More movies: Brewster McCloud & The Day of the Locust

One perk of my job at the library is that I'm able to see many new items well before they enter circulation and, if I want, can place holds on them then and there.

With the recent deaths of Shelley Duvall and Donald Sutherland, the library has been ordering more of the movies they starred it, two of which are ones I had never seen until the last few days: Brewster McCloud (Duvall) and The Day of the Locust (Sutherland).

Brewster McCloud was released in 1970 and is director Robert Altman's next movie after his first true classic, M*A*S*H, which was also released in 1970. Brewster McCloud is an outlandish, somewhat anti-establishment black comedy about a young man named Brewster McCloud (played by Bud Cort, one year before his breakthrough in the classic Harold & Maude). Brewster lives--or rather, squats--in a fallout shelter in the inner bowels of the Houston Astrodome. (In one of the movie's many funny gags, Brewster continually dodges an inept, pith helmet-wearing security guard who unsuccessfully tries to capture him). Brewster, whose fashion sense had to have inspired the look of Waldo in the Where's Waldo? books, dreams of flying like a bird, and is constructing his own wings in the fallout shelter. He is assisted in this endeavor by a literal guardian angel played by Sally Kellerman (fresh off of playing Hot Lips Houlihan in M*A*S*H). 

While pursuing his dream of flight, Brewster gets mixed up in a string of murders, is pursued by a young woman who gets a little too excited watching Brewster do pull-ups (he needs to strengthen his arms to operate his wings), falls for a wide-eyed (with unbelievably intricate eyelashes), eccentric, but adorable Astrodome tour guide (Shelley Duvall in her first-ever film role). Meanwhile, Brewster is, with good reason, the prime suspect in the string of murders. A hot shot detective, Frank Shaft, is called in from San Francisco to lead the investigation. Shaft is a not-so-subtle parody of Steve McQueen in Bullitt. (Another funny joke is how Shaft's arrival in Houston is a hot news item on the radio).

If the whole movie sounds madcap, that's because it is. There is so much delicious wackiness in the movie that would take too long to describe and would ruin the fun for anyone who hasn't seen Brewster McCloud. (I didn't even get around to the wild car chase scene featuring a Plymouth Road Runner, Chevy Camaro Z28, AMC Gremlin, and multiple police cars. It had to have been at least partial inspiration for the huge chase scene in The Blues Brothers).

When The Day of the Locust came across my desk, my eyes lit up. It was a movie I had wanted to see for years--even decades. I was intrigued by its portrayal of 1930s Hollywood and the myriad folks who see their dreams either fulfilled or (more likely) shattered in Tinsel Town.

The characters in The Day of the Locust are all broken to one degree or another. Tod Hackett is a fresh-faced Yale grad who arrives in Hollywood to do art design for films. He is slowly corrupted by all he sees and witnesses. Hackett falls in love with the young ingenue/femme fatale Faye Greener (a brilliant Karen Black) who dreams of being a starlet, but can't make it beyond stints as a film extra. Faye rebuffs Tod's overtures since she prefers a man who can provide fiancial security. Considering her father Harry (Burgess Meredith) is a penniless, failed vaudevillian and equally inept door-to-door salesman, one can hardly blame her.

Donald Sutherland plays the bland, emotionally stunted, religiously pious accountant Homer Simpson (yes, that's really his name!). Homer and Faye enter a completely loveless relationship, but one in which Homer can provide financially. Need I say that none of this ends well? All of the characters have their downfalls. The movie culminates in one of the darkest and most horrifically surreal scenes I"ve watched on screen.

So, on that note, I'll say I'm happy I watched both of these films. They both have excellent performances, and are movies that are so much of their time. The darkness, anti-establishment stances, and cynicism could only have come in the 1970s.