
Unfortunately the DVD we have here in Australia (PAL) is a pretty bad transfer, esp. the interiors - grainy and slight (but noticeable) colour shifts. How is the picture quality on the NTSC US DVD? Best wishes from OZ.

this interview with jack is so unbelievably beautiful i'm in so much pleasure right now thinking abut jack being in such awe of marlon while filming this with him.
gosh just thinking about an article having jack talk about marlon is so beautiful and feels so great to me.
so it sounds like jack was blessed and humbled working with marlon on this film. it also sounds like her revered him like he was a god or something to jack which is so awesome.
and in this film if you compare their acting its night and day. marlon is so much better at acting in this that he's in a completely different universe of acting prowess, and greatness than jack. as great a jack in in this which is really impressive, jack is not anywhere close to as great at acting in this film as marlon is.
ok, so this is it. i've watched the best actors act in movies. none of them are like marlon brando. there is something magical about him. something i can't put my finger on bc it's beyond what any other actor has done. you can't teach it bc it's instinctual. he gets inside of his character and is able to bring them out in a way in which is so real that it's like he's possessed by them.
i love how you put that back on that ignorant and unintelligent person who doesn't know that every performance brando made is genius.
lukejbarnett

Ash,
Thanks for sharing the quotes by Nicholson! Very nice.
and the rocks it pummels.

• James Berardinelli

This post explains it all. Nicholson admitting that Brando acted circles around him with little effort. Kudos to you, Jack! My opinion of Mr. Nicholson just got a little higher. Thanks for the enlightening post ash131! ps. I liked the film.

you had to reign him in (no pun intended). kazan could do that. others didn't know to. and if they didn't, he had contempt for them and went over the top on PURPOSE. he knew this performance especially with the bonnet was a joke and didn't give a sh*t. he got his money and left.

My problem with Brando is he looked down on acting and if he really felt that way,then be man enough to walk away and stop wasting the time of directors and other actors.Even though they were friends,I read that Nicholson couldn't stand working with Brando because he would show up late and pretty much be a jerk to everyone.

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I would agree that Brando's performance marked something of a put-on. It's eccentric and morbidly memorable in its own right (Brando was just that kind of actor), but rather than disciplining his portrayal, I think that he sensed the problems with the script and film and amused himself with tawdry outlandishness instead.
The problem, however, is that Nicholson was playing his part very straight and honestly, so
The Missouri Breaks
becomes uneven, with Brando in one place, the script in another, and Nicholson and director Arthur Penn in yet another.

I agree. In some ways this was the best thing he did because the character was invented from the ground up. You can see that happening and if you like acting you'll appreciate this. The Nightcomers gives a similar memorable performance and with a very similar accent. There's an evil in this that's jocular: a really strange combination. No one was as physical as this guy. Sharing a carrot with your horse!!! Man that takes the cake! This movie really what would it have been without that performance. Sorry, this isn't a mailed in performance. And I'd rather have a scribble by Picasso than hard work by an unimaginative painter too!!!!

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Very well put, elwyn1932. While I'm a fan of Mr. Brando and consider him a genius, I don't believe everything he did in film was brilliant. His performance in The Missouri Breaks, however, made what could otherwise have been a run-of-the-mill, menacing killer for hire role into a humorous yet cold-blooded, memorable, one-of-a-kind character (that doesn't detract from the picture, imo). If that isn't genius
Some people seem to think that Mr. Brando's performance in this movie showed his contempt for the film industry and disrespect for his co-stars, but all I see is someone trying very hard not to be bored. And in the process, he elevated the movie from quaint and forgettable to very entertaining and memorable enough to warrant postings on the imdb message board.
Someone, somewhere posted the address to Jack Nicholson's Rolling Stone article about Marlon Brando after his death, but I can't seem to find it anywhere. But here is an excerpt that shows some insight into Nicholson's thoughts about working with Mr. Brando:
For me, the toughest experience I ever had with Brando came during making The Missouri Breaks together. We talked about doing many projects together over the years, but thats the only time it actually came together. I think Marlon probably had more fun shooting The Missouri Breaks than any movie he did. He liked all the guys in the movie. We were out in Montana. He lived out on the ranch where the movie was shot. He liked being close to nature. He was in his element.
I, on the other hand, was a mess. Somewhere deep in my subconscious was always this idea: One day youre going to be working with Marlon Brando, and you better be ready, Jack.
It started off fine. In our first scene, hes a killer, and Im hiding out from him. Whatever feelings I had of being intimidated seemed to fit this scene. Then one night after that I made a big mistake: I watched some of Brandos dailies. This was a scene where hes sitting there with John McLiam. I watched nine or ten takes of this same scene. Each take was an art film in itself. I sat there stunned by the variety, the depth, the amount of silent articulation of what a scene meant. It was all there. It was one of the wildest things I ever put my eyes on.
The next day I woke up completely destroyed. The full catastrophe of it hit me overnight: Holy beep who do you think you are, Jack? Youre in a movie with Marlon Brando! I was totally annihilated by him. I thought, What if they decide to hang me for being so crazy as to think I could be in the same country with this guy, much less in the same movie? Our director, Arthur Penn, really had to nurse me back to health just to get me to continue on with the picture.
So I mean it when I say that if you cant appreciate Brando, I wouldnt know how to talk to you. If theres anything obvious in life, this is it. Other actors dont go around discussing who is the best actor in the world, because its obvious Marlon Brando is.
(Btw, Nicholson equated Brando to Picasso and wrote, "some people are incapable of not being brilliant." I guess he's one of those fans that can mistake Brando passing gas for genius.)

Exactly!

funny stuff.
Where there's smoke, there's barbecue!

Wrong pal,I was an extra on the film and there was only tension between Mr Nicholson and Mr Brando both Irishmen.