BREWSTER MCCLOUD
TCM, 2:15 a.m. ET
In 1970, Robert Altman broke into the big time by directing MASH, the hit movie (later to be adapted as an even more popular TV series, with asterisks added) starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould. The film was so popular, Altman was given the green light to do whatever he wanted to do next – and what he wanted to do next, later that same year in 1970, was this bizarre, weirdly charming allegorical story. Bud Cort, who had appeared in MASH in a small role, and who the following year would star in Hal Ashby’s even odder and more charming Harold and Maude, stars in the title role, playing a loner who lives secretly in the hidden depths of the Houston Astrodome, and hopes to build a pair of wings to allow him to fly. Co-stars include Sally Kellerman, Michael Murphy, René Auberjonois, and John Schuck, all of whom appeared in Altman’s MASH. The female star of Brewster McCloud, though, wasn’t a veteran of MASH. Starring opposite Bud Cort in Brewster is Shelley Duvall, in what was her first movie role. She would be featured in several other Altman movies, then co-star in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, opposite Jack Nicholson. Director Altman, meanwhile, would follow his idiosyncratic Brewster McCloud with an unbroken string of amazing movies. After MASH and Brewster McCloud, Altman’s next eight movies, in a creative explosion from 1971 to 1977, were McCabe and Mrs. Miller; the criminally underrated Images; The Long Goodbye; Thieves Like Us; California Split; his masterpiece, Nashville; Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull’s History Lesson; and 3 Women, which, like Brewster, starred Shelley Duvall. Come to think of it, a Robert Altman film festival would be a great way to while away some pandemic viewing hours… so set your DVRs and start here.