The Missouri Breaks
United Artists | Release Date: May 22, 1976 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 11 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Entertainment WeeklyTim Purtell
It’s quite good. Read full review
80
EmpireStaff (Not Credited)
Slightly lacking in tension but with a striking performance from Marlon Brando. Read full review
80
The GuardianXan Brooks
On first release, Arthur Penn's 1976 western found itself derided as an addled, self-indulgent folly. Today, its quieter passages resonate more satisfyingly, while its lunatic take on a decadent, dying frontier seems oddly appropriate. Read full review
80
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
It's one of the few truly major Westerns of the '70s, with a very clear vision of the historical role played by fear and violence in the taming of the wilderness. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Missouri Breaks begins as a ramshackle comedy and ends as a dour tragedy about the death of the old west with Brando serving as its singularly warped Angel of Death. Read full review
70
NewsweekJack Kroll
Penn and McGuane have made an intelligent, entertaining Western, nicely balanced between the protagonists and the well-woven, colorful tapestry in which they're placed. [24 May 1976, p.103]
63
Slant MagazineChuck Bowen
A beautiful, gleefully weird vanity project that never quite coheres. Read full review
60
The New York TimesVincent Canby
The film conveys a fine sense of place and period, of weather and mood and the precariousness of life, which are things that Mr. Nicholson responds to as an actor. Yet the plot, along with Mr. Brando, keeps intruding and throwing things out of balance. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
The whole thing, script, acting, and especially Penn's heavy-handed direction, is bizarre. Yet there's a perverse joy in watching Brando and Nicholson try to compete with each other in mugging, switching accents, and mannerisms that could only be found elsewhere in institutions like the Bellevue Insane Asylum. Read full review
60
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
The trouble with The Missouri Breaks is that one is seriously drawn to it on its upfront elements, but leaves with a depressing sense of waste. As a film achievement it’s corned beef and ham hash. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
It's a western, of sorts, and for the first half it's a lot of fun. But then things fall apart, and the film becomes fatally episodic. Read full review
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