A Breed Apart

In my opinion, this movie is much better than you'd expect for the low ratings it has received. All the starring actors do a great job here and the casting fits the characters easily.

This is a tale of a of vietnam veteran living as a hermit (Rutger Hauer) in his own private island, taking care of the wildlife and protecting the animals. He confronts some nasty scoundrels (Brion James acting one of them, good old Gaff from Blade Runner!), shooting birds just for the fun of it, scares them away, though they keep coming back for more. There's a rich old bird-egg collector (Donald Pleasance) who hires for a grand price a slick mountaineer (Powers Boothe) to collect eggs for a from an endangered eagle species living on the island. A single mother, working as a shopkeeper in nearby village (Kathleen Turner) feels strongly for the hermit veteran and is always turned down by him, though he cares for her boy and spends time with him in the woods, saving some animals etc.. There are some quite strong emotional scenes for Hauer and Turner and I think it's exactly the unrequited love between their characters that's one major motor here keeping the film interesting.

The pace of this is film probably rather slow for younger audience, but there are plenty of good elements to make this movie worth watching. For instance, the cinematography: it's shot mostly in open air enviroments, and it's also a very bright movie, as it is filmed mostly in sunny daylight. Good character evolution: the characters really contemplate on their actions and their consequences. The plot is simple, quite naive actually, but works fairly good in a certain, innocent mood. There's some mild violence to give a bit of tension and mild nudity for the erotica but nothing too nasty to kill the overall positive vibe of the film.

Rutger Hauer does a typically fine job as Jim Malden, a nature-loving recluse who lives on a privately owned island. Taking care of the animals there is everything to him. A local store keeper, Stella Clayton (a radiant Kathleen Turner), is obviously sweet on him, but he has a knack for pushing people away. (He's one of those movie characters who has turned his back on society after tragedy in his past.) Into their lives comes Mike (Powers Boothe), an expert mountain climber. Mike needs a lot of money for his latest ambitious venture, and hooks up with a creepy collector (Donald Pleasence), who's offered him six figures to steal some bald eagle eggs; these eggs belong to a new (fictional) subspecies that are bigger than ordinary bald eagles.

Directed by cult favourite Philippe Mora ("Mad Dog Morgan", "The Beast Within", "Howling" II and III), "A Breed Apart" is the kind of film more noteworthy for its good intentions than for whatever it actually accomplishes. However, while the script seems to be full of unresolved subplots, this is supposedly because one full reel disappeared while en route from North Carolina to California. The human stories have some appeal, but are trite compared to some of the films' bigger messages and majestic outdoors scenery. One cliched plot point has a pair of braindead, yahoo hunters played by Brion James and John Dennis Johnston seeking revenge against Malden. This leads to predictable developments.

The biggest question that Paul Wheelers' script poses is whether or not Mike will exit the somewhat grey moral area that he currently occupies. The man is something of an enigma, and delights in wasting the time of a sexy reporter (Jayne Bentzen) looking for her big breakthrough story.

The actors are entertaining to watch. Hauer is playing a cliched character (a "noble savage" as Mike calls him), and the charismatic Boothe and the lovely Turner have more interesting roles to play. Pleasence is effective in his select few scenes; James and Johnston are standard-issue but amusing redneck antagonists. (The latter is a semi-regular in the films of Mora.)

Notable for an atmospheric electronic score composed by Maurice Gibb of the Bee-Gees, and its exquisite photography by Geoffrey Stephenson.

In real life, the bald eagle WAS at risk of becoming extinct in 1984, but fortunately its numbers subsequently improved.

Seven out of 10.

Hotshot mountaineer Booth ventures onto private nature reserve owned by nutty Vietnam vet Hauer, with the intention of stealing some priceless eagle eggs. Good story is bolstered by a memorable turn by Hauer and some lovely scenery, but it's a shame that Turner is wasted in a thankless role as Hauer's love interest. Music score by Maurice Gibb of Bee Gees fame.

Jim Malden (Rutger Hauer) is a reclusive woodsman who obsessively protects the animals on his land. Single mom Stella Clayton (Kathleen Turner) owns the local store and has a crush on him. Mike Walker (Powers Boothe) needs $150k to fund a mountain climb in China. Rich egg collector J. P. Whittier (Donald Pleasence) is willing to pay, but needs Mike to steal the eggs of a new breed of bald eagle. In fact, he wants all the eggs to drive the new species into extinction.

These are big time actors from this era and I am surprised to have never heard of this movie. After doing some reading, I can see why. Aside from any difficulties, the story is rather wonky. The premise of the new eagle species is also a bit wonky. On top of that, it's hard to outright root for any of the characters. In the end, I love these actors and that helps a lot.

Although the film lacks a strong story line, the actors do well in their roles. Most of the reading of the story comes from "between the lines" and the actors abilities to present the story to us. I think the editor did a good job of putting together a reasonable film even though he was missing a reel that got lost in transit. Admittedly if he had had all four reels, the final cut would have been improved. Still I enjoyed watching this film even though I had to fill in some blank spots with my own thoughts as to how some things tied together. A little popcorn, some spare time, and lets watch 'A Breed Apart'. The scenery is fine.