Do you want to see ‘Brewster McCloud’?

Brewster McCloud (1970)

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Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 16
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 2

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Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 4
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 1

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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 1,502

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Movie Info

A boy yearns to fly in Robert Altman's whimsical youthquake parable. With the aid of seraphic Louise (Sally Kellerman), owlish Brewster (Bud Cort) constructs a pair of human-size wings in his Houston Astrodome nest to realize his dream. Meanwhile, conservative creeps, including a witchy "Star-Spangled Banner"-belting crone (Margaret Hamilton) and Brewster's skinflint boss (Stacy Keach), keep turning up dead covered with bird droppings; the Houston Establishment calls in blue-eyed,

R, 1 hr. 41 min.

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Comedy

Directed By: Robert Altman

In Theaters: Jun 1, 1971 Wide

MGM

Brewster McCloud Trailer & Photos

Cast

Bud Cort
Brewster McCloud
Sally Kellerman
Louise
Michael Murphy
Frank Shaft
William Windom
Haskel Weeks
Shelley Duvall
Suzanne
Rene Auberjonois
Lecturer
Stacy Keach
Abraham Wright
John Schuck
Lt. Alvin Johnson
Margaret Hamilton
Daphne Heap
Jennifer Salt
Hope
Corey John Fischer
Lt. Hines
G. Wood
Police Capt. Crandall
Bert Remsen
Douglas Breen
Angeline Johnson
Breen's Wife
Bill Baldwin
Weeks's Aide
David Welch
Green Jr.

Critic Reviews for Brewster McCloud

All Critics (17) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (3) | DVD (3)

A sardonic fairy tale for the times, extremely well cast and directed.

June 9, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

It's imitation hip.

May 9, 2005 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment (1)

Vincent Canby

New York Times

Top Critic

We get the sense of a live intelligence, rushing things ahead on the screen, not worrying whether we'll understand.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

One of Robert Altman's most charming exercises in cabaret humor and off-the-cuff modernism.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

There is something delightful in the absurdity and chaos of the movie that kept my interest even as I struggled to pinpoint exactly what it was that I was watching.

August 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Movie Views

| Comment

Ryan Cracknell

Movie Views Source: Movie Views

The film is so odd and freewheeling that it probably should have become a cult classic, if not for the fact that it has been so hard to find on video.

July 23, 2010 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid

| Comment

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Anyone who cherishes Robert Altman's work definitely needs to see this defiantly kooky comedy.

July 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Aisle Seat

| Comment

Mike McGranaghan

Aisle Seat

"Man is not a bird," posits Dusan Makavejev. Oh but he is, Robert Altman retorts.

July 12, 2010 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Fernando F. Croce

Slant Magazine

Altman's unexpected follow-up to MASH is pitched fairly successfully between escapist fantasy and satirical comment on the same.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Time Out

Altman's best movie. No s---.

December 12, 2003 Comment

Eric Lurio

Greenwich Village Gazette

30 years on, the swipes at materialism seem mild, and the narrative -- if it can be called that -- introduces ideas and actions which go unexplained.

May 24, 2003 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

Weird, weirdly poetic early Altman

November 5, 2002 Comment

Ken Hanke

Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

Altman's running joke through this movie is that it is a birdwatching film

August 15, 2001 Full Review | Comment

Shane Burridge

rec.arts.movies.reviews

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Brewster McCloud

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Altman's most experimental work.

October 27, 2011

Graham Jones

Super Reviewer

i don't get how the studio ever released this. no way could that happen today. and how much of this was improv? was there a script beyond the basic idea of a strange boy who wants to fly in the houston astrodome? anyway it's a chaotic mess that i'm not sure even makes sense but somehow works, a sort of altman

February 8, 2010

Stella Dallas

Super Reviewer

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