Breakfast of Champions (film)
Encyclopedia
Breakfast of Champions is a 1999 American comedy film
adapted and directed by Alan Rudolph from the novel of the same name
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
) is a wealthy car dealership owner who is on the brink of suicide
and is losing touch with reality.
makes a cameo as Bunny, Dwayne's son, who, in the novel, plays piano in the lounge at the Holiday Inn
. For legal reasons, in the film Bunny instead plays at the AmeriTel Inn.
Much of the film was shot in and around Twin Falls
, Idaho
.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. makes a one-line cameo as a TV commercial director.
, there is brief conversation between Vonnegut and long-time friend and attorney, Donald C. Farber in which the two, among jokes, disparage this loose film adaptation of the book as "painful to watch."
. In his review for The New York Times
, Stephen Holden wrote, "In many ways, Breakfast of Champions is an incoherent mess. But it never compromises its zany vision of the country as a demented junkyard wonderland in which we are all strangers groping for a hand to guide us through the looking glass into an unsullied tropical paradise of eternal bliss." Entertainment Weekly
gave the film an "F" rating and Owen Gleiberman
wrote, "Rudolph, in an act of insane folly, seems to think that what matters is the story. The result could almost be his version of a Robert Altman
disaster — a movie so unhinged it practically dares you not to hate it." In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle
, Peter Stack wrote, "Rudolph botches the material big time. Relying on lame visual gimmicks that fall flat, and insisting on pushing almost every scene as frantic comedy weighted by social commentary, he forces his actors to become hams rather than believable characters." Sight and Sound magazine's Edward Lawrenson wrote, "Willis' performance, all madness, no method, soon feels embarrassingly indulgent." In his review for the Los Angeles Times
, Kevin Thomas wrote, "As it is, Breakfast of Champions is too in-your-face, too heavily satirical in its look, and its ideas not as fresh as they should be. For the film to have grabbed us from the start, Rudolph needed to make a sharper differentiation between the everyday world his people live in and the vivid world of their tormented imaginations." In her review for the Village Voice, Amy Taubin
wrote, "Another middle-aged male-crisis opus, it begins on a note of total migraine-inducing hysteria, which continues unabated throughout."
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
adapted and directed by Alan Rudolph from the novel of the same name
Breakfast of Champions
Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday is a 1973 novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. Set in the fictional town of Midland City, it is the story of "two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast." One of these men, Dwayne Hoover, is a normal-looking but...
by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Plot
The film is a portrait of a fictional town in the Midwest that is home to a group of idiosyncratic and slightly neurotic characters. Dwayne Hoover (Bruce WillisBruce Willis
Walter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
) is a wealthy car dealership owner who is on the brink of suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
and is losing touch with reality.
Cast
- Bruce WillisBruce WillisWalter Bruce Willis , better known as Bruce Willis, is an American actor, producer, and musician. His career began in television in the 1980s and has continued both in television and film since, including comedic, dramatic, and action roles...
as Dwayne Hoover - Albert FinneyAlbert FinneyAlbert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
as Kilgore TroutKilgore TroutKilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. He was originally created as a fictionalized version of author Theodore Sturgeon , although Trout's consistent presence in Vonnegut's works has also led critics to view him as the author's own alter ego... - Nick NolteNick NolteNicholas King "Nick" Nolte is an American actor whose career has spanned over five decades, peaking in the 1990s when his commercial success made him one of the most popular celebrities of that decade.-Early life:...
as Harry LeSabre - Barbara HersheyBarbara HersheyBarbara Hershey , also known as Barbara Seagull, is an American actress. In a career spanning nearly 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema, in several genres including westerns and comedies...
as Celia Hoover - Glenne HeadlyGlenne HeadlyGlenne Aimee Headly is an American actress of film, stage and television.-Early life:Glenne Headly was born in New London, Connecticut and her first years were spent living under the care of her mother in San Francisco and her maternal grandmother in Pennsylvania...
as Francine Pefko - Lukas HaasLukas HaasLukas Daniel Haas is an American actor, known for roles both as a child and as an adult. His career has spanned more than 25 years during which time he has appeared in more than 36 feature films, as well as a number of television shows and theater productions.-Early life and career:Haas was born...
as George "Bunny" Hoover - Omar EppsOmar EppsOmar Hashim Epps is an American actor, singer, songwriter, and record producer. His film roles include Major League II, Juice, Higher Learning, Scream 2, The Wood, In Too Deep, and Love and Basketball. Epps' television work includes the role of Dr. Dennis Gant on the US medical drama series ER,...
as Wayne Hoobler - Vicki LewisVicki LewisVicki Lewis is an American film, stage, television and voice actress best known for her role as Beth in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio.-Personal life:...
as Grace LeSabre - Buck HenryBuck HenryHenry Zuckerman, better known as Buck Henry , is an American actor, writer, film director, and television director.-Early life:...
as Fred T. Barry - Ken CampbellKen Hudson CampbellKen Hudson Campbell is an American television and voice actor.Campbell played "Animal" on the experimental Fox TV series Herman's Head, as well as Buckman in the movie Down Periscope. He appeared in the Seinfeld episode "The Seven", where he played Ken, the husband of Susan's first cousin, Carrie...
as Eliot Rosewater / Gilbert - Jake Johanssen as Bill Bailey
- Will PattonWill PattonWilliam Rankin "Will" Patton is an American actor.-Life and career:Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest of three children. His father is Bill Patton, a playwright and acting/directing instructor who was a Lutheran minister and served as a chaplain at Duke University...
as Moe the truck driver - Chip ZienChip ZienChip Zien is an American actor. He is best known for playing the lead role of the Baker in the original Broadway production of Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim...
as Andy Wojeckowzski - Owen WilsonOwen WilsonOwen Cunningham Wilson is an American actor and writer, known for his roles in the films The Haunting, The Royal Tenenbaums, Zoolander, Meet the Parents, Wedding Crashers, You, Me and Dupree, Bottle Rocket, the Cars series, The Darjeeling Limited, Marley & Me, Midnight in Paris, Shanghai Noon,...
as Monte Rapid - Alison EastwoodAlison EastwoodAlison Eastwood is an American film director, Hollywood actress, fashion model, and fashion designer. She made her directorial debut with Rails & Ties , starring Kevin Bacon and Marcia Gay Harden.-Early life and education:...
as Maria Maritimo - Shawnee SmithShawnee SmithShawnee Smith is an American film and television actress and singer. Smith is best known for her roles as Amanda Young in the Saw films and Linda in the CBS sitcom Becker....
as Bonnie McMahon - Michael Jai WhiteMichael Jai WhiteMichael Jai White is an American actor and martial artist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is the first African American to portray a major comic book superhero in a major motion picture, having starred as Al Simmons, the protagonist in the 1997 film Spawn...
as Howell - Michael DuncanMichael Clarke DuncanMichael Clarke Duncan is an American actor, best known for his breakout role as John Coffey in The Green Mile, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe.- Early life :...
as Eli - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. as Commercial director
- Doug Maughan (voice) as TV/radio announcer (uncredited)
Production
Lukas HaasLukas Haas
Lukas Daniel Haas is an American actor, known for roles both as a child and as an adult. His career has spanned more than 25 years during which time he has appeared in more than 36 feature films, as well as a number of television shows and theater productions.-Early life and career:Haas was born...
makes a cameo as Bunny, Dwayne's son, who, in the novel, plays piano in the lounge at the Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels, formally a economy motel chain, forming part of the British InterContinental Hotels Group . It is one of the world's largest hotel chains with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 5 hotels in the pipeline...
. For legal reasons, in the film Bunny instead plays at the AmeriTel Inn.
Much of the film was shot in and around Twin Falls
Twin Falls, Idaho
Twin Falls is the county seat and largest city of Twin Falls County, Idaho, United States. The population was 44,125 at the 2010 censusTwin Falls is the largest city of Idaho's Magic Valley region...
, Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. makes a one-line cameo as a TV commercial director.
Vonnegut's reaction
At the close of the Harper Audiobook edition of Breakfast of ChampionsBreakfast of Champions
Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye Blue Monday is a 1973 novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. Set in the fictional town of Midland City, it is the story of "two lonesome, skinny, fairly old white men on a planet which was dying fast." One of these men, Dwayne Hoover, is a normal-looking but...
, there is brief conversation between Vonnegut and long-time friend and attorney, Donald C. Farber in which the two, among jokes, disparage this loose film adaptation of the book as "painful to watch."
Critical response
Breakfast of Champions received negative reviews, scoring a 25% on Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. In his review for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Stephen Holden wrote, "In many ways, Breakfast of Champions is an incoherent mess. But it never compromises its zany vision of the country as a demented junkyard wonderland in which we are all strangers groping for a hand to guide us through the looking glass into an unsullied tropical paradise of eternal bliss." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave the film an "F" rating and Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman is an American film critic for Entertainment Weekly, a position he has held since the magazine's launch in 1990. From 1981–89, he worked at the Boston Phoenix....
wrote, "Rudolph, in an act of insane folly, seems to think that what matters is the story. The result could almost be his version of a Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
disaster — a movie so unhinged it practically dares you not to hate it." In his review for the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
, Peter Stack wrote, "Rudolph botches the material big time. Relying on lame visual gimmicks that fall flat, and insisting on pushing almost every scene as frantic comedy weighted by social commentary, he forces his actors to become hams rather than believable characters." Sight and Sound magazine's Edward Lawrenson wrote, "Willis' performance, all madness, no method, soon feels embarrassingly indulgent." In his review for the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
, Kevin Thomas wrote, "As it is, Breakfast of Champions is too in-your-face, too heavily satirical in its look, and its ideas not as fresh as they should be. For the film to have grabbed us from the start, Rudolph needed to make a sharper differentiation between the everyday world his people live in and the vivid world of their tormented imaginations." In her review for the Village Voice, Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin
Amy Taubin is an American film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British Sight & Sound and the American Film Comment...
wrote, "Another middle-aged male-crisis opus, it begins on a note of total migraine-inducing hysteria, which continues unabated throughout."